No specific brands, but if you get ultra cheap tubes they might be of lesser quality. If you buy them from a reputable place they should be OK, but if you seek out the absolute cheapest on the internet you might have a problem. $3-6 s a fair price, but depending on the shop you might have to pay a bit more. Some places make money on tubes but a few sell them near wholesale as a service to their customers (I prefer that kind of shop, rather than one that's trying to nickle and dime me on small parts).
Instead of a pump you could use CO2, which won't be as likely to break the valve, but I prefer a pump because I never run out of air and I don't have to pay for it. Someone should make a mini foot pump with a short hose to make pumping easier.
Make sure your pump works with with whatever kind of valve stem you have. I recently lent my mini pump to someone with presta valves and a pump that only works on schrader!
