Knives and flashlights... That's two cans of worms with endless possibilities. When I teach a knife class, I spend the first hour or so discussing and showing the various blade designs, blade steels, locking mechanisms, clip styles, deployment methods, etc. and their advantages/disadvantages. Pretty much the same with lights, lumens, LED types, light distribution, lensing, switch designs, battery types, etc.
Personally, I wouldn't max the budget at the get go. I would start with decent and then refine decisions as you determine your needs. This will come as you use the items and discover their "shortcomings" in
your applications or you find you prefer this over that.
I'd start with a knife in the $40-$50 range until you determine what you like. (Some of the less expensive options mentioned here seem decent, but I haven't researched them.)
@Catfish mentioned the Skeletool, which I find to be a wonderful tool that you might find covers your needs. What makes it great is that it has enough to do most jobs and doesn't weigh a ton. It's a great EDC. The knife deploys one handed like a regular knife and carries with a pocket clip. Only after I moved to the farm did I find I needed a little more. I have many multi-tools and carried that one the most, when I was an urbanite, because it was light and functional. I know others that came to the same conclusion, that it was their favorite tool. Not because it did the most, but because it did enough.
Just my .02
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