I suggest procuring a grain grinder. http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/family_grain_mills.aspx
Then you can stock up on things that last longer like wheat berries, millet, whole rice, etc and just grind it yourself. You can hand crank or get a bosch/kitchen aid attachment. Flours are better when they are freshly ground.
I think this is a bad idea for someone who doesn't cook much yet. This is the kind of purchase I was talking about avoiding. One that sounds like what you SHOULD be doing (cooking everything from scratch, eating whole grains, buying in bulk to save money), but isn't likely to get used.
I'm this way about oatmeal. If I were starting a pantry from scratch, I'd be very tempted to buy oatmeal because it's healthy and frugal and everyone loves it and eats it. But in reality, I very rarely eat oatmeal, so it's not a good purchase for me.
I would actually like to start doing some of this kind of thing. I've jumped on the oatmeal band wagon myself and have started eating it hot, putting it in cereal and even eating it straight. The eating whole grains and buying in bulk part I would like to do, but just have to figure out how to get started.
Let me suggest that rather than grains you'll need to grind, you start with brown rice and maybe barley (which makes any soup better). You get some of your whole grains, they store easily, and you ease into the cooking a bit before you spend on a grinder. At one point, I was growing/hunting more than half our food and cooking everything from scratch, and still didn't want to fork out the money or spend the time grinding wheat. It's a whole 'nother ball game. Cook for a while and you'll get a better idea of whether you want to get into that ball game.
In the meantime, try a stirfry with some of that rice. It's the fastest non-convenience food I can think of, and it's really good for you. Cook your veggies (and meat if you want it) in a mix of soy sauce, lemon juice, garlic, and crushed red pepper, then stir in two heaping tablespoons of crunchy peanut butter once everything's done but the veggies are still a bit firm. Stir it around to melt the peanut butter into the soy sauce, and you have a great Thai peanut sauce.
If I were starting my pantry from scratch, I'd want rice, frozen vegetables, soy sauce, chopped garlic, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, dry beans, tofu (cube it and stick it in the freezer for a firmer texture), frozen chicken breast, canned tomatoes, salsa, potatoes, onions, peanut butter, tortilla chips, cheese, vegetable oil, an italian seasoning mix, and chili powder. That will make a couple kinds of stirfry, chili, chicken and vegetable stew, nachos, Mexican dip, bean burgers, chicken cooked a couple of different ways to go with steamed veggies and potatoes, fried potatoes (add onions, cheese and a little shredded chicken with salt, pepper, and red pepper)-- basically, a couple of weeks' worth of meals without repeating. Oatmeal for breakfast and start collecting single-serve leftovers in the freezer for lunch, and you might not ever really need to branch out, though I'd want to add fruit to go with those lunches and/or in the oatmeal.