If your wife is willing to increase the monitor budget to say, between $370-385, JBL's LSR 2325 actives is a excellent choice for monitoring that's un-flavored & un-colored offering a nearly accurate flat-freq'y representation of your recordings.I'm ol' school (& poor)using Tannoy Proto-J's & Event 20's, decent & serviceable for judging recorded tracks, but after hearing my crappy-@ss mixes thru my son's JBL LSR's (he got 'em fr Sam Ash on sale for $360) it's time for an upgrade!
A more detailed audio "picture" is presented by the JBL's than my current set-up hi'lite-ing
signal-dynamic flaws & various audio "screw-ups" in my crappy-@ss mixes I barely noticed in my "monnies!
If possible, audition as many monitors as you can in your price category(as well as head-phones if thats your choice). Bring a cd(s) (or whatever portable format you mix down to) of your music along with 1 professionally recorded by your fave artist as a reference point/comparison to determine which unit best presents a clean, clear & color-less audio representation of the recorded material. No boost or cut in eq freq'y levels whatsoever during auditioning (keep your eye on that sales/con-person who mite boost the lo/hi end sayin it's to "sweeten the sound"); you don't want "sweet"; you want a pair of monitors that provides the flattest/0-response translation of your mixes and mixdowns.
Wise advice on "learning" your monitoring system and audio enviorons has been
touched upon by others in this thread. Don't get "lazy-ear-i-titus"; (a disease caused by lazily judging & listening to your songs on only 1 format, rather than auditioning in various formats such as car cd player, home stereo, IPOD/MP3 player, etc) but most of all, have fun!
If you get a chance, check out those LSR's from JBL....them joints are the REAL DEAL!!!!!! IMHO of course!