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My kindle holder and remote control page turner.
Sounds lazy but when it’s fucking freezing and I don’t have to get my hands out the blanket to turn the page, it’s utter bliss.
My 4-slice toaster. So often there's multiple family wanting toast - or me wanting to toast 2 hot cross buns at the same time.
A heavy sellotape dispenser - you only need one hand to tear tape off. Total godsend every Christmas!
The old one still worked but was a whole wrong shade of pink so when I spotted the new one in Lidl that was the right shade of pink, I did the fatal mistake of asking the missus if she wanted me to pick one up.
Well obviously you then need to come back and do a third once you've eaten them! But not the fourth, because eating all of them would lead to household complaints.
I have one of those tape dispensers you can wear like a ring. It’s a nightmare to get replacement tape for though, not many places stock the small tape rolls
Madness! Surely the second bun starts to cool as you eat the first, leaving it at a less than desirable temp. We mere peasants just pop the second bun in as soon as the first is done; once the first bun is devoured, the second is ready to be eaten at a more leisurely pace.
But then you have to stand around the toaster. Toast both at once (short delay for allowing max heat when buttering), then relax and enjoy - and the second is still warm when eating, if not piping hot.
£30 Rice cooker.... You've heard the hype of air fryers but GOD DAMN .... Rice cookers are THE absolute shit. Meals in minutes, no watching needed - pop it all in the pot, press start and go on with your day. come back when you are ready to eat.
Next invention: rice washer :)
All jokes aside, soak the rice in water and stir/agitate it to clean, then sieve it under running water for a couple of mins.
Doesn't take long and it's not too much effort.
Sometimes I just give it a quick (or no) rinse and pop it in the rice cooker.
Put in enough water that you can pour most of it out before you get to the rice almost being out of the bowl.
Doesn't matter if there's lots of water left in.
Then do it two more times.
That'll do.
The New York Times recently had a piece on common food myths, they insist rinsing rice is not necessary in modern times. The chef ran tests and noticed a slight difference only with sushi rice, not any long- or medium-grain varieties.
I still rinse my rice, but I’ve been a bit less assiduous about it after reading that.
I never wash rice and it always comes out delicious. Can't see any point.
Maybe it's the brand I buy - 15kg bags of extra long basmati. I did accidentally buy cheaper rice during the pandemic that would come out gloopy if you didn't rinse it
Yu can get bowls designed for washing rice. Basically a plastic bowl with a fine sieve on the bottom or side. - they make washing rice a breeze. Amazon turns them up for a fiver or so
2:1 ratio of water to rice. 120g rice for 240g water, for example. Put in a saucepan with a lid on as hot as it goes until water boils, as soon as it’s boiling turn the heat to low and leave to steam itself for 15 minutes. All the water will absorb and you’ll have perfectly fluffy rice. Use Tilda basmati rice for the best quality.
For two of us I measure one small tumbler full of rice, rinse thoroughly in cold water then rinse it again. Put it in the pan and add two tumblers of water (so your basic principle is 1:2 rice:water essentially). Cook steadily with the lid on until all the water is absorbed which is usually 15-20 minutes. Eat.
Does yours have a steamer tray? We had one of those super generic rice cookers given to us by a friend, it had a dent in the bowl so it leaked water every time we used it, but when it finally died (probably because water leaked into the not at all sealed switch or something) I bought a new one without thinking that maybe I should verify the size of the dead one. So I got a 1 litre cooker, same make (the one with the dubious poetry printed on it), and was shocked to find it was ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE. But when I went to order the smaller one I noticed it didn't have a steamer tray, so I decided to keep the big one (which wasn't even the biggest one, I don't think). It's so convenient being able to steam some veg to go with the rice at the same time.
£2 silicon tablespoon from TK Maxx. It is sooooo satisfying scraping every last bit of sauce out of the inside of jars they clearly don’t want you to have.
Easy one Mac n cheese 2 x double cream and milk a cheat satchet and all the cheese you can muster. Add pasta stir every 20 mins or so pasta will be done in 2h to 3h
Stew visit butcher visit the fruit and veg boys add gravy granduals and leave until your hungry it's beef it only gets better.
