Something to remember when you are brewing with your own grains (not a "malt-kit") is that you get to really brew what you want. You are not at the mercy of any kit so with that in mind, the ingredients cost varies. However, just for reference, I like to make stouts and porters (heavy beers with a lot of grain). My ingredient costs usually run about $30 for a 5 gallon batch. Depending on your technique that will be about 35-36 pints of beer (~$0.85/pint). A typical Ale recipe would be almost exactly the same price as you quoted, Rue.

It litterally all depends on your tastes and what you want to add into the beer. Now that you are essentially in full control, you can do damn near anything you want. The neat thing is to take a recipe that you know and start messing with it a bit...see what happens...you can learn a lot about ingredients that way.