Now let's figure out what you will need to attack the problem. I'm making up this example but here goes, I'm guessing I will need 200kWh of energy a month (We scrimped and conserved and our electricity bill is CHEAP! oops, make that low.). That is about 6.6kWh/day. We find we get about 5 hours of sun per day so we need 6.6/5 kW of panel. We will use 1.3kW of panel ....

Now we need storage ... I'll guess again and guess we need about 10kW of storage. If we use 1/2 of our battery capacity so the batteries will last more than a month ... and we use a 48V system we need 10000/48 or about 200AH (slightly more) of drain-down so we need a 400AH X 48V battery bank. This works out to 12  T105 batteries or so.

Eventually we will want a 48V system ... but we could start with a some panels and a 12V inverter ... then add panels and a tracking system ... then go to an MPPT charger ... gradually working to our goal and keeping expenses to a managable point.

You will need to decide if you want to deal with 'grid-tie sell-back'. In a good month you will be making (at $0.10kWh) $20 worth of power. It takes an ~$2000 inverter and, where I live a separate meter, at $18 a month, to sell back the power. As one would be using over 1/2 the power, at a minimum each month, best bet is I would only loose $8-15 a month going grid-tie.

BUT.... it is your project and you get to research and figure a lot of this out yourself...

Oh, in my guess system I spent $5000 on panels, built a $1000 tracker myself, bought $900 worth of batteries, bought a $600 MPPT controller and spent at least $1000 on a good inverter ..($8,500+)... all to save $20 a month.... I guess I am not too good at math if I think I am saving money.

A very good and while not the best system to get your feet wet is a Harbor Freight system.
It is small (45 watts at best) has 3 panels, comes with 2 5 watt 12Vdc CFL bulbs and a PDU (Power Distribution Unit) but they for some reason have labled it a controller.
You'll need to get a few batteries as well. Purist will say not to; but old useable car battereis are in fact perfect for a "test" system. Just make sure they are usable and won't boil dry.
Attach the panels to a stable area. The anchor they ahve is okay if you weight it down with sand bags and make sure they are "locked" in place.

READ the manual that comes with it!!! it does explain that it will drian the batts if left on at night :-(

This will help TONS it getting a very good start to both the limits of a solar system and what items can and cannot be used with it.
Once you have a fairly good undersatnding , then you could also purchase a small inverter that'll take the 12Vdc up to 110Vac. Plus you'll gain a better undertsanding the higher current needs of "stuff"
Along with ALL this you'll be able to take vampire circuits OFF your home system by letting the panles do the charging of those items. Where you'll see a drop in your electric bill.

This money saved , you could then add to build a bigger system :))