Yeah, this is called "denial." How well I know it.Hello,
I am contemplating getting into brewing and want to ask you what the simplest, easiest and cheapest way to brew is?
Just kidding. But sort of not kidding.
You can start off relatively cheaply, but you will succeed with your first beer, and then you will probably want to upgrade. I can tell you what you will probably end up spending more money on.
You are going to want some way to keep fermentation temperatures down, so you may want to scrounge up a used fridge and buy a temperature control. But there are things that ferment at room temperature, so you don't have to rush.
If you try bottling beer, you will hate it, and then you will want kegs. If you have even one keg, you have to get a CO2 tank, regulator and some tubing and fittings. Unless you're in love with bottles, it's best to skip the bottle stage of homebrewing.
Then you will need a place for your keg. So put it in your fermenting fridge! But wait...how do you ferment your next beer with the first one in the fridge?
This is where you abandon sanity and build a keezer or buy a kegerator. A keezer is something you build from $1500 worth of parts in order avoid the expense of a $900 kegerator.
It helps if you tell yourself homebrewed beer is a lot cheaper than factory beer. You just have to make sure you only count the cost of ingredients and pretend the equipment was free. That's what I do.