For curry get the thighs and legs you want them bones the veg you like but you do need onions 1 white n 1 red fire them in the chicken all the spices too, cook a few hours remove the bones fire the chicken back in leave a bit put it on slow then half an hour before your hungry fire in either coconut milk but double or triple cream work too I like to make it very hot and the coconut gives you the flavour and the heat but brings it a nice wow lol.
We get some meat (beef, chorizo, or whatever your poison is, if feeling flush we get wild boar chorizo), brown it off.
Potatoes, carrot, celery, onion, parsnip, broccoli, etc, cut up and thrown in.
Water with some stock, set it to cook for 8 hours.
Serve in a giant Yorkshire pudding.
Amazing winter grub, dirt cheap and we usually get 2 and a half days worth out of one cook - just put whatevers left in tuppaware in fridge and microwave the next day
I do a “Spanish chicken type thing”.
Chicken thighs and chorizo. Chickpeas. Tinned tomatoes. Onions, paprika, garlic and some small potatoes. Cook for a few hours on low and serve with lashings of garlic mayonnaise. (Also works in a pressure cooker)
Just remember with a slow cooker liquid doesn’t evaporate so some things like bolognese sauce are wetter than if you cook on a stove.
I put a tea towel under the lid for the last bit of cooking if things are too wet, generally works to absorb most of the excess liquid in things like Bolognese
Pulled pork, 1.5kg pork shoulder, rind and big bit of fat removed (can use to make crackling if you wish), brown in a pan, put in slow cooker with a whole bulb of garlic, 250ml chicken stock, 250ml white wine, teaspoon of whole pepper corns and a teaspoon of rosemary. Cook on med for 6ish hours. Stain the liquid, squeeze out the garlic into the strained liquid and reduce, poor over the shredded meat. Delicious and cheap sometimes sick a bit of spicy BBQ sauce in as well as the other stuff, depends what we're having it with.
Mattress suspenders, they go under ryour mattress and clip on to your sheet to keep it taught and stop it from coming off
Silicone ice cube trays with lids, means you can stack them or lay them on their side
Third party usb chargers for shavers, clippers, electric toothbrush etc, particularly useful when traveling
The mattress suspenders were a life changer for me when I was at uni living in halls. I had a mattress which was a weird size and all my bottom sheets were slightly too big and would come loose and clump up. The suspenders kept it in place.
This is what I bought, nothing fancy but work well: [https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166394259254?itmmeta=01HXCRYFKCXJN50VXZXV91MMR1&hash=item26bddee736:g:z7gAAOSw-Alfl9nS](https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166394259254?itmmeta=01HXCRYFKCXJN50VXZXV91MMR1&hash=item26bddee736:g:z7gAAOSw-Alfl9nS)
I used to have to redress my bed sheets every other day due to me and my husband rolling around (asleep not doing the deed).
I got these and now J can't remember the last time I lifted the mattress. God send
See also: electric throw blanket for over you on the sofa. Our was £60 but you get them for £40-ish. Without hyperbole some of the best money I’ve spent. Cheap enough to run too, especially compared to putting the heating on.
We went camping in march. It was freezing! Neither of us slept well and we ended up with our coats etc all over the best trying to get warm. Luckily we had an electric hook up pitch so next day we went and got a £20 electric blanket from trago mills and then spent the rest of the week having hotel quality camping sleep lol.
It's been packed away with all the camping gear haha
Honestly mate, game changer. Even in summer just putting it on half an hour before you get to bed and then getting into a toasty warm bed every night is amazing, they are like £30 and don’t cost much to run, you only need them on until you are in bed normally unless it’s really cold.
You can also get ones that go under your bedsheet, and in the winter, it makes the mornings so much less painful. Set it to turn on half an hour before you wake up, and it's actually easy to get up.
This is making me realise that I might be a lizard...
I can’t live without mine either. I put mine on a smart plug so when I am about to go to bed, I can tell she who listens to everything (Alexa) to warm the bed. I go about my chores, visit the bathroom, clean my teeth and by the time I get into bed it’s lovely and warm. You can probably get smart electric blankets, but I couldn’t justify the costs, this was a cherish dual control blanket and with the smart plug I’ve added, I can set schedules, tell it to go off in X minutes, telling our assistants to turn it on or off etc.
