If its mainly herbs, you might just try going to a nursery and buying individual plants.
Herbs aren't always the easiest to grow. We are seasoned gardeners, but usually get our herbs as plants just for that issue. Some, like Rosemary doesn't seed well, although if you plant enough you'll get a healthy seedling or two.
If you are starting out:
1 basil
1 rosemary
1 thyme
1 parsley
1 oregano
1 chive
Will cover the vast majority of your needs. Add Cilantro if you like Salsa. Dill is nice but big and needs space.
Spices, well, there isn't much there that you'll do on your own, other than growing peppers and grinding them.
Most things at Burpee you get a few dozen seeds. There are some that yeah, you get like 1500. But thats still a tiny envelope (think about poppy seeds). Carrots is a good example, the seeds are tiny. But you'll use 1500 seeds to plant 4 rows. As long as its only $3, I don't really care how many are in the packet.