I've read each post with a great deal of interest, hopefully my question will fit along the same lines without to much thread drift.
I'm fairly new to home brewing, around 2 years but in excess of 30 brews, I have a Grainfather G30 plus a Blichmann 20 gal. Breweasy, 3 fermenters, blah, blah, blah..... To date I have been buying mostly kits but I'm now ready ~ to start creating my own recipes and grinding my on grains. My question relates to base malts, what are the 6-8 most used base malts? Like many of you I will purchase my speciality malts in smaller sizes than full sacks.
My brews are all ales, especially IPA's, a few Porters and along with a few other odd balls just to try something different. Like Spivey24 posted above I have settled on a 3 roller type mill, the Monster is close to the top on my list, however I'm open to other suggestions.
If it's just IPAish things for ales and then some porters, I'd do a cheap US 2-row brewer's malt and then a more flavorful malt like Golden Promise (or Maris Otter).
55 pound sacks of Montana 2 row are mid-$40s price around me and work great:
https://labelpeelers.com/beer-making/grains/montana-craft-malts/montana-craft-2-row-malt-55-lb/
Golden Promise is going to be pricier.