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you need snow tires on all 4 tires. The practice of just putting them on the driven wheels has proven to be pretty dangerous. You need relatively equal grip on all 4 tires unless you never go above 40mph.
If you can only afford two snow tires, put them on the back wheels, not the front. The tire manufacturers use the saying "Best To Back". This ensures that the car stays stable at highway speeds. You risk having pretty unmanageable handling characteristics if the back tires have less grip than the front.
I answered a question about this two winters ago and I still stand by my opinion:
http://www.brickboard.com/AWD/index.htm?id=1426231
As to brand, you get what you pay for. Generally more expensive tires last longer, but there are other things to consider too. For one thing, there is a fair difference between 'snow' tires and 'ice' tires.
Michelin makes great winter tires, and Volvo fits Gislaved at their dealers which are excellent tires.
I think Walmart sells Nexen tires, and they have some pretty interesting winter products as well.
I have seen some great local prices on General Altimax Artic tires.
In Canada Canadian Tire sells a tire they call "Nordic" which is an older Goodyear tire that has been revived as an exclusive Canadian Tire product. This allows for great prices also.
With that said though, just pick your price range and buy some tires - they're all pretty reasonably competent these days. Because I can't afford expensive tires I tend to buy what I can find on sale.
I've used both very cheap retreads and also some moderately cheap Federals and while I don't think I'll be buying the retreads again I would happily fit the Federals again. I can't remember the model but if anyone is really interested I'll report back. (incidentally, I didn't go looking for the Federals, it just so happens that's all I could get that year. I live in New Brunswick and the neighboring province of Quebec had just that year brought in a new law mandating the use of snow tires, so there was a serious shortage of tires available that fall. I got what I could get my hands on. I had to wait weeks to obtain them at that.)
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1998 V70 AWD->FWD->AWD Turbo 220k+
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