I warn you before you think about buying a home espresso machine...its a slippery slope to economic ruin. Okay - maybe its not THAT bad, but home espresso enthusiasts certainly do have an expensive hobby to maintain. There are a huge range of products and pricing in the home espresso machine space. Many in the hobby stand by the fact that a good grinder is more important than the espresso machine itself. My recommendation? Spend what you can on a machine first - get something good quality that will be a good platform to experiment with. From there you can either grind your own beans or purchase pre-ground espresso such as Illy at your local grocery store to have consistency in the grind while you get the hang of your machine. It'll take a lot of experimentation to get it right!