What female should I buy?

[MisterKyte]

I agree with this. As sad as it is, lesser combos are generally cheaper than butter combos even though they look very, very similar. You MIGHT can find a pastel lesser female for less than $400. However, with that small budget, you may can only afford a single gene animal.

That is an interesting observation because I feel like I see the exact opposite when it comes to Lesser vs Butter combos.

As for the OP, you will be hard pressed to find female combos for under $400, although I did get my own female Black Pewter for $450 so eh, but with that kind of a budget I think you'd be looking at either Lemonblasts, Pewters, or Bumblebees. Not really bad options if you pick up a really really nice example but obviously they aren't in the Butter/Lesser bandwagon. If you want a combo with those genes then start saving up because I think you should probably have at least $700 to play with but if you're only thinking about breeding in the future then it probably isn't imperative that you go buy something new right away. Take your time, save, look around and when you find the right snake you will realize that the waiting was all worth. Like, I really wish I had some of that kind of self control when I first started picking up BPs.