Thanks everyone youve been a great help!!

I'll be doing ALOT of research and save some $$ for a few months.

At the moment ive been looking at camera bodies in the $500 range - i need to look at lenses and have a think about the main things i want to take pics of and then see what suites - not sure how much they'll end up costing.
I definitely want something decent and will last me a long time - and yeah lenses

I have a lot of thinking to do haha!

So if i got a camera that comes with just the plain starter lens - they are pretty crap?

I like the idea of the flip out view finders