I think that you need to be careful. As others have said, the second hand route is probably your best bet. My scope was bought second hand and was a bargain. It was an almost new Swarovski, bought for £750 instead of the usual £1500 or whatever it is.
The trouble is, when it comes to bins and scopes, I think that although there is only a small difference in quality between medium priced and high priced, there is a huge difference in quality between low priced and medium if you see what I mean.
Put it another way, if you buy a scope for £700, the difference in quality between it and a £1500 scope is so minimal as to make the extra cost difficult to justify. However, the difference in quality between a £150 scope and a £700 scope is likely to be much greater.
Your best bet is probably to try to pick up a decent mid range second hand scope. It would seem a shame to spend all of your hard earned bonus on something which is bottom of the range.
