We have a howa 1500 varmint in .223, hogue stock, minimal recoil due to being a fairly heavy rifle even with the fluted barrel. I got mine for under $500 - you can reload for it, extremely accurate (at least ours is) we shoot paper to 200 and steel out to 600 routinely, my son has even hit the barrel at 1000 with it a couple times. Rifle shoots 1 moa no problem
that said, you will also want a .22, so both you and the wife can shoot at the same time. I bought an old mossberg at the local pawn shops for under $100, my son now claims this, so I bought a .22 savage btvss (stainless bull barrel accutrigger, etc) to shoot from the bench. The .22s recommended above (CZ, tikka, etc) are all good rifles too. But that little mossberg I got for $100 shoots great for a sporter barrel.
We enjoy shooting the .22s from 25 to 100 for short range accuracy, and cans, and golf balls, etc. The .223 (and my 6.5) are for longer distances and allow paper to 200 and steel out to 1000 (as long as we can get at our range) which is also a blast.
if I could have only one and I reload (which I do) it would be a varmint barrel bolt action gun in .223 for all the reasons I and others have stated above.
And then I would check out the pawn shops for an old bolt action 22 - pretty hard to shoot out a barrel on a .22 unless you shoot thousands of rounds for a long time so most if they have not been left to rust or pit are in decent shape. and even the old sears and monkey wards .22s were made by mossberg or marlin or another name manufacturer for them.
I would not sell my mossberg 340BB for $500, which is 5x what I paid for it - it is near pristine and accurate, buy a decent 223 varmint, you can hunt dear in a pinch with it if everything goes to heck in a hand basket, and look around for a .22 deal since some think they are a waste now - bet you can find a decent one for under $150, heck, I think you can get a new synthetic one at walmart for under $250 though I like the older wood stock ones better
Dave.