Best budget brands/strains?

I'm a cheap-ass smoker. For the last two years, I've generally smoked Shred pre-ground stuff. I recently tried some Nugz lemon linx and enjoyed it too. That said, it looks like there are some 28g bags of decent looking flower out there for about the same average price per gram, so I'm looking for recommendations. It's time to give up the pre-ground life.

Also accepting recommendations for a small, handheld dry herb vape.

Thank you. Apologies if the thread doesn't belong here.