I used to live in Chile and got spoiled by the wide variety of good wines available for the equivalent of US$10 or less---most of them much less. Yes, there is plonk sold in Chile too, but it's sold there even cheaper than two-buck Chuck. Maybe that's why I don't feel like spending much for everyday wine. I will say that inexpensive taste testing helped me to learn some things which of the old and new wineries in Chile produced the most reliably good- and high-quality reds and whites.

For daily wine drinking, we usually stay less than $8 for a 750-ml bottle or $14 for a 1.5-ml bottle, and I watch for sales at Costco and good local liquor stores (Binny's, DeCarlo's). For guests or gifts, a sentimental favorite is Santa Rita Reserva cabernet sauvignon, which I've paid $14-$19 for in the past, but lately goes for about $12, an old and reliably good red, or other reds that I'm familiar with from Chile in the $12-25 price range. If I'm looking to spend more for a bottle of wine for a gift, I look for Casa Lapostalle.

As for bargains, there used to be a great blog with reviews of Trader Joe wines---you could get some great wines at great prices based on that blogger's reviews. But he stopped keeping up the blog and moved on to something else a while ago. I wish someone else would take up the project.

It was pointed out to me some time ago that the price of cropland naturally enters into the price of wine, and since then, I've never felt disloyal about steering away from Californian and French wines, unless they're on good sales, and leaning toward Chilean, Argentinian, and Australian wines. For the same quality, you can get more for your money from places other than California.

I also notice some people in this thread, living in the UK I think, mentioning they favor reds for daily wine with dinner. I like red wine, but lately it has been way too hot here in the Chicago area to drink high-alcohol red wines--I'd be asleep by 9 pm! So I've been having chilled white wine even with dishes that normally go with red wine (pasta bolognese, beef, etc.). Just this week it's cooled down for the first time in months and is starting to feel like autumn.