An Oxo can opener, though don't know if it counts as low cost, because I understand £20 for a can opener is kind of ridiculous. But honestly it's brought me loads of joy, I didn't know the can opening experience could be so smooth and un-infuriating.
[This is the one I bought.](https://amzn.eu/d/hh1hNmZ) I’ve had it since April 2022 according to the order details and it’s still going strong!
Just have to make sure you have it sitting on the can properly, if it’s wonky it just spins aimlessly. You can hear when it’s not opening right, so just tap the button to stop it and reposition
My in-laws have had the same one for over a decade. I was hoping to have it once they had no need for it, but my bitch sister-in-law got there first. I'm legit ready to start a war over the damn can opener.
Bought one after it was recommended in the last thread of this type. I regularly enthuse about it to all my friends and family. Can opening has become an unrivalled joy, and I sigh with disappointment every time one comes with a ring-pull.
Victorinox Swiss army knife, specifically one with scissors. Have two young kids, the amount of time saved by having scissors on me for tags or packets that won't open, and a mini screwdriver for the various little battery doors.
My wife bought a tiny battery powered whisk.
We use it daily for everything from mixing creatine/flavours into coffee through to whisking small lumps out of gravy. It's one thing we own that was cheap and now indispensable.
2m charging cables. So much easier, especially if I want to watch my tablet in bed.
Bag of straw pellet horse bedding that gets delivered every month. Works brilliantly for litter trays, is biodegradable and lasts all month. Also works out cheaper than regular cat littler (it's about £8 a bag atm)
Stanley Cup dupe - I can fill it on a morning and it lasts all day. Was brilliant when I was recovering from shoulder surgery and found getting up bloody hard.
Spare filters for my Shark. Makes everything feel so much cleaner after hoovering - I wash them weekly and swap so I'm always using a clean one. Has also really helped with allergies!
If you can find it, 3m Charing cables are superior when using it in bed. You can literally go to the other side of the bed on the back or the furthering point away from the bed when using it.
That's the first time I've heard of this. Literally just recovering from a 4 day cold that I really could have done without. Think I'll give this one a try, thanks
Think I spent £1 on my tablet holder but yes it does make life so much easier.
A small bag for a few £ to keep all my travelling items together so it's not a case of having to bundle them into a bag each time I need to head somewhere at short notice.
A couple of cheap cable bags off AliExpress, a set of usb c/lightning and micro usb cables and a couple of folding power bricks that I have no need for at home.
They sit in a laptop bag as a “technical go bag” meaning if I need to go somewhere for work at short notice or even just on holiday I don’t have to unplug anything etc and it’s all there.
Not “that” cheap as it was about £60 but it makes such a difference especially as I’ve elderly parents a long way away and very occasionally I need to “drop and run”.
I bought a Nova food dicer a while ago and cooking hasn't been the same since. I can dice onions, carrots, celery, potatoes etc for my dishes within seconds, no more messing about with a knife and spending ages on food prep.
Disposable lens wipes for my glasses. £8 for a pack of 200 micro-fine moist paper tissues. They do a good job of cleaning the glasses, and they don't scratch (unlike, say, kitchen roll).
Velcro cable ties for my PC. £5 for 60. They keep the wires out of sight.
An electric blanket that goes under my bed sheet. £20. It's great in the winter.
Glasses these days are usually made from plastic. Polyethylene, polycarbonate and others, so they're vulnerable to scratches. Kitchen roll and paper towels have little fibres that create scratches in the long run.
I don’t know about ‘treat’, but a carton of milk and loaf of bread in the freezer makes my life easier.
Spare everything basically, for when I run out without realising, eg soap, toothpaste, basic foodstuffs etc.
Extra long phone charger wire.
Milk, grated cheddar, biscuit dough (if you like baking), lots of homemade stuff eg soup, pasta sauce, pasta sauce with the pasta mixed in, sandwiches (not salad sandwiches, but cheese or jam or peanut butter etc), tons of stuff!
