The lodestar ones are not particularly cheap, they are just lower mass. they will perfectly well on the 3buck one i bought from DX but 1buck with S&H sounds suspicious
OH, STAY AWAY FROM WATER SOLUBLE FLUX PLEASE!!! Unless you want to clean it immediately all the time after soldering, go ahead.
And don't clean using deionized water or any distilled water, it will ascerbate the problems of water soluble flux, use IPA
Use NoClean flux or RMA flux (NoClean is better, i don't know what it's made of but it smells a little pleasant, i like rosin's smell too but getting close to it can give you inflamed eyes. Great if you want to walk out of your lab sometimes with a swollen eye and meeting somebody at the door and well scaring the heck out of them)
And don't forget another thing on two, NoClean flux is not really no clean all the time. You can get some residue but it doesn't really matter, although cleaning them off is easier