Actually I would not spend much in article submission because usually they submit your article to 100-200 directories and it's always the same one. That means that all the article directories will have duplicate content with your link inside...and that's not really good
no, i would never pay for article submission, but then i can pay for manual article submission services. press relese is a bit different and can be paid for, and pr5+ blogs are also worth the money! articles should be free the way the are now!!