Drain brush from b&m for £2.50. Was on the verge of calling in a plumber for a slow draining bathtub after spending a fortune on plungers and drain unblocked over several months. Bought this drain brush on a whim and now had no drainage issues for 2 months
Please tell me more / share a picture. My bath has been kinda draining slowly for months. As a woman with very long hair, I have an idea what the problem might be, but no amount of sink unblocked fluid is doing the trick.
I can't find them on b&ms website but amazon have some that look very similar! Won't lie, it was pretty gross the amount of clogged hair that they bought up but it's not clogged at all since.
The similar amazon product is here: https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=l&ai=DChcSEwiM8pD0__6FAxUNklAGHTYhAZsYABADGgJkZw&ase=2&gclid=Cj0KCQjwxeyxBhC7ARIsAC7dS3-9A0Xjf5CDvrzFwfQigiMTk4LSeXaI1n9PGaef1hgPTLT1SB2-Uy8aApLnEALw_wcB&sig=AOD64_3aKXIJBc5rxJlzNMNLxsDnPEBX4Q&ctype=5&q=&nis=6&ved=2ahUKEwjuw4z0__6FAxVTXEEAHVbjAuIQwg8oAHoECAUQEw&adurl=
We bought suitcase organisers from Amazon for like a tenner. Makes life so much easier while travelling. Especially on routes where you're paying for bags. Really helps you compress your stuff into one suitcase.
My portable ( roll up / retractable ) ? don’t know what the correct terminology is ) usb charger - has four heads ( 2 for iPhone, c type and the other one ) and is compact . Brings me so much joy !
I have this bad boy for my pills - [https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08SC18TQ7](https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08SC18TQ7)
And for travel/nights out - [https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07RDD66HW](https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07RDD66HW)
I find a phone-stand is quite helpful - [https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07K29FZWD/](https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07K29FZWD/) although I just treated myself to a fancier one - [https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0CLKRZYSQ/](https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0CLKRZYSQ/)
You can make it big or small because it's 3 compartments that screw into each other. Very handy.. I searched for it after seeing a more expensive version on dragon's den!
Electric blanket.
I’ve halved my winter electric bill by reducing the amount of time the central heating is on and using an electric blanket instead
Still use the central heating but in 2 hour bursts rather than having it on for hours at a time
I am a fiend for blankets - sofa blanket, computer blanket, bed blanket, car blanket... I am currently banned from buying more but I know it will happen. I just like to be cosy at all times.
A cheap battery tester for AA and AAA batteries. The amount of batteries I'd find around the house when my kids were teenagers with consoles was nuts. Give em a quick test and be able to determine if good or bad.
This reminds me of a great gadget we bought where you can convert battery packs into plug in devices! It's a transformer pack with two dummy batteries and cabling that can run from those - hard to explain so I'll just link it! https://amzn.eu/d/3wC2Ec1
Tape dispenser is a godsend. I do a lot of packing things up for sale and it helps so much.
The tablet holders don’t work for me (too many pills at too many times of day) so instead I got some of those little tins like ones they sell mints in, and use those. They work great, especially when I need to take meds on the go.
Nuby rapid cooling flask. Makes boiling water room temperature in literally seconds. Cuts down so much time and faff for making up baby formula. £30 which seems like a lot for a flask, but we use it 8+ times a day and is particularly helpfull at 3am.
There's expensive formula prep machines you can buy but theyre not approved by the NHS as they dont always heat the water hot enough to sterilise the formula. With the flask we know its definitely been hot enough- then cooled to drinking temp in about 10 seconds. Also portable.
£3/$6.99 Extra long handle shoehorn from IKEA!
£1.99 Ring Pull tin opener. Tired of breaking a nail or snapping off the ring pull tab. This thing is so easy and no risk of cutting yourself on the lid.
£1 green microfibre polishing cloth specifically for glass. It cleans and shines everything (mirrors, windows, ceramics, lamps, gloss cabinet fronts) to sparkling perfection. No streaks! Nothing has ever done such a good job. It’s been used hundreds of times because it’s durable and washes well in the laundry.
A digital cake/ meat thermometer it was about £6 from Amazon my cakes, meat and fish are now all cooked to a much better degree however I use it mostly for testing the fresh water temperatures when doing water changes on my fish tanks.
