Hi Dano,
I too was in a similar situation to you about 2 months ago. After extensive reading of the CS site and others like Coffeegeek, I settled on the combination of Simonelli Oscar with an Ascaso i-mini grinder and am very happy with the fantastic results. Both have been described as great "bang for your buck" selections, which appealed to me.
With your slightly higher budget, you could perhaps go to the Compak K-3 Touch grinder.
Our number of shots is similar to yours - we wanted the ability to make up to 6 - 8 coffees in succession, with milk-based drinks (eg lattes) included. Our kids also enjoy the hot chocolates!
Easy to use, easy to clean and quality shots produced at a reasonable price. You do need to like the black plastic rather than stainless steel, but if you seek a machine which will steam a sauna as well as make lattes (ok almost)
) then I would highly recommend the Oscar with either of the above grinders and be within your budget.We bought ours from Veneziano Caffe in Melbourne (a sponsor - look at the left for a link) and found their advice & service to be both friendly and knowledgable - good prices too

If you are looking at other alternatives, we found Chris at Talk Coffee also very helpful with keen pricing - but doesnt stock the Oscar.
Hope this helps you. Good luck and have fun looking.

Leave a comment: