laptop/ netbook

[NinjaChipmunk]

i know nothing about computers but i need to look at buying a new laptop/ netbook thingy. Budget will be limited to basically combined birthday and xmas pressies (if i ask for this from everyone i reckon on about £300 give or take).
i tend to use internet, email, store photos and occasionally edit them, a bit of word/ excel admin type stuff. I may want to store a bit of music on it too but not much. i don't need to do any kind of gaming but a cd/ dvd might be useful? oh and able to be wireless.
any suggestions? i don't know where to start looking. i know nothing of speeds, rams, roms hertz or anything so any help or advise is much appreciated.
are refurbished ones any good? and why would they have been refurbished in the first place??

Many netbooks have no DVD or CD drive. Add-on drives for netbooks may cost 30 to 50 pounds, and I'd suggest trying to have one inside from day 1 if possible. I think you will perhaps find a budget laptop worth looking for...

If you plan to use Excel and Word, are you sure you would want to do that on a netbook (most have 10" or 11" screens, while the trend has gone from 12" (late 80s) to 14"/15" (late 90s) to laptops with 15" and 17" (now), while netbooks have come in for limited purposes.

Will look around - I was lucky in February to find a 17" laptop reduced from 350 to 250 but currently unaware of similar deals... will do some searching overnight.