Most electronics of this sort are made in China these days. I have (I think) 3-4 of them lying around. A small, general purpose one is this one
http://www.alliedelec.com/search/productdetail.aspx?SKU=7312700#tab=Specs. Mine has worked well for many years, but the LCD display has recently been damaged so I have a black blob on part of it. Not worth fixing, but still useable for most things. If you think you may want to do something like purchase an inductive current probe or a high voltage probe, or a temperature sensor, you need one that has Bananna plugs (for generic) or some other removeable probe set. the better probe sets can easily cost more than your $50 price point, too. Some of them come with slide on clips and different shaped pins to let you probe different things.
Something like this has some advantages,
http://www.alliedelec.com/search/productdetail.aspx?SKU=6310029 but unless you replace the probe with a lead, you may not be able to read the display - sometimes it's nice to have the display remote from the probe itself (I have a similar one to this as well!).
Fluke and HP both make some really nice stuff, but I think they'll all be more than your $50 price point. I have an older HP unit that's now over 30-years old that still works, but back then I paid almost $300 for it. think I bought it in 1976.
An autoranging DMM is my preference. It's nice if it can also measure current, but that requires putting the meter in-line with the load unless you buy an inductive probe (but those only work on a/c currrent - an d/c current isn't reliable with an inductive probe). Most meters are limited to about 10A when used to measure current in-line, while an inductive one can usually read significantly more.
If you want to use the thing to check stuff like diodes or transistors, not all meters can do that. Most people don't need a meter than can read more than say 300v, but if you do, watch the max range. Not all of them read-out a/c in RMS, but some can, but that may not be an issue. The number of samples it takes and a peak hold capability are handy. A bar graph to show instantaneous reactions is nice while the digital readout stabilizes. A range hold function speeds up things if checking multiple, similar points (otherwise, it starts at full range, then steps down, each sample and range change takes time). Those with higher sample rates will be both more accurate (generally), and faster to read out the result.