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> - Cheap

You’re ignoring the grinder, which in my opinion is the most important part of home espresso making. Add at least 200USD for a good quality manual burr grinder.

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You can find a Baratza Encore used for ~$100. Gives a surprisingly uniform fine grind (not as good for coarser grinds like french press, though).

Out of the box it's not perfect for espresso because the grind level is in steps that aren't short enough to easily dial in. There's a "stepless" mod and that makes it much easier to work with.

You can find the Timemore C2 for 50 to 60 euros and it is a pretty decent manual burr grinder. And for around ~100 euros you can find decent burr grinder from more known brand. If you are going to spend more than 200USD, you might as well buy an electric one.

I don't think C2 or a $200 electric grinder are going to be great for espresso. I have a 1ZPresso JX-Pro I got for like $150 and at the time at least sounded like a much better option vs C2 and cheap electric. I'm happier with it than the C2 and cheap electric I've used.

If you live in a city it's relatively trivial to buy pre-ground from a good roaster. Not the same as grinding in the moment of course but for a week's worth it's generally ok. Especially for the first coffee of the day.

For home espresso you really want the ability to tweak the grind size for each shot. Small variations in grind size can significantly change the flow rate, which dictates the peak pressure & shot time you can achieve. When you buy a new bag of beans it can take a couple tries to "dial in". The appropriate grind size depends substantially on the coffee variety, roast level, age of beans, etc. If the pre-ground coffee doesn't hit the mark then you are SOL for the batch -- including if it is too fine and doesn't flow at all. Even if you hit the mark in the beginning, the shot behavior will change over time as the beans age.

Honestly with a lever machine I just don't notice differences in grind size that much, as long as it's reasonably fine. Could be that my palate isn't that great, but I've pretty much settled on one universal grind size and adjust my pressure profile instead.

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