RE: Nitro trainers...
The Rascal family of ARFs/Kits from Sig are faster than most trainers. They can be flown slowly but are more of a high wing sport plane design than a true trainer by most accounts.
The glow powered Rascals are designed for an inverted engine as well. This would tend to make them less user friendly as a beginner plane as they would be more difficult to tune and start than a plane with a standard upright engine mounting system.
If you want something reasonably priced yet aerobatic, you could consider starting out with a Great Planes Big Stik .60 or a Hangar 9 Super Stick/Ultra Stik .60 as your primary trainer. These planes are very aerobatic, but can be slowed down and flown like a trainer. The Big Stik .60 in particular would be a good trainer, the Big Stik ARFs generally have a bit more dihedral in the wing than the Hangar 9 ARFs.
With Stiks, the beauty is in the flying. They do come with bolt-on wings, however. If you bought a GP Big Stik .60 or H9 Super Stick .60 with a Magnum XLS .61 or a Thunder Tiger GP-61 engine and a 4-channel sport radio like the Hitec Laser 4, you could spend around $340 to $370 total for a very high quality trainer/sport airframe, high quality sport engine, and quality radio package.
Set it up with very gentle control throws to start out and work with an instructor until you're taking off and landing comfortably. Once you're finished with basic training and you want to learn aerobatics, just increase the throw rates and crank up the throttle. It could be years before you want to buy a second plane!