At the moment, I haven't the money to make an online order and haven't found a reason to buy cultures rather than use buttermilk for meso and yogurt for thermo. They've worked so far. I agree with getting some better moulds though. Saving up...
I've only been making cheese for about 3 months and at the beginning I did a lot of reading and decided what were the absolute essentials needed to make good (enough) cheeses, and to put other things on my wish list till I knew I would stick with this. This is a relatively expensive hobby and my wish list is still very long.
The most important thing (and primary expense) to me was setting up a cheese cave so I could keep the cheeses I made at a good temperature. (50-55*F). A second hand small frig from Craig's list was about $40, and an external thermostat to regulate temp (online purchase) was about $60. You can shuffle bottles of ice a couple times/day into an icechest, and that works, but a committment to do that for months on end didnt seem appealing.
Also liquid star-san sanitizer I thought essential.
The molds I still use are modified tupperware and/or rubbermaid containers with drain holes melted into them or the bottoms totally cut out. I'd just
love some purchased ones, but my yard sale finds work just fine.
My press is stacked/balanced stuff.
I do have purhased cultures, but I did start with yogurt. Some people here still use it.
I fortunately had decent sized stock pot and other ss untensils. I would love a larger stock pot and a cheese trier, but that is what the wish list is for.
One thing I would suggest is making cheeses of at least 2 gallons so you can eliminate too small a size as a reason for having hard cheese failures.