Nathan, I can say this, never feel bad about what guitar you can afford. If it works for you and you learn on it, that's a good guitar. I miss the first guitar I ever owned. It was a Western Auto Trutone Electric Guitar, and after filing the nut and the bridge on it, I had a guitar with great action to learn on. Right now, I am using the Keith Urban Night Star Solid Body Electric and just bought a Yamaha FGX 800 C. Neither guitar was more than 250.00 and yet they are excellent guitars. The real key is to make sure that the action on your guitar is low by having it set up by a luthier. Hang in there and practice as often as you can. I practice about 2 hours every day however, since I am retired I can do that. BUT, I dont practice 2 hours all at once. I stretch it out over my whole day. 30 minutes of fingering, a bit of TV, a few lessons for 30 minutes, break and eat, practice a song, etc. Structure your practice so that it works for you, but I would try and practice a little every day. Even 15 minutes helps!!