I use the optimum nutrition opti-men or whatever for my multi-vit...it's a lot like GNC's MegaMan, which i'm a big fan of.

As far as BCAA's, here's my opinion. Yes they are incredibly expensive to use a decent dosage of. If you are building/cutting on a budget, i wouldn't even consider them.

However, they have their benefit. Hospitals have known the anti-catabolic effect of BCAA's for some years now. Trauma patients and burn victims receive infusions of BCAA's to prevent (more accurately, reduce) muscle catabolism. They are in an extreme state of catabolism, and the BCAA's have been proven to reduce the amount of lean body mass lost.

BCAA supplements can also be a useful adjunct to a cutting diet, for the same reason. Your body is put in a catabolic state in order to lose weight. A supplement of BCAA's would theoretically lower the amount of LBM you would lose while still cutting. I'm not sure of the necessary doses anymore, and I don't have any of my nutrition textbooks with me, so I won't quote (or guestimate) doses. I will say, however, that I think it can be a useful add-on to your supplement regimen, if you have the money to throw around. As far as which brand, i wouldn't worry. As long as you're getting free-form BCAA's (rather than peptide bound which may be just a regular protein source) you'll be fine. Also, it would be a good idea to stick to companies known to be reputable for standardizing their supplements, so that you know that you're actually getting what you are paying for. That being said, it's not deathly important, since you cannot OD on BCAA's the way you could taking a very high dose of thermogenics, etc...