[chc]

It doesn't take that much privilege to save $350 within a reasonable amount of time. It's probably unreasonable if you're in poverty, but even much of the lower class in America has things like TVs that cost in excess of the price of a Mac.

[wh-uws]

Not attacking you asking you a serious question.

Please tell me where I can get a $350 mac. I want one, seriously. And not a mini.

You're going to want a laptop/notebook so you can go to hackdays / meetups to get to know like minded people and learn.

[chc]

I just looked on Craigslist and found a few Mac laptops for under $400. Most were lousy in some way, but a few were legitimately just older models that people didn't want anymore (e.g. white MacBooks). But I wouldn't recommend a laptop if you're just this side of destitute. They're generally not as good a value on the low end.