I'm quite a regular microwave-user, using it mainly for porridge, hot drinks and defrosting and reheating meals that I've cooked in bulk and frozen in single portions. When my old model broke I decided to buy a small, inexpensive no-frills microwave, and eventually settled upon the Tesco Value MM08 model.

The first thing that attracted me to this microwave was the price. As I only use mine for basic tasks, I wasn't particularly bothered about getting an expensive one with lots of fancy features, so at around £30 this was ideal. It currently retails for £32.96 at Tesco Direct where it can be bought online, but mine was purchased in my local Tesco superstore, making it very easy for me to get hold of.

This is a very easy to use microwave. Unlike my old one, it doesn't have an LCD screen or any buttons to press, but instead it is controlled by two dials on the front of the unit. The top dial allows you to select the power level (there are five power levels, including a defrost setting) and the lower dial enables you to set the timer for cooking, up to a maximum of 35 minutes. Cooking with this model is, therefore, incredibly simple. The timer dial does annoy me slightly as it will only let you programme the microwave to cook items in incraments of one minute, whereas a lot of foods require heating for, say, a minute and a half. This does mean that I sometimes have to round up the cooking time to the next full minute and then hover around to ensure that my food doesn't overcook, but this isn't a massive deal for me.

Unlike my old model which had a power output of 850 watts, this is a 700 watt microwave. However, as most packaged foods tend to include cooking instructions for various power levels, this hasn't presented a problem for me and if I'm cooking one of my own home-made meals I tend to just cook my food for a minute or so longer than I would have previously.

In terms of aesthetics, this isn't the most sophisticated microwave in the world, being made of black and white plastic. However, I wouldn't say it looks nastily cheap and it blends into my kitchen rather than sticking out. It has a relatively small capacity (17 litres) which is ideal for me as I tend to only use mine for single portions of food and I have a small kitchen, but this is something to bear in mind if you tend to microwave large portions of food. I can't imagine many people use microwaves to cook three course meals or anything, but it's worth having a look at the capacity of this model before buying if you cook meals for large numbers of people in the microwave. Its small size makes it ideal for those who don't have a lot of space in their kitchens.

Overall, I'd strongly recommend this model for those looking for a basic, small and inexpensive microwave.