Exactly how short on cash are you? I don't know that much about pedals, but if you can give us a price range, someone on here will be able to give you a recommendation.
However, a quick eBay search reveals that Marshall, Digitech, Ibanez, Rocktron, Rogue, Boss, DOD and... Dinosaur? all make pedals that can be found in what I would consider to be the "short on cash" range. The only pedal I've ever used though was some kind of DOD and I thought it sucked. However, I've heard great things about anything made by Boss.
http://search.ebay.com/search/search...dal&category0=
EDIT: Also, if you check out MusiciansFriend.com, most of their products have user ratings, and all the pedals that I've looked at so far have soundclips available.