need new tires, should i just wait and get snow tires?

[cdlong]

i really need new tires, i mean really, the inside 1/4 of the front tires are completely bald, i expect to see belts poping through soon. i wanted to get snow tires on my stock wheels and save up over the winter for new wheels and good summer tires. i would love to have good traction in the winter, which is something i'm a little worried about. but there are two things keeping me from doing this...

1) like i said, my current tires suck, they're borderline not safe. they should be replaced soon. i'm also not sure i can save up enough money to get the wheels and tires i want once it warms up.

2) i live in ohio, we get quite a bit of snow, but not a lot and not all the time. it's not uncommon to go a week or more with dry roads in the middle of winter. i also drive across the state occasionally.

i want a tire that i can leave on from late november until early march and not have to switch them if it dries up for a few days. would i burn up snow tires if i drive them on dry roads (even if it's still cold) and on the highway? are there intermediate snow tires, like a 3 season winter tire? something that does well in snow but won't wear too fast on dry roads? should i just get a set of decent all season tires and wait on the summer tires? if so, does anyone know of some all season tires that do really well in the snow?

if it seems like i'm jumping the gun with the snow tires that may be because i work at home depot in the garden department. we got snow blowers in like a week ago and we are rearranging everything for winter. summer was over for me 2 months ago