Bicycle Shopping

Lately I’ve been thinking about how nice it would be to go on a bike ride. Although it has been years since I have been on a bike, I miss the experience. So I looked at bikes online and am very concerned that they are so expensive. Even the bikes for little boys are over $200. The one I liked is almost $600, and that is not anything special, like a racing or touring bike. How can people afford to have bikes for the family to ride together when they each cost so much?