What are you trying to do? Record acoustic guitar? electric guitar? keyboard? brass? woodwinds? vocals? We really need some specifics before we can help you. Suggest you do several searches to get you started.
budget is pretty limited- but I just want to be able to record accoustic guitar and voice. THen have a little play around and put a base line on or something.
Yes, and a good soundcard (think external for laptops, either USB, firewire or pcmcia). Some external soundcards come with preamps (like the Tascam US-122)
And you need a microphone. From what I've heard (haven't had the chance to try one myself yet), something like a Studio Projects B1 is a decent choice for both recording acoustic guitar and vocals.
If you want more info about any of the things I've mentioned, I'd like to advise you to use the search option on this board first and read as much threads as you can. It's already been thoroughly covered.