What Is The Best (And Most Frugal) Home Recording Studio Setup?

Below is yet another home recording question that has become so common on Yahoo Answers.  Folks want to record themselves at home and want to get started on a fairly tight budget.  I have yet to see a question like: “Hey we want to start recording our band at home and would like suggestions on how to spend $20,000 to set up a home recording studio.”
Anyway, the person who answered the question referenced this article: http://www.audioneeds.com/forums/content.php?3-The-Startup-Studio, which does not give bad advice on the equipment it recommends, but you’d need over $1,000.00 just to put together what they call the “starter studio.”  Great googly-moogly!!! The guy asked for a frugal studio, right there in the title of his post.  Let’s just say I think it’s crazy to drop a thousand clams on a “starter” studio.  See the Home Brew Audio answer at the end of this post.
Q: I’m in a band and we are toying with the idea of recording in our own home studio… We need ideas to get the most for our money… Any suggestions?
A: Here is a cool little article on setting up a home studio with price in mind:
http://www.audioneeds.com/forums/content.php?3-The-Startup-Studio
I got it off that site, it’s a great little community with tons of information and people who really know what they’re doing.
Should help 🙂

Here is the Home Brew Audio answer:

First of all ,if you’re just starting out, there is absolutely no need to spend more than about $200 max! YHou can always add equipment as you need it. For some really good step-by-step instructions on setting up your own computer-based studio, see our 5-part series called (duh) “How To Build A Home Recording Studio.”
Cheers!
Ken