like pyze said you'd do well with the inexpensive nella knives; you don't need to spend $150 on a knife when you only use it once a say or so.
you might also tap phong next time you're in chinatown. it's not exactly williams-sonoma but for kitchen basics it's probably the cheapest place in town - they supply a lot of restaurants. get yourself a 60L stock pot while you're in there...