I've built up quite a nice gym over the last 8 years. I started with a set of Bowflex Select Dumbbells and a bench. From there a got a pair of squat stands from Amazon.com, which I still use as I don't have room for a Power Rack. I used a "standard barbell" (15lb) and weights until last year when I finally invested in an Olympic Bar & Bumpers set from Rogue. I have various other equipment - Heavy Bag, Spin Bike, Cable Machine, GHD, & a tower that I use for Pull Ups, Dips, and Captain's Chair leg raises. It's nice to have a gym @ home plus I do some Personal Training out of my house so there's a lot we can do.

Anyway...like I always say in these threads - get yourself a good quality barbell. That's probably the most important thing and the thing that you definitely don't want to cheap out on.

In the last month I have found and purchased our home gym for under $1000 and found it all on craigslist and our local FB classifieds.

I now have a Home Gym power rack/squat rack/smith machine, bench, Oly bar and weights.
An additional bench, OLY bar and 300lbs weight.
A weight machine.
A gazelle edge.
And a Bowflex bench/ Select techs dumbells and stand. ( by far my favorite)

All of it was like new condition and people sold for various reasons. Basically spent in the vicinity of 25-33% of retail.
My best finds were on our local FB classifieds. I live in the middle of a few big cities, as well as some smaller ones, and I find the best deals in the smaller cities classifieds listings on FB. I guess nobody wants to drive from the big city to the small city to save money.

I still want a treadmill but I am putting that off until I get a steal of a deal OR absolutely have to due to weather, which lets hope isn't until sometime late in the year.