Gun cleaning is pretty much a personal thing. Like BP said. Some are anal retentive, some simply refuse to clean unless necessary. I prefer to clean based on what makes the gun run best, but prefer to limit my cleaning sessions to a minimum. Cleaning, especially the barrel isn't as necessary as many think and can cause just as much wear as actual shooting. I pretty much don't clean any of my pistols or rifles bores anymore, but I don't shoot corrosive ammo either. Chambers and actions are where the cleaning needs to be done. My high end pistols are very tight and require regular cleaning, once amonth if I'm shooting round counts in the area of 500 por so a week. My glocks, well, I clean the chamber about every 5000 rounds and fully clean once or twice a year. They jst run dirty so why screw with what works.
There is no such thing as cheap ammo, pistol or rifle. So, just go with an AR or a 22 long rifle of some sort. 22 is a good starting out gun.