Mav,
What you are wanting and what you are willing to pay, its going to be very difficult. But I too am married and understand what it is like to be around a woman.
My best advice is to get an i5 processor. i3 would be good too, but they still should be cheap. i5 will ensure at least 5-7 years of really good speed. I prefer intel over AMD, it runs faster.
RAM, 4 Gbs is minimum you should get. If you get a 32 bit OS, then the most it can run is 4Gb. Funky, this is why they only have 4. This is considered the minimum now. Still doesnt mean you can run 17 programs. You cant.
1 terabyte is about standard now for storage as a minimum.
The bigger the screen, higher the price.
I like refurbished computers. A lot of people are thrown off by this. Yes they are used, but they are still good. Also, most brands like Dell, HP, etc, all they do is put together other companies parts and call it a dell. Might have an Asus motherboard, an intel processor, cosair ram etc. This being said, i prefer the craftsmanship of HP. But brands like leveno dont matter. Asus is actually top of the line computer part make, just have a rep for cheap comps, which is odd.
Other thing, get windows 7 for now (better than 8 or 8.1), however, windows 10 will be coming out very soon, next couple months? Fall 2015. If you can wait 6 months, do it, because most prebuilt laptops come with OS, but you will pay more, but probably worth it.
HP
http://store.hp.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/us/en/mlp/Laptops/pavilion---hp
Dell is ok, they just make really bad auxiliary parts like batteries, power cords, use cheap HD, etc, so can cost money in the back end. You might like an Inspiron, but just had really bad experiences with 3 of them.
http://www.amazon.com/HP-Pavilion-17-f028nr-Certified-Refurbished/dp/B00QML9D5Y/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1428934435&sr=1-4&keywords=i5+8gb+ram+laptop
Id recommend this:
http://store.hp.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/us/en/pdp/Laptops/hp-pavilion---17t-laptop-j5r54av-1
A dell wouldnt be end of the world, just my opinion
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_p_36_1?keywords=i5+8gb+ram+laptop&qid=1428934435&rh=n%3A172282%2Ck%3Ai5+8gb+ram+laptop%2Cp_n_size_browse-bin%3A7817234011&rnid=386442011&low-price=300&high-price=600&x=13&y=7
THIS ONE HERE MIGHT BE A WINNER
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834260377
here is others to look at
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100006740%20600500466%20600500473%20600500488%20600003988%204020
Amazon Search