Hi Laura, I'm just going to pitch in and say that I've been wearing my Shimano M063 shoes almost every day for 6 years and have found them incredibly comfortable and hard-wearing in that time. I also run Shimano M520 SPDs like you were advised, so can vouch for the set up. I believe the shoes cost me around 40 quid new from CRC. There'll no doubt be newer versions of that shoe out now, and you can spend ludicrous amounts of money on cycling shoes, but truthfully anything around that ball park will do you fine for what you want them for, assuming they do ladies sizes that is. And yes, it's the cleat that fixes to the bottom of the shoe that determines the pedal compatibility, so any dedicated cycling shoes that allow SPD cleats will fit to those pedals.
Hi Laura, I'm just going to pitch in and say that I've been wearing my Shimano M063 shoes almost every day for 6 years and have found them incredibly comfortable and hard-wearing in that time. I also run Shimano M520 SPDs like you were advised, so can vouch for the set up. I believe the shoes cost me around 40 quid new from CRC. There'll no doubt be newer versions of that shoe out now, and you can spend ludicrous amounts of money on cycling shoes, but truthfully anything around that ball park will do you fine for what you want them for, assuming they do ladies sizes that is. And yes, it's the cleat that fixes to the bottom of the shoe that determines the pedal compatibility, so any dedicated cycling shoes that allow SPD cleats will fit to those pedals.