Rural King just had a special today on a Hobart 210MVP. It was several hundred off. Also, don't bother renting gas bottles from a company like Gano or ILMO. It's a complete ripoff.
Spend a little more money up front at your local Rural King. They have a bottle purchase program where you buy the bottle size you can afford, and the gas costs very little. Then, when you run out, you just exchange the bottle for a full one, and you only pay for the contents (gas) - again, go as large as your budget allows in this area, because there's nothing worse than running out of gas halfway through a project because you bought a tiny bottle.
You may be able to find a gas bottle locally on Craigslist or other website for cheap, and use that to turn in to Rural King for the trade-in program. My father did that and saved himself almost $200 in the process. Check the bottle prices at Rural King first though, so you know you're not over-paying someone for their used bottle, and ask Rural King the specifics of their program. My local stores aren't picky about the bottles as long as they're not marked ILMO or GANO. Some people just spray paint over the logo, but I wouldn't try it myself due to legality issues.
As for your wife, I don't have that problem, but I know guys that justify the more expensive purchase by saying they only have to buy the more expensive model once, where if they buy a small unit and it sucks, then they have to get a larger unit later on. Same with the gas exchange program. Paying rent to ILMO on your bottles sucks, and it's a constant reminder to the wife. Have a chat with her about it. Make a pros/cons list.
Once you have a welder you'll learn one thing quickly. All of your neighbors, your wife, your friends, everyone, will suddenly have little projects that need repaired. Lawn chairs, plant hangers, lawn mower decks, shovels, mailbox posts, swing-sets, etc. You can make some quick beer money or help pay for your hobbies if you're clever and can make good quality repairs. Plus you can repair the wife's broken nick-nacks/yard art and make her neat projects for special occasions and the like..
Keep in mind, you may not have to buy steel for practicing your welds or for small projects. Check with local farmers, scrap or salvage yards, or recycling centers, and tell them what you're looking for. Just some small pieces for as close to free as possible, just to practice your welding with. In my experience 99% of the time people will give you steel for free if you're straight up with them about what you want to do with it. It never hurts to ask someone.. The worst they can say is no, or they'll want to charge you a small fee.
I made these yard art harrow wheel sunflowers (from farm scrap) to donate to a local auction to raise money for a veterans memorial last year. (someone else made the wine bottle tree thing lol) They sold for between $40 and $45 each, so not too shabby.
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