I am a foods and nutrition teacher so cookbooks are my area of joy!! The joy of cooking is like an encyclopedia of cooking and everything is in there but I don't ususally pull day to day recipes from this book.
I am always a big fan of the "betty Crocker" cook book. I just picked up an old one at a garage sale for .25 and love it. Sam's club some times has this reasonably for about $10
I also have used two mennonite books. one from the 70's but they have newer versions. It is "more-with-less cookbook" look on e-bay for this. The premise of the book is to reduce our consumtion of food to help feed the world. I find these are some basic low cost meals. But when we went up to lancaster county PA, I stopped into the Mennonite center to pick up this cookbook for my daughter and they suggested another book that all new brides are given at their shower. The name is "Mennonie Country-style recipes &kichen Secrets" By Esther H. Shank. I saw this on
www.half.com for about $14. It sells for $25 at the mennonite visitors center. It is a very good book. It is over 600 pages and gives solid cooking advice and direction in the front of each section. It has the same recipe format as More-for-less cookbook but I think you will be much happier with the Mennonite country-styles recipes. I was given the Benjamin Franklin Award by the publishers marketing association. Whatever that is.
Another good place to look for cookbooks is library book sales. I picked up some great ones there.
Another thing I do is go to the library and tcheck them out, try them out and just copy down the recipes I like. I keep card files and notebook files. This is free.
Old magazines are great. I ask students to bring in old magazines they don't want.
Borrow a cookbook, recipes and learn to share ideas among friends, church members, and co-worders.
ALWAYS ask for a recipe if you like something someone has served. Often they are willing to share and you'll have a great recipe for life!!
Remember that your recipe collection can be passed down from one generation to the next.