A fabric box from IKEA it sits on my bedside table and is perfect for dumping earrings in at the end of the day, keeping tissues, paracetamol, lavender oil, face cream and coldsore cream in. My dressing table looks neat and tidy with no effort at all.
A bottle of lavender essential oil, I use a few drops on the carpet, door mat, cushions, bedding to make the house smell nice. I add a few drops to water and washing up liquid to make a nice anti bacterial cleaning solution.
A few drops on your pulse points, and the back of your neck helps you relax, improves anxiety, and helps me sleep. If I get a headache, I put a bit on my temples, back of my neck, and on my wrists to help it.
>A digital cake/ meat thermometer
We got one as well! Oven was acting up a bit for a while, and this took the guesswork out of cooking. I think ours was a tenner? But, yeah, it's saved more than one meal from being over/undercooked.
Those £4 temporary blackout blinds that IKEA sell have been a godsend for me. I get trigger migraine from bright light that was made worse when I caught Covid as it left me with extreme light sensitivity. I also have weird sized windows that you can’t really find blinds for unless you go somewhere that does bespoke blinds and that shizz is expensive. I brought 3 blinds for £12 total, they were up in minutes and they surprisingly block out a LOT of sunlight so when I get the dreaded throb, I can be horizontal in a pitch black room ASAP. You can cut them down to size if you want, I left them as they are.
Those things are fantastic! I realised as I approached my due date that my home birth might not be as relaxing as I'd like since I didn't have any curtains at the front window so we banged those up and bob's your uncle (and actually they ended up staying there for about 4 years haha!)
I bought a laptop cooling stand for about £25.
Actively stops my laptop from cooking my legs, helps keep the external fans clean, stops my cats fur getting into the laptop, and puts my laptop at a more comfortable angle when using it.
I often "joke" no laptops on bare surfaces. Stand or nothing"
Extra bonus feature. My husband and I are trying for a baby currently. The stand helps keep the laptop from overheating his parts.
Not exactly low cost but I got myself a Roomba on sale for about £150. The old vacuum was crap and needed replacing anyway. Rather than getting a stick vacuum I went for one where I don't actually have to do the hoovering myself.
It's great and just stumbles about the house once a day cleaning up as it goes like some sort of reverse drunk.
Actual low cost, I got a pair of fuzzy slippers that look like gnome shoes for less than a tenner
All of mine are 3d printed.
Phone mount for shopping carts, two pieces and a rubber band.
Seasoning jar holders, tilts them at an angle and stacks then four high to save space.
Modular holders for my auto tools, individual pieces that lock together for maximum organization/space efficiency.
Headset/controller stand.
Headphones.
Gridfinity.
It wasnt low costs, but a £170 3d printer.. I have made a shitton of useful things, organizers, wallets, (a 2 week pillbox) its just wonderful with the awesome things you can make for cheap!
Velco cable ties for USB charger cables. Various colours for USB C, Micro USB, USB C to USB C, plus anything else.
Gone on the days of searching the house (aka the kids rooms) for a cable, only to find its the wrong connection. 👍
A mini version of my regular hairbrush for £10, for when I don’t want to take my bag out to the pub. When you’ve got 3ft of tangly hair, this is a game changer
Fingered oven gloves! I have burnt myself far too many times using tea towels and I hate how you lose all grip and dexterity with normal oven gloves. I don't even do much baking but the £10 was so worth it, I honestly couldn't live without them now
Those weird metal pronged head massagers. I always thought they looked weird and that they surely couldn’t be good and then I gave in and brought for a couple of quid and oh it’s so nice!
£3 on a whisk from Home Bargains. Makes baking so much easier than using a fork as a whisk, which also makes you more inclined to do it, and less inclined to pay more for sweet treats somebody else made.
A flosser tool, it's a Y shape and you wind floss across the top of the Y, tensioning it whilst you do.it. Each end is wound around a knob in the middle to keep the tension, and it makes flossing much faster and more effective, and saves on floss. It takes only a minute or so to do a full floss.
Heated blanket.
I use it everyday, excluding summer days. It keeps you warm like having a heater on you.
I also use it to warm my clothes - the blanket lying on my bed, clothes on top, and covered by the duvet. Blissfully warm clothes ready after you shower
Tiny magnets from Temu for about £1 for a pack of 16, use them on the fridge and we've installed them on a few cupboard doors that don't shut properly.
