I can think of a few.
Over the last couple of years I've gone through a bunch of knives looking for something that did the job right without worrying about the money. For opening up mail, picking my teeth, getting the screw out of the back of my kids' teddy bears that make the sound of a mother's heartbeat so I can change the batteries, open packages or the plastic vacu-sealed deli meats from Winco, stuff like that... it's hard to beat a small SAK. They're pretty useful. The Leatherman Micra does a great job of that kind of thing too, but I think it's a little better.
For flippers, there are a ton of Kershaw choices under $50. I have a hard time finding a reason to go elsewhere.
For folders in the case where you have time and two hands free there's always Buck and Opinel.
For an outdoors fixed blade, I happen to like the Cold Steel Bushman, either style. They're so cheap you might as well buy a handful of them and consider them to be disposable. Or, customize it however you like without fear of making a mistake.
For a tomahawk, the Cold Steel Trail Hawk.
For throwing knives, I would pony up the money and get some Bobby Branson knives.
For a hatchet, the Gerber Fiskars series is a great option.
For kitchen knives I generally float through a Ross Dress for Less and pick up whatever they have in the bin for $20 or less.
For steak knives I don't see much of a reason to look past a Victorinox paring knife for $2-3. However, I do have wood steak plates so there's that. And I have a nice end grain hardwood cutting board that I spent about $80 on, completely forgetting the Superboard or whatever it's called that would have been at least as good if not better for half the price.
I use EMT trauma shears for kitchen shears and have a couple of Oneida kitchen knives among my random Ross Dress for Less generic forged kitchen knives. I have some Hamilton Forge knives, a triangular Japanese style chef's knife, etc.
My wife scrapes by (yuk yuk) with a pair of scissors that's just stamped STAINLESS and MADE IN CHINA. They open boxes, trim cloth, do every damn thing under the sun for her. They haven't been sharpened in years. I bought her sister the ONLY knife she has in her kitchen. No seriously folks, she has ONE KNIFE from about four years ago that's never been sharpened.
What else do I have. I have a Shun Sandwich Knife. The blade is chipped, I need to send it in for sharpening. I swear, nothing is better than that knife for cutting into ripe tomatoes. Something about that scalloped edge never tears the skin. It works great on anything, but the edge is a little fragile.
For razors, I like the out of the box easy shaving no questions asked Merkur Futur double edge. You can get your hands on 500 Darby blades for $50 if you know where to look. It's not exactly $50 so I don't think I'm breaking any dealspotting rules. There's a national retail chain that periodically has Proraso Green shaving cream under a different brand name for a good price. I'm pretty sure I have close to a lifetime supply of blades and cream for about $300.
The Spyderco Sharpmaker used to be the sharpening system of choice for me and mine, but with the diamond sticks it set me back about $130 or so. There's a paper wheel system out there for much less that apparently kicks butt. The customizing forum guys can point you in the right direction.
So, it's up to you. I like to get the best bang out of my money. I'm not sure I spent less money in total so far than some of the guys who have one or two custom knives made exactly to their specifications. I have piles of production knives that I found out sooner or later didn't quite do what I wanted them to do. Case in point is the Kershaw Junk Yard Dog II. I thought I was going to love it. It turns out I don't like how wide the blade is. I want something thin and narrow to get in behind something and cut towards the outside. Who knew? It fit every other criteria, I thought I had my decision all dialled in. Nope. So I'm looking for another flipper. This is probably my tenth flipper now, so I've spent something like $500 on knives that don't do what I want. Nevertheless, there's a Kershaw Asset that could be perfect for me. But, I have a SOG Twitch II that already that fits all the uses I'd have for the Asset, so I'm in no hurry to buy another knife. Maybe the grip would be better, but I don't work field trauma anymore so having a grip made slippery by blood isn't high on my list anymore. No need for textured G10 scales.
I don't worry about it much these days. If I ever decide to get a custom made knife I know what to ask for. I have my own personal reasons for wanting one knife over another now. It took a little messing around and trying different things, but I'm pretty sure I could spend $500 with more wisdom now than when I first started buying knives at the gun show. I doubt I will, though. There are enough production knives that meet my needs.
I finally figured out what I wanted from a flashlight, batteries, and a charger. It took a while, but I figured it out. Same with a really cool burl wood pen, a nice little Art Deco lighter that resembles a Zippo in function but little else, etc. If I got a custom handmade version of every toy I had I'd probably only have three or four toys. As it is, I get to enjoy lots of them. This is the beauty of the Industrial Revolution.
? I don't own any custom knives either; never will. Ignorance is bliss, I guess 
. In my opinion, the regular Native and the Manix XL are my choices for medium and large folders, in the "best bang for the buck contest". "Value"= S30V in excellent $55 and $95 knives. At $38 and $44, the best value beaters have to be the medium and large Voyagers.
