Dare I mention that YouTube has tons of beginner level tutorial videos, all for free? For instance, check out Ukulele Mike. These lessons are pretty comprehensive, covering everything you need to know, from holding the uke to playing blues and riffing, with lots of chord, strum and fingerpicking patterns along the way. This stuff isn't rocket science, or even checkbook balancing; mostly, it's a matter of repetitive practice to train your mental and physical coordination.

So I'd advise redirecting that lesson money into getting a really decent uke, as well as the near-indispensables whose costs can soon dwarf that of the uke itself. For instance, a gig bag will run you $20 or a soft case, $40; a clip-on tuner, $20; a set-up, $30-40. You'll want a chord book, song books, spare strings, a uke thong or strap, a capo, a string winder and maybe a case humidifier or stand. Plan to spend at least $300 initially on gear and set-up alone. The more you invest, the less you'll treat your aspiration like a whim. If this sounds like too much money, forget about starting until it does sound reasonable; then you may be serious enough to give it a sporting chance. If the YouTube lessons don't suffice and your desire to play is still keen, that's the time to consider personal lessons.

Buy an "economy" or "mid-range" instrument, bypassing the "cheap" and "entry-level" models. Your uke needs to look so alluring that you want to pick it up every time you see it. It needs to have a delightful, rich, bell-like tone, be a real instrument. It should have great intonation all the way up the neck, and no fret buzz--sour chords are a real killjoy. When you go shopping, take along someone experienced (at least in guitar or mandolin), to check out things you might not know to check or know how to check.

Important: check for side-of-the-fingerboard fret markers, the single most under-appreciated feature. When playing in proper position, you can't really see the markers on the face of the fretboard, and they're often obscured by your own fingers, while side of neck markers are always visible. The most standard side markers on ukulele are at the 5th, 7th, 10th (not 9th!)and 12th frets. It's best when the 12th (octave) fret is marked with double dots, particularly if the uke has a 15th fret marker as well. Avoid a uke with a marker at the 3rd fret on either the face or side--this creates visual uniformity/clutter when you want a simple, visually distinct pattern. Really, who can't visually count to three??

If you can stretch your budget a bit, get a solid-wood top; you'll instantly appreciate the richer sound and greater volume, and you're almost guaranteed of a better quality instrument. It can be the make or break point between playing and not playing, and the improvement is far beyond the modest price increase. But with solid tops or all solids, ensure your instrument stays humidified, especially if you live in a dry climate. (Planet Waves Small Instrument Humidifier, $8 online; distilled water: $1 per a gallon. For rewetting the sponge you'll also want a squeeze bottle with a pointy top. Never use tap water or bottled drinking water.)

Look for uke bargains on craigslist; wonderful deals pop up regularly, and you can check out the instruments thoroughly. I bought my first two ukes through craigslist for (respectively) 1/3 and 1/2 off online discount prices, factoring in the extras (bag/case, extra strings, books). Both ukes were in excellent condition.

Also consider "blemished", "factory second", demo or "damaged box" instruments. Big discounts for often negligible flaws.

If you go the online route (big savings over local retail prices), Mim's Ukes should be your first and last stop: personalized advice, many pics of the actual ukes for sale, and custom pro set-up included in her prices, effectively undercutting all the competition. She's a joy to deal with. Uke Republic also has a terrific reputation and includes set up, but expect to spend more. For all-solid mahogany ukes, you can't go wrong with Mainlands; buy direct from the maker, set up included in the price.

If you buy from anyone else, immediately take your new uke to a reputable music shop that sells and repairs smaller instruments like mandolins and have your uke "set up". Consider set up mandatory. Most new low-end ukes come from the factory with overly high action, making them difficult to play. The "action" is the height of the strings over the fretboard, particularly critical in the upper neck. New players generally do best with a low action, but if you plan mostly to thrash, you'll want a moderate to higher action. Set up consists basically of three things: lowering the action to its optimal range for your intended style of play, filing down frets where necessary to minimize "fret buzz" anywhere on the neck, and "compensating" the bridge contact points if there's a slight intonation drift. I suspect a major reason people give up on ukulele is because they never had their uke set up, so they have to expend more force to play it; the sound suffers and it just doesn't feel good.

Definitely buy a "uke thong": a neck strap that goes under the uke and hooks into the soundhole. Buy it before you even settle on your uke. By far the greatest initial (or ongoing) difficulty confronting a new player is how to support the instrument when trying to simultaneously fret and strum or fingerpick, which require freedom in both right and left hands and arms. The thong doesn't totally support the instrument like a traditional strap, but the only additional support you require is to rest (not clamp!) your right forearm against the body. This single aid will make uke playing so much easier from the start. If you later acquire more ukes (a common addiction), you can use a single thong with all of them, rather than having to fit each one with its own strap or master the awkward, un-ergonomic traditional method of holding. I recommend the thongs from harpdude on eBay (~$15).

Buy a mandolin or banjo capo; one of the elastic band jobbies will suffice. Songs charts you find will seldom match the key you'd have chosen for your vocal range; with a capo, you at least have a chance of using the charts given while singing in a more comfortable key.

Even if you have "small hands", I strongly argue against the soprano size. Those ukes are annoyingly shrill, over-plinky, harder to tune accurately, harder to fret cleanly and due to the narrower tolerances tend to play out of tune in the upper neck. If you're a virtuoso you may be able to make a soprano sound good but in the hands of mere mortals they're cause for deportation.

One very important thing often grossly neglected in the initial stages of learning is this: don't just learn a chord's name and shape, also locate the root (the named note) in the chord shape, noting which string and fret it's on. (Note: Many major and minor triad chords "double" the root; that is, the root is played on two of the four strings, either in unison or an octave apart. But, to my mind, only one of these roots is "primary": the one shared with the corresponding 7th chord.) Mark the root(s) boldly on new chord charts. Think of the root whenever you practice chords and chord changes. The utility of learning the explicit root position(s) may not be apparent at first, but this knowledge will prove invaluable later on, when you start equating first position chords to moveable chords, relating chords to families sharing the same root string, mapping chord progressions onto relative root movements, finding chord alternatives higher on the neck (where the root moves to a different string following a simple pattern), transposing ... you get the idea. So just focus on roots from the get-go and you'll thank me later.