With deference to Claude Rains in the movie, Casablanca, we can "round up the usual suspects": There's Rossi (cheaper), Savage mark II (MSRP 270$), and Winchester Xpert (MSRP 320$).
Moving up, there are CZ 455/457, Ruger American, Bergara, and Tikka. But this group is getting beyond inexpensive. Howa and Springfield Armory have bolt action .22's, but I don't know if they have hit the stores yet.
In any case my pick would be your suggestion: the mossberg plinkster. I'm not acquainted with the current plinkster, but I've always had a fondness for mossbergs from a decades ago, happy experience with a chuckster (.22WMR).
I don't want to completely go off topic and bash savage, but the fit and finish of savage rifles (excepting the model 99) have never been what you would call superb. The aesthetics were easy to overlook because the "out of the box" performance of savage rifles was so good. However, in the last few years, the performance of savage rifles coming into our family has been disappointing. We've acquired a .223 hog hunter, a .17 HMR, and savage's version of a precision rifle chambered for 6.5 creedmoor. The creedmoor is okay, but we just expected better for what it is supposed to be. The accu-trigger on the hog hunter would occasionally (not often) lock up. Not a big deal, because I hate "blade" triggers, and planned to replace the accu-trigger with a timney. The lock-up just hastened that replacement process. However, I'm not sure if savage has declined in quality, or it is simply that the other manufacturers have just got better.