What are your favorite under $50 blades?
For work, carrying in the car, etc.?

Mora

I was into nice knives that cost hundreds of dollars... until I had to use them. I'm more comfortable with a cheaper knife that does the same job, like Mora.

Also, a few years ago I watched a video about making the traditional knife of the indigenous peoples of Taiwan. What we might call survival today is just regular life to those guys way back then. I assumed such a hardy people would have fine knives. But that turned out to be wrong. An actual indigenous person explained that often they made knives from whatever steel that was available because steel was that scarce for them. But they made do with these knives. They didn't need super ninja bainite alien tech steel in tactical black.

And before there was steel, there was stone. Cutting instruments are among the earliest of man's tools that we can recognize today. Stone knives served us for many thousands of years and actually work pretty well. A knife made from obsidian 9volcanic glass) is actually theoretically sharper than any steel. The cutting edge is fashioned by striking the rock in the right manner and splitting off a flake. The edge formed in this manner is comprised of the smallest possible component of the obsidian and is more than razor sharp. But it i also extremely fragile and dull rapidly.

When you investigate an archaeological site where obsidian is used, you find many of the discarded flakes - edge retouch flakes - as sharpening is a never-ending process. You are better off with 440HC....

Enough of these cutting remarks.

Yep, Moras punch way above their weight.

Currently, my go-to workhorse beaters are Titan wrecking knives, the chisel tip version. Stronger than the Moras I have, just as sharp but not as rust resistant, scandi-grind, take a great edge, and good for digging/prying as well as cutting. Made in Taiwan. I bought a ton of them on a once in a lifetime sale for $5 each. I should have bought a whole pallet to sell on ebay/Amazon for a fat markup. Silly me.

For an inexpensive fixed blade, a Mora is real hard to beat. There are a number of models to choose from, I prefer the stainless steel Compainion..

For an inexpensive folding knife, Cold Steel and CRKT both make great options.

I'd have to also vote Mora for an inexpensive knife. All told I probably have 50 or more Moras. Most of my larger kits (eg day hiking and large PSKs) have a Mora in them. But as great as they are I virtually never carry one for EDC, mostly because I fixed blade is almost never part of my daily carry. When hiking and camping I will usually have an ESEE Izula or Izula 2 which is a fixed blade but pretty small. My EDC is usually a Spyderco (normally a Delica or Dragonfly).

My favorite sub-$50 EDC is without a doubt a Victorinox SAK of some kind. My favorites for EDC are probably the ALOX Farmer, the Huntsman or the Classic.

My EDC carry is a Spyderco Native in CPM S35VN. This one was a gift from a friend, and it replaced my previous Native that was CPM S30 I think? This current one is above your $50 price point, but IIRC my original Native was something like $49 on sale (but that was many years ago). It's a good EDC knife. I have a bunch of Moras around the house too, as everyone here seems to as well. I don't carry them - fixed blade is not my carry style - but for tasks around the house and yard, they are my GoTo choice.

For under 50$ it would be a tie between Mora and Martiini. I have samples of both brands and I am very satisfied with them. They come wicked sharp, hold an edge and are easy to resharpen.
I switched to fixed blades for daily carry for legal reasons. As long as it´s not a dedicated fighting knife (or maketed as such) I can carry up to just under 5" blades. Carrying a locking folder of any size is sailing in murky waters.

My favorite LOW COST folder - the one I bought for my kids when I assumed that they'd eventually lose them - is the Kabar Dozier Folding Spear. I don't think the Dozier Folding Spear is currently available, but the Kabar Dozier Folding Hunter is very similar.

A 3" locking folder for a bit over $20!!

My son used that knife from Cub Scouts (when introduced to knife safety) until he aged out with his Eagle rank at 18 years of age. It has served him well.