I would say in your case to maybe go towards getting you a decent scrypt to start out with. Maybe a zeus miner or a used gawminer falcon, thats what I started with and while it doesn't return a lot it does return the investment. To be a serious miner though now a days your looking at a couple grand for something that will actually give you some profits. GPU mining is also another best bet option, but that is about $500 at the moment for a decent card to mine with.