Yeah, I agree, if you love your ibanez and just want it to have a better sound then get the pickups. If you arent really very fond of your ibanez, and it just doesnt have what you want then yes get a new guitar. I wouold preferably go for the pick ups first being that like oyu, I am always on a tight budget. You never know it could come out sounding badass and you would wanna keep it.
New guitars under 500$ usually dont have great pick ups anyway so you wont have a real "WOW" sound.