What are good electric guitar multi-effects and amps to buy within $100-$250 dollar range?

Check out a Peavey Vypyr. Good modelling amp with built in effects, bloody loud, although the more high powered ones have an option to turn the power level down for getting 'wide open' tone at lower volume levels. It's got a good range of popular effects, chorus, flanger, overdrive, octave etc and can be dialled in to give a pretty good approximation of everything from a Fender Twin to a Marshall Plexi to a Krankenstein...

never skimp on the amp. spend your whole wad on one, you can use the best cords known to man with as many FX you can plug in, and a crap amp will still sound like a crap amp. theres a lot of solid state DFX amps on the market these days that do some pretty amazing things in that price range, 2 birds with 1 stone so to say, I like this one but choice of brand is yours, http://www.musiciansfriend.com/navigation?N=100001&Ntk=All&Ntt=kustom&Nty=1&page=5

Spend 200-500 on your amp. Trust me. I love Carvin amps, but that may not fit your style. George L has amazing cables, but they are 40-60 dollars for a basic 10-20 ft guitar cable.

check your local music shop/guitar center or craigslist sometimes they have really nice stuff on there i got my beautiful strat through craigslist

You want to spend more money on your guitar amplifier than you do on your guitar itself. It is what makes the sound, and it makes a bigger difference than anything. A good amp makes a cheap guitar sound great. A bad amp makes a great guitar sound horrible. I'd recommend buying a Vox DA5 which you can keep as a practice amp when you get better, and buying a used Vox Tonelab. Also, you want to buy a nice cable. I'd recommend a USED Monster cable. You have a lifetime warranty, no questions asked. Tow a truck with it, return it for a new one. Seriously. Cables are important as you can lose high end... Bullet Coil Cables are also groovy and they sound great, and store easily.

The effects are a personal thing. I can rave about this or that multi-phase, signal inverter doohickey but it may not be of use to your style of playing. To be sure there are some nice multi-effects pedals out there. You really just need to get out there & try 'em out to see if the latest pedal everybody's raving about works for you. Ampwise, again its personal. For my own self, I'm a Fender guy on guitar & Ampeg on bass. That written there are tons of guys who would pitch for Marshall, Hartke, Peavey, etc. What can be said is that you're on safe ground if you're looking to spend about $300+ on an amp; say one with a 10" or 12" speaker. Cable wise, look to spend about $10 - 15 for a good one, whose ends screw & unscrew so as to allow for repairs. You don't want ones with molded plastic ends as once they break, they stay broke. These molded-end ones are the ones you'll likely see going for $2 - $5. Best bet, whether you go to a chain store, a mom & pop, or Craigslist is to bring along a knowledgable guitar playin' friend or chat up w/ a store worker known to NOT to rip you off. And avoid any high-pressure sales pitch. Last thing you need in these economic days is to be stuck with an item that either you paid too much for or didn't really want. Good luck!

Ok, if you want tubes you could get a B-52 AT112 which are alright but they are 360 bucks which would leave you with maybe getting a pocket pod by line6 or digitech. I probably won't take that route though. There is also the Peavey Vyper Tube 60 watt which I think has only a tube power amp section but that still beats straight digital. this would leave you pretty much high and dry for pedals but it already has tons of effects and models built in to it kinda like the Line 6 Spider series. For digital amps you could maybe get a Fender 65R with one twelve inch speaker for 200 bucks, a line 6 floor pod for 200, and have 50 or so left after taxes for a Monster Cable or a Planet Waves. Lastly, you could get a 75 watt Spider III which are on sale for 270. They already have tons of effects so rather than buying a fancy multi effects pedal you could get maybe a wah pedal, compression, whatever. Overall I'd probably get the Fender and Floor Pod combination. You would get a boatload of effects with the Pod and the Fender Amp is decent. Plus, later you could upgrade to a Fender Deluxe or something with tubes and still have the flood pod to run through an effects loop. As far as the cable I'd get one of those thick monster cables with gold tips. They're expensive but they last long and have a lifetime warranty. I didn't leave links but you can copy and paste the names into the search bar on musicians friend.