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No one plans on spending much time in the kitchen at uni - unless it’s where everyone plays ring of fire and watches Diagnosis Murder re-runs - so you’ll be needing some kitchen basics which won’t put a dent in your loan and which will survive daily abuse.

We’ve come up with some best value appliances which will ensure that you can live off the three student staples: toast, tea and beans…and a little something to make sure no one makes off with your beer.

Tesco have a great range of value products and we’ve found a Kettle, toaster and sandwich toaster all for under £30.

kettle - Tesco Value JK07 - £10

toaster - Tesco Value 2T07 - £9

sandwich toaster - Tesco Value Sandwich Toaster - £10

With a microwave, you can pretty much live pan-free. Take a look at the 20 litre Daewoo KOR6L15. It’s a bargain at £38 with five power steps and auto-cook function.

This final item may not be seen as an essential but you’ll soon realise that beers in the fridge disappear quickly. Keep them safe by investing in this Matsui MTT507WW mini fridge which can live in the safety of your room. It’s £72 plus delivery and has a 60 litre capacity…that’s a lot of beer!

It’s not a particularly great time to be moving house at the moment so for those of you who just want to spruce things up a bit, you can do so for less than you think.

The kitchen is where all the action happens, food action, that is. It’s also one of the most expensive rooms to totally redo because of all the appliances that have to go in it. But there are some great bargains to be had in the appliances department. We’ve been through all the reviews to pick out a load of cheap appliances that have great reviews from their owners.

We’ve even managed to find a fridge-freezer, washing machine, oven, hob, dishwasher and microwave all for under £800!

We’ve also included some smaller items like kettles and toasters. Check them out:

Best cheap appliances

Washing machine - Indesit WIB111 - £175

Oven - Indesit FI21KB - £135

Hob - New World NWGHU60Ss - £78

Fridge-freezer - Hotpoint RFA52 - £209

Microwave - Russell Hobbs SMS21 - £40

Dishwasher - Beko DWD4310 - £160

All the above for under £800!

Kettle - Kenwood Mona Kettle - £15

Toaster - Kenwood TTP103 - £18

Food processor - Kenwood Delia’s Cheat Gadget - £17

Some real bargains there. I can’t believe that food processor is only £17! It’s been reviewed by 333 people and has a score of 9.1/10 so it’s definitely a little gem. It was also recommended by TV chef extraordinaire, Delia Smith, so it must be good.

There are plenty more bargains to be had too but just make sure you read the reviews first to ensure the product is actually any good.

We’ve talked about eco kettles in the past so we thought it fair to offer up an alternative to the somewhat disappointing offering we’ve had already.  This Eco Kettle helps with the problem of not knowing how much water to put in your kettle every time you boil it. Most people end up boiling far too much and wasting a whole heap of electricity. In fact, the folks over at The Big Green Shop claim that on average, we boil twice the volume of water needed. This means twice as much energy and twice as much time. With a 3kW kettle that’s the same as wasting the energy of around 50 light bulbs!

So why is this kettle different? Well, it’s got two water chambers. A central reservoir can be filled up and then a button allows a certain amount of water to move into the second chamber, which will then get heated. You can decide how much water you send through from one cup to full capacity, so that you know exactly how much you’re boiling (rather than standing at the sink, trying to estimate, filling it too much, having to empty some out, emptying too much out, having to fill up again – I think you get the point). Apparently, the Energy Saving Trust did some consumer trials and found that the kettle used 31% less energy than standard kettles, on average. There’s a complicated sum that measures how much we could save a year here too. These kettles are £29.99. For those of you in the US, you can pick one up from the Enviro Centre. They’re a little more expensive but they ship globally.

But before you rush off and buy one, we checked out some of the reviews. There are people who are very happy with their purchase, however, a few others aren’t. Check out the eco kettle reviews for yourselves.

We thought it was about time we carried on our rooms on a budget theme. This week, we’re looking at kitchens on a budget.

We’ve looked at everything you’d need for a kitchen – minus the cabinets themselves – and our budget kitchen comes in at £1114.

Obviously everybody’s kitchen will be different colours so we’ve gone for standard, yet sleek, black and stainless steel.

First up are the essentials, sink, oven, hob and fridge-freezer. 

We’ve gone for the attractive Astracast KO10RS sink. It’s £150, 98 cm wide and has a bowl size of 43 x 50 cm.

Everyone knows that if you want the best control over your cooking, the only way to go is gas. We’ve found this great stainless steel hob and oven pack from Baumatic. It’s £200 and has been rated 9.1/10 on Reevoo.

The top rated and best value for money fridge freezer we could find was the Indesit TA5S. It’s £240, has more fridge room than the large American-style fridges and it’s got some great reviews. Lots of owners are very impressed with its capacity, quality and value for money.

Ok, so far we’ve covered the essentials and we’re up to £590. Not bad for a fridge-freezer, oven, hob and sink?

Let’s move on to appliances.

The Breville JK123 kettle is simple to use and great value for money at £16. The matching Breville TT48 toaster is only £19. It has independent controls for each slice and a digital display.

This £51 Kenwood SJSS25 microwave has been rated 8.5/10 by the people who have bought it. Its capacity is 25 litres and it also has a grill function. One review reads “Easy to use, attractive, cost effective, efficient, fast, easy to wipe clean and maintain”.

For a dishwasher, we’ve gone for the Hotpoint FDL570. It’s £215 and it’s only 49 decibels so you won’t annoy the neighbours.

And finally, the washing machine. The A-rated Hotpoint WF321 is £223 and it has a larger than average load capacity of 6kg. Pam  from  Salisbury says “It is easy to use, not too noisy, nice big door and nice looking”.

So there you have it, a stylish kitchen for a little over £1000. Job done.