inexpensive running shoes?

Go to the clearance area at DSW, Rack Room or your favorite store if you can't buy a pair of the shoes you're used to.

Try on a pair of running shoes in your size.

Run the length of the store and pay attention to ANY pressure points you feel on your feet. If you feel ANY pressure points, go to the next pair.

Usually these shoes are from the previous year or are yet undiscovered. Each person is different so if you find that a cheap $15 Avia feels better than a $45 New Balance, don't be surprised. It's a great way to find cheap shoes and when you're doing it, you look like you actually know what you're doing and you won't get hasseled by sales people and pointed in the wrong direction.

Trust your feet, not the name brand.

i agree with the cheetah poster about "you get what you pay" keep that in mind, but then there's also another way to get relatively "cheap shoes". you're looking at $40-$70 here. You can go to Big 5, they normally have a small variety of shoes for around $40 becuase they carry older models (maybe shoes that weren't able to sell 1 or 2 years ago). Or Sports Authority has some decent shoes. You have to be a good shopper when looking for cheap shoes. Sports Authority will have sales often for shoes for like $65 or something like that and then you can use the coupons they'll sometimes have on the newspaper ads. They have these $10 off if you spend $50 or $25 off if you spend $100. these two stores still carry running brand running shoes, they're just sometimes a litttle bit older (model-wise) or you can save up and get one of those super nice looking shoes with lots of variety to find the perfect shoes for your feet. but i'm normally happy when i find one good shoe at Sports Authority, and i buy the same ones for a while *when i say "you", i mean "your friend"

If you don't want to spend the money on New Balance, there's an inexpensive shoe called Brooks they make god pairs of shoes and there really good for doing cross country, track and field stuff like that

The "cheapest" shoes are those you get right the first time and that don't cause injury. The expensive ones make you buy multiple pairs to get it right or cause injury.

Get fitted in a running specialty shop, and ignore things like brand and price until you've narrowed your options based on function.

You can then worry about finding things on sale, on eBay, or using last year's model, etc.