For the money, I love Kiwi knives. For under $10 you can get a larger chef knife and a smaller paring knife. With a little care, these knives will work great and are extremely sharp. I can trim up a St. Louis cut of spares with little effort and I only have to be careful of cutting into/through bone. These are thin metal and probably would not hold up to heavy use but are great for home or small event usage.
http://www.wokshop.com/HTML/products/cleavers/thai-kiwi-knives.html
I also am a user of the kiwi knives. After nearly a year of use here is my quick pros:cons.
I have the 8" chefs and I think 4" paring.
Chef's Knife-
Pros: come sharp, cheap, work EXTREMELY WELL (not just for the price, they work well, period.)
Cons: The chefs knife has served me very well, HOWEVER I used the heck out of it. Nearly every single day in the summer. I did a lot of vegetable slicing with mine (tomato's and the sort) on a synthetic board. Not an expensive one either. I think this was the downfall of the knife. It's not nearly as sharp as others claim theirs have maintained. It seems too thin to sharpen even with a good stone. I'm going to buy another, and keep this one to attempt to sharpen, but I have my doubts I'll get it back to the razor sharp edge it came with. I believe if I had cut on a nice wood block instead of the cheap synthetic one, it would be nearly new. I was having trouble with it cutting into the board when I was slicing some steak real thin, and I think that was the issue. It's a little light, but I think this can also be a point of personal preference. The handle is not the most comfortable, but again, this knife was 4.95. I DID use it almost daily for 9 months.
The paring knife-
Pros: I love it. I don't do so much slicing on a board with it of course, but anytime I need a paring knife in the kitchen I reach for this one. Still razor sharp, another reason I think the board I was using attributed to the dulling of the chef's knife.
Cons: None? It doesn't fit in a spot in my knife block I guess? I wish it came with a handle other than natural wood, just to match everything else? You can see I'm reaching for a downside, and I really have no complaints.
So overall, if you are looking for an affordable knife, I say these are pretty good knives. They do take extra special care when washing and stuff, to keep them maintained, but nothing someone with pride in their belongings would mind.
Outside of those, what knife do I use? Well, I have an 8" chefs knife, and an 8" santoku that are my weapons of choice (now that the kiwi dulled down). I think the 8" chefs was from the dollar store or something I ran it through my smiths pull through $2.99 sharpener while reading the boards for a while, and it's like a whole new knife. I find this to be the best advice is no matter what, make sure it's sharp and the function is there, the weight, grip, look, style, mostly falls into personal preference from there. Anywhere from $2.00 to $200.00 knives.
Please don't beat the crap out of me I'm not telling anyone their right or wrong or what you SHOULD do, just saying what works for me. :-D