Spend the most you can. It'll be cheaper to buy a great pair today, then to buy / replace the pair you buy in the near future with a better pair down the road...

If hunting out west, 10x42 are what I like, though I've heard lower quality binos show more probs in the 10x vs. the 8x

But either way 10x42 or 8x42 is a good setup.

I think one of the best for the money are Pentax dcf sp 10x43, but they're close to $600 I believe.