If price is an issue, you got pretty much 2 brands to choose from...
Charter arms
Rossi
Both are revolvers as that’s the best for newbies. There are cheaper guns out there but they will be either very scarce, oddball calibers, or questionable quality or all the above(generally).
I would try to steer you towards a stainless revolver of one of the above two brands. A stainless revolver is nice because you can be really lazy on cleaning/oiling/maintaining your firearm without much ill effects. It’s common for a semi auto that sits ignored in a drawer for 15 years to not work when you need it. Not so much for a revolver. Taurus also makes good reliable revolvers at fairly reasonable prices but not as reasonable as the above two brands.
But first thing you need to do is get your wife to a shooting range and rent some guns of various calibers to see what she can handle comfortably.
btw, charter arms has one advantage over rossi...it’s made in america. Unless you know what you are doing, stay away from used charter arms revolvers though. Some years they were making really junky guns.
Never shot either of those. I’ve tried to stick with the major brands despite the cost.
The new ones seem to be good quality. Some of the older ones not so much.