I know you don't want £100 knives but in my opinion you only need one decent knife, along with a cheap paring knife and maybe a bread knife.
I recently dropped my 10 year old Henckels Santoku on my tiled kitchen floor and a big chunk of the handle came off. I glued it back on but it no longer "feels" right.
I decided to replace it with a Tojiro Senkou Santoku. It was razor sharp out of the box, scarily so. It feels perfect in the hand with the weight balanced towards the handle which I prefer. Prepping vegetables has become a joy rather than a chore. For 90% of my knifework this is the only tool i'll ever need. Did I mention it is beautiful too?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/i...2681&s=kitchen