You don’t need to spend a month’s pay for a good handgun. There are several alternatives out there for less than $300. Case in point: the Bersa Thunder.
This little gun really surprised me. I was function-testing it for a customer, and the group on the right comprised the first magazine. Impressed, I reloaded and touched off eight more.
For ~$250, you could do far worse. Even considering my marginal marksmanship, the little Argentine pistol is as mechanically accurate as anything I’ve shot.