I have a friend that got his ccw license and started carrying a 9 mm on road trips. Eventually he switched to a .380. Since cost is an issue for me, couldn't .380 be just as effective with the right round? You can get some of those for $299 or less. When I had my Dan Wesson .357 I shot mostly 38 rounds through it for target practice.

"Catching a yellow jacket in your shirt at seventy miles per hour can double your vocabulary" Author unknown