Charlie,
I just would like to tell you about my "PIC Journey" which I started not too long ago, and I was in the same boat as you.
Being young, I could not afford the expensive programmers and so I searched and searched. I've learned that, as others have said, you can get really affordable programmers and chips-- there is probably a good enough solution out there for you.
Let me suggest to you this programmer:
"PIC-PG2C" (**broken link removed**)
You can find this around E-Bay and other hobby sites for about 15 dollars.
Most of these programmers use the same, free software (any of these will do):
http://freenet-homepage.de/dl4yhf/winpicpr.html
(Nigel wrote this. Gives you the option of bugging him-- but you didn't hear that from me =P)
http://www.ic-prog.com/
And on top of that-- you can rely on building your own programmer if you wish with a handful of components (and for schematics, just hit up Google). Just to give you an idea, this is how ghetto they get:
**broken link removed**
So Charlie, let this be a lesson to you. There are usually always options available-- just keep your doors open.
Also, I am pro-PIC because that is how I started and haven't had the time to switch onto AVRs (at least try them out enough to recommend them to others). But like Jake (Sceadwian) suggested, you can always try AVRs. To make the programmers, you really only need a few components and can throw one together in no time.
Hope things work out for you too,
-Omar