I vote for hitting the local thrift stores and learning to sharpen. Lots of folks buy good knives then toss them out when they've totally ruined the edge.
A steel is only useful for straightening up folder over edges, it doesn't actually remove metal from the knife and sharpen, but it is the tool you will use most often to touch up the blade. Any old steel will do, so I pick them up for a $1 at the thrift store. Same with an old leather belt for $1 that I use for stropping.
A cheap, man-made course/medium stone from the dollar store works well too. You won't use it too often except when the knife is really dull or you want to reprofile the edge.
The only thing you need to spend a bit of money on is a decent fine stone, and even then not more than $20. Don't bother with jewelers paste or anything for your strop either. Wipe the detritus from your stones onto the strop and use that.
It's also important you learn about edge geometry and matching the blade grind type and style up with the intended use for the knife. Nice knives are, well, nice, but you don't need to spend much to get the job done.
Oh, and one of my pet peeves is the long, heavy bolsters that extend all the way to the blade edge at the heel. If you do any kind of rocking motion when you cut they just annoyingly "thunk" on the cutting board while doing so.
And stainless steel is nice, but high carbon steel can be good too if you force a protective patina on it with lemon juice, mustard or vinegar. Stick to stainless if you don't wash, dry and lightly oil your blades immediately after using them.
Remember, before you do any sharpening, run your finger nail along the edge and look for where the edge has folded over. The first step is to always straighten up these fold-overs with a steel. Quite often this only will return a sharp blade to usability unless it's been neglected.
The course stones are for really dull blades, as they remove lots of metal. Course stones get your blade about 80% of the way back to sharp. Then spend some time refining the edge on a medium stone.
Fine and extra fine stones really polish the blade to sharp edge for good cutting. And then, if you really want to, take your sharp blade to a strop and polish it into a razor. This is overkill for working blades like a kitchen knife, IMHO.
And resist the temptation to sharpen the blade at too fine an angle as a delicate edge rolls more often and will dull quickly. This is why you touch up a knife with a steel as regular maintenance far more often that you actually sharpen it on a stone. And even then a fine stone will be used most often, with the course and medium stones saved for when the edge is practically ruined. Or a nice knife someone else ruined the edge on, that you buy for cheap at the thrift store and rescue.
EDIT: and make sure if you buy water stones that you soak them well before use. And only use oil on actual oil stones, because once you use oil on a water stone it will no longer absorb water very well. I tend to use oil on most of my stones, and only have one good Japanese water stone that I don't use much because I'm too lazy to wait while it soaks.