So, went out with a buddy last night and did some night time hunting, I have an AR with a red dot, and man I couldn't see crap through it, what do I need to get for a scope for night time hog hunting, trying not to break the bank...

Well you learned a good lesson. It is best to try out your gear before going to actually hunt, at least as best as you can.

Red dot sights generally work by projecting a small light against a coating on the inside of the lens. That coating is sufficient to reflect the light back to your eye which means it is sufficient to block some of the light transmission through the sight. It is something akin to looking through the front of very lightly tinted mirror sunglasses. As such, it is a "dark" optic and is harder to see through than just using your naked eye and open sights. You have to overcome the coating by using supplemental light on nights when the moon isn't really bright.

You could go with a magnified scope. Generally speaking, the larger the front objective is, the more light that can be captured by the scope. Of course, quality of glass comes into play as well. There are a few scopes out there that actually make things look brighter than when seen with the naked eye. Some only appear slightly darker. If the scope has a zoom capability, you want the widest view possible to gather the most light.

The exception to red dots reflecting the light off of a coating are the Eotech holographic sights. I am not exactly sure how they look, but when you look through them with the sight turned off, the lens looks much more like clear glass than any red dot optic I have used that has the reflective coating.

I have hunted with an Aimpoint Micro T-1 which is a very small red dot optic. The small size (maybe 18mm?) also hinders light transmission as compared to a 40 or 50 mm red dot sight. The only way to make the sight work well in very low light is by using night vision with it or by using a flashlight.

Would night sights (sorta like a trijicon (sp) on handguns) on your fixed sights work better in this regard? I have used night vision scopes and they are very nice (belong to a buddy) but I know I can't afford them anytime soon.