Lots of good advice here. One area that hasn't been mentioned is looking for used scopes. You can pick up used Leupold M8 4x33 on ebay for about $125. They will last you a lifetime and are very good scopes. I'm also partial to Weaver scopes and have a number of K2.5 that I picked up for less than $100. I have also seen Busnell Elite 3200s for right around $100 on the used markets.

The heartbreak of a cheap scope failure at the wrong time will last far longer than the pain of writing the check for a better scope to begin with.