A poor man's touring bike is not the same as a poor touring bike, first of all. I highly recommend an old school MTB, with a rigid frame, touring style fork, and double eyelets in both front and back. Get a tall one because you will use it mainly for roads, yes? So, fit it like a normal touring rig. The geometry is very similar to a production tour machine like a Trek 520 (a very good example of an off-the-shelf bike).
You can get a 1987 - 1992 MTB for less than $100 on C-List. A quality example will weigh about 28-29lbs, factory. Lower priced models will weight about 2lbs more because they will have heavier frame tubes.
Compare that to a factory weight on a Trek 520 of 27lbs. Not much diff. The price of the Trek wil be around $1200+/-
For another $200 - $350, you can outfit the old MTB for bombproof touring. I know there are bikes out there that are new and pretty, but for under $500 total investment, I don't think you can get a better bike. Those better quality old MTB's are excellent machines.