For scotch whisky, the first thing you need to figure out is whether you want smoke flavor (peat) or not; peat tends to be rather love-it-or-hate-it. And personally, Godfather is way too whisky-forward for something in the Johnny Walker Red price range. As far as cheap-ish mixing whisky goes I really like Tyrconnell, which is Irish but close enough to scotch IMO and where I live it’s the cheapest single malt you’ll find. Single malt or blended malt is generally better than ‘blended scotch’ (or whatever they equivalent is for Irish whisky), because ‘blended scotch’ is blended with grain whisky (neutral grain liquor) while single malt and blended malt are made exclusively from pure pot-still malt whisky, which is much more flavorful. Monkey Shoulder is also pretty good and has wider distribution than Tyrconnell, and it has both peated and unpeated versions.