Actually Jim $4500 or $3 a square foot for a garage floor is not bad, considering the relationship of footing to floor is high on a small area. I used the strands as well and was very happy with the results.

Being your own contractor in this case may be the way to get it done though FB Crazy, Hire a backhoe to do the footings and scrape the area, bring in the gravel or whatever at the same time and have the machine spread it, do the formwork yourself or hire a couple of carpenters for a few days, and call the readymix company and have them give you some numbers for finishers they use. Not quite THAT simple but you get the idea. Perhaps using a thickened slab edge rather than a footing and walls if allowed there would save on some of the footing formwork