you should find a plethora of options available to you at that entry-level pricepoint.
e.g.
http://www.ebuyer.com/store/Computer/cat/LaptopsIf its really for a non-portable use, get the biggest screen you can for your money as well. [1]
I'd say check that whatever you buy had >= 4 Gb RAM (assuming Win 8) , and if you think you'll need it, a DVD drive (watching DVDs in bed?
, maybe DVDRW if you are likely to burn data onto DVDs.
If its win 8 (probably will be) and you can;t cope with it, install classic shell - it will act/look a bit more like Win 7 then
www.classicshell.net/Whether you will get MS Office however included in that budget is a very debatable point.
If you have a student in the house with an academic email address you may have some joy getting a cut-price copy
e,g.
http://www.software4students.co.uk/t/ca ... oft-officeOtherwise maybe consider one of the freeware alternatives
e.g.
https://www.openoffice.org/http://www.libreoffice.org/Without MS office, you won't have Outlook, so you will need an alternative email client (or use webmail if available for your email address)
eg
https://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/thunderbird/[1] if it really isn't for portable use at all then do consider a desktop and flat screen monitor - you'll get far more bang for your buck.
didds