If you're for looking cheap and still functional, I can recommend the Motorola Moto E, or the Moto G if you want a slightly upgraded version of it. I got my Moto E for ?120 and the G goes for around ?170 I believe or your regional equivalent.
For that money you get a medium-sized, basic bar-model smartphone with neigh-stock Android 4.4 with 5.0 coming soon if Motorola is to be believed. It does all the basic functions of smartphone-ing well, but don't expect really heavy to run very smoothly as it 'just' has a dual-core CPU and 1GB RAM. Apparently that's not top-of-the-bill these days. Sheesh, I remember having a laptop that was shittier than this... But I use it for things like mobile banking, Spotify, checking public transport schedules, news apps, checking my mail, WhatsApp, that sort of thing. And for such things it performs very smoothly and very well.
It's also very sturdy, which for clumsy ol' me is a very big plus. Lots of smartphones, especially models with screens above 4", are pretty fragile. And to top it off, it's battery life is, for a smartphone, amazing. It lasts like two days with moderate use. Downsides? For actual use I'd say it's only the mediocre camera without a flash and the lack of a front-cam. But personally I care fairly little about that anyway. I don't care for 'selfies' and when I have to make an actual good picture I have an actual camera for that.
So yeah, it's a simple, no-nonsense smartphone that does everything you expect from a basic smartphone and more. I love it.