Yeah sorry, Blonco. You're not gonna get anything for less than £50 and that'd be a storming price. If you just want to see if you can shape without taking off a thumb then try out on a bit of 4x2 first. Like yogi says, gettin a bat to the stage you want it at still requires a lot of work from the kind of people that will supply them to you. Your only hope would be to appeal to a major supplier but the cheap clefts will get made into those glorious finished bats you were talking about.
In short, this is an expensive hobby! Take your time.