If a good carbon wheelset (like Zipp) is out of your budget, just get nice, higher end alloy wheels. Don't buy cheap wheels!! I honestly couldn't count how many broken asian-made budget wheelsets I've seen come through the shop. Don't waste your money. If you're really that pinched for cash you can pick up any number of used carbon wheelsets for under a grand. Hell, just in the past year I've sold both Zipp 404 PowerTaps, and Mavic Cosmic Carbone PowerTaps for under a grand...
You wouldn't buy a new Turbo for your GTI at Walmart would you?
-Jim.