I don't know much about amps, I picked up a "raven" with built in tuner, reverb and echo for like $100 bucks. It sounds alot better than my little fender amp I've had for years. The effects on the raven aren't super noticable but it does give the guitar a far better, fatter sound than anything I could get out of my fender amp. I'm thinking for us newbies, pretty much any amp would suffice for starting out.
If bending strings seems difficult it may be they have a heavier guage string on your guitar. If it's tuned correctly with light strings, I use earnie ball super slinkys myself, they should bend easily but it does take some practice. I can easily bend even on my acoustic without any difficulty. Try placing your pointing finger on any given fret, then play that fret the next one up and then the third one. Count three as you play and try to bend the string to match the second and third fret if that makes sense. Like say 1st string 7th fret. Play 8th fret and 9th fret to get the sound your trying to create by bending at the 7th. the play first string 7th fret, bend up to mimic the key of 8th fret and bend more to make the sound of 9th. Sounds kinda stupid but it really does help you learn the feel for hitting the right note on a bend.
Hope that helps,
Good luck and have fun!