No, don’t pay for any kind of listing.
The only “directories” worth being listed in are the Google, Yahoo, and Bing search engines. Go to each of these yourself and submit your site directly for free. Being on a directory won’t make any difference to your search rankings. In fact it can hurt you, if the directory is known to be a spammy cesspool of unrelated paid links as your question suggests.
The only thing you might do is find out if there is a local association or group that caters to your industry (are you a landscaper, DJ, doctor, beekeeper, accountant…?) and add your site to any online business listings they may have. That’s sort of common sense. Other than that, stay away from directories.