For the last six months I've been mail order buying parts for 1962 Nova that I bought right before deploying to Iraq, where I am now. But recently I've been getting burned out. It feels like I'm just buying my street machine through a damn magazine. I want to be more "build a muscle car, while in the middle of a war zone for less than $5000. It seems that everyone in this magazine is getting more for less than me. This project is getting me focused over here, and right now its needing a shot in the arm so to speak. Any suggestions on how to make a great budget build out of this thing?  

First of all keep your head down and come home safe.
Let us know what your goals are for the car (speed, looks, handling, etc), and maybe we can make suggestions to stretch your budget and meet those goals.  It's all a matter of priorities, so you have to decide what's most important and budget accordingly.
If you have access to it, ebay is a great source for used parts.  Plus, the searching and bidding process keeps you engaged, rather than just ordering parts from a catalog.  

Everyone goes through this with a project car, you just gotta power through it.

Look at it this way, you gotta get parts for your car somehow. If you get them through mail order, so what? You're doing the best you can in your situation, and that's what car guys do. You're still gonna build it yourself, right? That's the part that'll make you a car guy, getting dirty to put it all together.