Man, when I was your age I had a 20.00 bass, haha! It took me forever to pay it off too. I bought it second hand from a friends older brother, I think it was a Howard or something, it didn't have a name on it.
When I was 12 I bought an old Segovia Jazz Bass copy with Black Diamond flats on it. Man, I played the **** out of that bass. Later I traded it in for my first Rickenbacker 4001MG back in 1978.
I recently went back to playing a Rickenbacker bass. Its like meeting an old friend again