I'm pretty patient and willing to save however much I have to if I think it's worth it. My initial thought was that I would spend about $300. Not sure if that's naive or not.
Then stick with the Marlin.
You can get your feet wet and have a useful tool all your life.
I still have one or two, and even use them although I have other stuff that is more expensive and more accurate.
When your kicking around the woods, a 300 dollar good shooter that don't weigh a ton outdoes a 1000 cadillac that you really can use to full capacity anyway.