I followed the devs advice, did a soft reset and cleared my browser's everything (cache, history, etc.) and things seem to be (insofar as I can tell) consistent and working well.
Paying nearly $30 for the Kreds needed just for the "starter pack" is ridiculous and Kongregate should be ashamed to put this up for users. The problem is, like mediocre apps on the iOS app store, Kongregate gets a cut and so the incentive to gouge users is too tempting. There should be a "reasonable" limit for flash-game pricing on sites like this.