MOS FET reccomendations for a newbie
If you're into lower voltage (logic level, 3.3V) and such like circuits, the old standards such as the 2N7000/7002 (latter is SMT) are not great. 

You might want to look into Alpha and Omega's line of SOT-23 MOSFETs which are good value and good performance. For example, AO3418/AO3419. You can get 100 of them for about $20, so even if you sneeze and a few of them go walkabout it's not a disaster. 

Unfortunately, there's not much that's good introduced in through-hole packages in recent years at least for smaller than a TO-220. 

MOSFETs have evolved rapidly, and the best available MOSFET of several years ago is often overly expensive and of poor performance compared to more modern parts.