A great camera that is on par with alot of the newer high end point and shoots is the sony 717, its not an SLR, but it has manual focus, aperature, and shutter speed. Its also 5.2 MP, so the resolution is great.
On top of that, it can also take movies w/ sound, something SLR's do not do.. this is my main worry about SLR's, that i will want something that also takes movies once i have one.
Sony doesnt make them anymore, but they are always on ebay for 300-400 bucks, and that ussually includes, batteries, memory, charger, bag, etc.