Quality lenses that cover wide focal lengths are very expensive and not terribly common.
Not sure what strikes you as "very expensive", but there are several very good zoom lenses that can be had for close to the price of OP's "a bit spendy" example ($1200). On a Canon the non-IS 70-200 2.8L is one, as is the 24-70 2.8L. Tamron 15-30 2.8. The 70-200 2.8 from them is good too.
All those are common enough you could have 20 of each delivered to your house in the space of a week. There are some monster primes out these for sure, but for someone limited by budget they will all be less bang for the buck than any of the above and then some.
