I believe the 16f84 and 16f877 are the 2 good begginer PICs. But why a PIC? Why not an AVR? or a BASIC Stamp?
I know from expirience it is much much easier to start with an AVR. it is the same thing as a PIC but made by atmel and not microchip. You can go get a programmer for 50 - 80$ if you want the best cheap board. if you wanna go cheap you can easily go to 20$ for the programmer. the compilers are free, ad there is even a huge underground world for AVRs.......
www.avrfreaks.net
-John