Great story. Glad you stuck with a plan.
I too thought a Leica was out of the question. But then a neighbor in our building was shooting with a couple of Leica's and in conversation it came up that he wanted to sell two of his CV lenses, a 21 f4 LTM and 35 f2.5PII, and for a very good price too. So I kinda backed into the system. I now had two lenses but no body. I decided to wait the six weeks to a annual photo show and look there. Found a M4-2 in reasonable shape and sold a bunch of gear accumulated over 30 years and just sitting in boxes. That gave me enough for the body and a few months later added a 90 f4 Elmar. Now all I'm going to add is a 50mm lens, probably FSU because that is what I can afford.
However you do it, the Leica is a neat little camera.