Reddit mentions of Home Brew Stuff WC-25 HomeBrewStuff Super Efficient 3/8" x 25' Copper Wort Chiller

You'll definitely still want a starter kit either way. It has a lot of nice tools that you'll need either way. Then build from there. Here's what I would do:

• $90 - starter kit with plastic carboy
  
• $100- 12 gallon kettle
  
• $50- kettle conversion kit- ball valve and thermometer (can't see actual price at work...
  
• $50- Propane Burner
  
• $30 refractometer
  
• $40 wort chiller
  
• $60 stir plate
  
• $15 erlenmeyer flask
  
• $60 oxygen kit (50 there, plus a $10 tank at HD)
  
  So that puts you at about $500. That gives you a badass kettle and everything you need to do a full-boil extract batch, or enough for brew-in-a-bag if you want to dive into all-grain right away.
  
  Honestly, I wouldn't go much over that for a first batch. Try it a few times and see what suits you. You may want to get into the science end more and get a pH meter and hemocytometer. You may want to do 3-vessel all-grain and build a nice mash tun and get another kettle. You may want to get another coil and do a recirculating system. You may just want a pump to transfer faster. You may want to build a big stand for it all. You might decide you want electric controls to it... you won't know until you get into it a bit and determine what your priorities are.
  
  OR... watch craiglist for a month or so, and see if anybody is selling a big system. There's some badass ones out there that i've seen for very reasonable prices.

Saving up for two things to make my foray into Homebrewing a little bit easier on me. The thing I really need is a nice pot. This pot would remove the need for me to have a thermometer. And I'd also like a wort chiller because I've been told this is one of the most crucial points of the process.

I'm new to homebrewing, but I'd like to start gathering some nice pieces so that I can one day turn it into more than just a hobby! (Not that I'll be selling moonshine or anything) I could definitely see myself becoming a real brewer if this is something I turn out to be good at. It's something that interests me a lot!

It depends on your budget, and what you might already have available to you. The kit does not include a kettle, so you'll need one of those. If you already have at least a 5G / 20 quart kettle, that's good enough to start with. If you need to buy a new kettle, I would highly recommend getting a 10G / 40 quart kettle... assuming you intend to continue brewing 5G batches (pretty standard). While you can start out with a 5G kettle, doing a partial boil (this means you boil 2-3 gallons, then add water to make 5G) you will produce better beer if you can do a full boil. To do so, you need to start with 6-7G of water so that at the end of 60 minutes you end with 5G of wort - obviously you can't do that in a 5G kettle. Further, if you ever graduate to all-grain, you'll need a 10G kettle anyway. IMO it is better to spend a little extra money once rather than spend twice.

That said, you can get good 10G stainless steel or aluminum kettles on Amazon for under $100.

Another thing you may want to look into is a wort chiller. I would recommend getting at least an immersion chiller, which are typically the most cost effective. Again, you can find these on Amazon starting around $55. You can also build one, but depending on your DIY skills, and the price of copper, it may not be worth the time and effort.

Outside of that you will also need empty brown non-twist cap bottles. You can buy them empty, or just buy a couple cases of beer to kill - just make sure they are brown, and non-twist off. Rinse the bottles as you drink them and you'll have a lot less cleaning to do on bottling day. A 5G batch will fill about 50 bottles, so 2 cases should be sufficient.

Good luck!

You're basically describing the setup I'm slowly putting together.

For cooling the wort, the best, cheap thing to buy is a copper wort chiller like this one. There's lots of variations on this design (more efficient, stainless instead of copper, better fittings, etc), but ultimately an immersion wort chiller like that is a common way to go.

You can make your own with hardware store parts too, if you want. That's what I did but after making it, then getting some more plumbing fittings to make it "better", I spent more than if I'd just bought one. Plumbing supplies are so damned expensive in Canada.

For recipes, there's recipe sites all over, but I've had too many issues translating the ingredients to things I can get locally. I've heard Beersmith recommend heartily as a good recipe source. There's also several really good books that many recipes but also detailed information on how to modify them, or design your own from scratch.

As to your kegerator build - watch a couple of Youtube videos. For example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHWy_Vlw3J4
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq_59KhCebM

The videos are super useful both as an instruction manual and as a list of mistakes to avoid (like things to remember when measuring where to drill the tap holes).