Hi Jon,
It's good to see something good can come out of a bad situation.
And by telling us all of that, it should enable everyone on here give you better advice for your needs!
From what you've said, shared hosting should be sufficient for your needs. As you are doing, if you need more space or anything like that, simply upgrade and shared hosting means you don't have to deal with the technical stuff making everything work. I've recently upgraded from shared hosting to a
VPS Hosting and it has been one very steep learning curve! I swear I've sent support mad with the number of times I've been on but I think I'm getting there now. As with you, I learn by playing about and seeing what works best. That's how I've always learnt with computers - play about with them so you can see what's going on. Occasionally it's caused a few problems but it means you learn from your mistakes!
Anyway, if there's anything you ever want to know or want advice, I'm sure myself and everyone else on here would be more than happy to help!
Jonathan