DSLR tend to run pretty expensive, mainly because of lenses....if you want good quality there's no way around it, you will need to spend a bit of money to get a good camera.
You save a bit of money if you go for a starter kit. The lenses that come in them aren't actually very impressive, but they're still better than a point-and-shoot camera. What I would be tempted to do is buy the camera body and then shop ebay. Some of the older, manual lenses are still in excellent condition and are good quality. They tend to be cheaper as well, since they don't tend to have things like AF, VR, maybe ED (haven't done too much research on that one). I have an old lens, very reliable, very crisp pictures, and everything on it is manual. I love that lens and use it more than my other two, even though it has no zoom.
