I highly recommend Brother machines from Walmart! they are user friendly, inexpensive, and will last a couple years giving you the opportunity to learn and save for a more expensive machine.
we used to have a little sewing school, we used 5 brother machines from Walmart ranging in price from $89- $159...
the cheapest one was the favorite! but they all held up to lots of abuse! it is a good start;
some people believe these to be 'disposable' machines...i think of them as great starter machines. if you only sew a little bit, or are just starting out it is a great place to start. and in a few years if you find you have about worn your machine out it will be time to move up to bigger and better. but if you find in a couple years you seldom sew anymore, well, you are not out alot.