I can imagine the smells in your kitchen! Properly balanced blends will undoubtedly have a happy ending in every dish prepared... and you're absolutely right when you say we can save money and prepare our spices to suit our tastes.
A few years ago, I used to make jars of pickled spices, and people loved them. They usually contained chives, leeks, chilies, and oregano... I can only say they had a delicious smell and sold pretty quickly... with one of those jars, food almost always tasted heavenly...
I'd love to hear about your marinade recipe.