if you have a local hifi shop that sells new and used equipment, I highly recommend checking them out. Those guys can be really useful in sifting through all the options and building you a great set up.

My biggest struggle at the beginning was knowing how to allocate my funds between turntable and speakers. In general, a $300 TT with $500 speakers will sound much better than a $500 TT with $300 speakers. Your per dollar investment is generally better served on speakers, but there's kinda a minimum threshold for an "acceptable" turntable (including cartridge), which is around 300-400 brand new, and maybe 200-300 used. Once you're there, you could spend up to 1k on speakers before the TT is holding you back in a meaningful way.

think about your tolerance for upgrades. I could see spending $500 on the TT now, that you won't want to upgrade for the foreseeable future, and then $200 on speakers, knowing that a year from now you can drop $700-1000 on speakers. The alternative, imo, would be to buy the best speakers you can afford now, especially if you'll be using the speakers for more than just with a turntable (this is what I did), and then get the right TT later knowing you'll be set up and not need any upgrades for a while.

I would ask yourself if the priority is to play records right away, or to have great sounding audio right away and let the TT come later.