Totally confused...host help PLEASE!

[The Painted Hive]

I'm nearly ready to launch my new blog though I've hit a hosting wall!

I have a reasonably well trafficked (around 1/4 million page views monthly) visually rich (hence a need for good bandwidth) site, however as a stay-at-home Mum I don't have the cash to spend hundreds a month on hosting, and I don't want my blog littered with thousands of ads, though I'm fearful of a crash if I go with a cheap host!

I'm hoping someone has some recommendations for good affordable hosting for reasonably large sites? As a novice I have tried to understand, though am still endlessly confused by, all the options out there (including clouds, external image hosting, racks, caching, etc, etc,) and am simply after a basic, reliable solution (if any).

My blog is my hobby, not my job, and whilst I understand that "you get what you pay for" I can't justify the expense for hosting that I've come across so far.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.