You don't need to purchase the Classic Controller to play all the games. Most of them you can slide by with the Gamecube Controller and Wii-mote. The Classic Controller, as convienient as it may be being able to play all games, takes battery power from the Wii-mote to run. =( I personally found The Legend of Zelda: Ocarana of Time to be MUCH better with the Gamecube Controller than the Classic Controller.
Have you tried purchasing Wii points from the Wii Shop Channel? From the channel you may use a credit card and purchase points in $10 incriments.
There has also been talk that there will be some Virtual Console games that you can get for free by downloading another. I'm pretty sure an example of this would be if you download Super Mario Bros. 2, you get Super Mario Bros. for free, or something like that. You can download the Everybody Votes Channel for free currently. =)