I try to keep my "everyday" smokes (even though I do not smoke everyday) at around $3-3.50 maximum but I shop very hard on the specials to get good stuff for this price range. I keep 50-75 "sort of special smokes" in the humi that range from $5-10 mostly but again I buy them on the best of specials and they usually represent $10-20 retails. I keep a few (maybe 5 or 6) true "top shelf" stix in there at around $20-25 but rare for me to smoke more than 1 or 2 of these a year.

(I only buy NC's)
I have found if you really watch the Monster, CI and Cigar.com you can get some super stix for $2.50-3.50.