Reddit reviews The Cambridge Introduction to Sanskrit

From what I understand, I think you're going to need to start with Sanskrit proper before diving into BHS particularly.

http://learnsanskrit.org

This is a very recent textbook, and is supposed to be a very good one. It's not too pricey.

There are some other resources linked to on the official site.

These primers also come recommended to me:

https://www.amazon.com/Devavanipravesika-Introduction-Sanskrit-Robert-Goldman/dp/0944613403

https://www.amazon.com/Samskrta-Subodhini-Sanskrit-Primer-Michigan-Southeast/dp/089148079X

A. M. Ruppel's The Cambridge Introduction to Sanskrit.

https://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-Introduction-Sanskrit-M-Ruppel/dp/1107459060/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=cambridge+sanskrit&qid=1561999489&s=gateway&sr=8-1

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Unlike Zoë Slatoff, who charges $141 USD for her course, Ruppel offers her course on YouTube and in a Yahoo Group for free, with free .pdf handouts. You just have to buy the book! ;-)

I purchased this book and a sanskrit dictionary. I work through every exercise in every chapter. After chapter 5 it takes me around 5-8 hours of work to complete a chapter. I can read devanagari pretty easily, there are a few symbols that I need to look up but mostly comfortable sounding out words. In the book I linked sandhi rules get really introduced in ch.11 (there are a couple common rules introduced and used earlier.) There are no answers for the exercises so I mostly use my dictionary + this site to check my work.

I've been told there are better books out there but until I finish this I'll keep using it. I'm finished with chapter 11, and I estimate I've put around 60 hours of dedicated study to sanskrit. My fluency is next to nil, but I can suss out simple sentences and word forms. I have an understanding of passive past and present for class I,II,IV,X verbs, and eight or so nominal cases.