I'm looking at this from the viewpoint of just getting the urge and going to to the local big box store and buying the stuff on a whim. That narrows the choices down considerably.
You can get a Buck 119 at Wal-Mart for $40, so that would be a good choice. Most big box stores have the Gerber Profile too, and it's only $20. Mystery steel, but it gets decent reviews.
Honestly though, I think that I'd head over to the kitchen area and see what kind of butcher knives they have. An Old Hickory butcher knife or a another large kitchen knife would do for most the things that need to be done, while offering enough blade length for halfway decent chopping. I've bought a couple of cheap kitchen knives and beat the snot out of them just to see what they can handle, and short of prying with them, they take the abuse and keep on trucking. They are easy enough to sharpen and being thinner stock, still cut ok with a not so sharp edge. The only problem is that they don't have a sheath.
