> Money is a
> consideration, but at the same time, I want to be able to jump into the
> designing/programming relatively quickly. Just curious...
>

You halfway answered the question yourself!

If your time is more precious and you want to get
a quick result, buy a programmer and a C compiler.

If your money is more precious and you want to get some
knee-deep expriences from the trenches, get some documentation
from Michrochip and design your own programmer and compiler
like I did. It sure takes some time but it is a very interesting
experience.

As a compromise you could for instance buy a programmer and use assembler,
or get a programmer design from the web and build it yourself,
or use one of the free PIC languages (but you will get what you pay for...)

But I would definitely recommend to use an EEPROM or FLASH PIC because
it reduces the development cycle, especially while you are in the try-out
phase.
Untill the newer parts become available that means a 16f84.

regards,
Wouter.