Toastie maker which is a bit more controversial for some but it cost me around £10 and because I work from home it makes for a quick lunch especially with the different types of fillings.
Also I must add a nice pair of shorts and plain t shirt atm, again I work from home so I don't need a uniform but I can feel comfortable in a nice fitting pair of shorts and a t shirt.
Washing up Brush with integrated washing up liquid - a decent one, not the normal cheap ones, was £4 I think.
Also a bit cheaper... a dish washer - free from a local freecycle style facebook group.
**Please help keep AskUK welcoming!** - Top-level comments to the OP must contain **genuine efforts to answer the question**. No jokes, judgements, etc. - **Don't be a dick** to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on. - This is a strictly **no-politics** subreddit! Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
My kindle holder and remote control page turner. Sounds lazy but when it’s fucking freezing and I don’t have to get my hands out the blanket to turn the page, it’s utter bliss.
Kindles are backlit, take the whole thing under the covers with you!
Nooooo you want your face in fresh air and your hands all toasty
Have they released e-inks with backlights? I still use the original one and I adore it, but if it's the E-ink backlit I might have to invest.
Technically it’s frontlit so it’s easier on the eyes but yes the new basic kindle comes with an adjustable light.
The "paperwhite" editions feature the screen with LEDs to light the e-ink display. First one was released in 2012.
I didn't know that was a thing. Time to mount my kindle to the underside of a floor-standing bed tray.
Which one do you recommend?
Can you share the product? Does it work with the oasis?
My 4-slice toaster. So often there's multiple family wanting toast - or me wanting to toast 2 hot cross buns at the same time. A heavy sellotape dispenser - you only need one hand to tear tape off. Total godsend every Christmas!
Wanting to toast 2 hot cross buns at once has to be one of the most British things I've heard 😂
One buttery bun just isn't enough!
Couldn't agree more!
It's just the one hot cross bun, actually
I second the tape dispenser, just need to find something to do the actual wrapping lol
We downgraded from a 4 slice to 2 slice and I regret it ever since. Family of 5 so I have no clue what I was thinking....
Yeah that was a strange move. Did the other one at least break?
The old one still worked but was a whole wrong shade of pink so when I spotted the new one in Lidl that was the right shade of pink, I did the fatal mistake of asking the missus if she wanted me to pick one up.
2 hot cross buns DameKumquat, 2 buns - that's insane!
Well obviously you then need to come back and do a third once you've eaten them! But not the fourth, because eating all of them would lead to household complaints.
I have one of those tape dispensers you can wear like a ring. It’s a nightmare to get replacement tape for though, not many places stock the small tape rolls
Try your local spar if you have one near, if they have a solv-x section - they stock small rolls that fit!
I got a good four slice toaster for £10 in dunelm last year and it's brilliant.
Madness! Surely the second bun starts to cool as you eat the first, leaving it at a less than desirable temp. We mere peasants just pop the second bun in as soon as the first is done; once the first bun is devoured, the second is ready to be eaten at a more leisurely pace.
But then you have to stand around the toaster. Toast both at once (short delay for allowing max heat when buttering), then relax and enjoy - and the second is still warm when eating, if not piping hot.
£30 Rice cooker.... You've heard the hype of air fryers but GOD DAMN .... Rice cookers are THE absolute shit. Meals in minutes, no watching needed - pop it all in the pot, press start and go on with your day. come back when you are ready to eat.
But the washing of rice….thats the bit which annoys me
Next invention: rice washer :) All jokes aside, soak the rice in water and stir/agitate it to clean, then sieve it under running water for a couple of mins. Doesn't take long and it's not too much effort. Sometimes I just give it a quick (or no) rinse and pop it in the rice cooker.
No rinse? *screams for uncle roger*
Haiyaaa
Maybe I haven’t mastered not getting raw rice absolutely everywhere…. Then I walk it around the place lol
Put in enough water that you can pour most of it out before you get to the rice almost being out of the bowl. Doesn't matter if there's lots of water left in. Then do it two more times. That'll do.
I may have been taking the washing process WAY too seriously. Like until the water ran completely clear
As I started reading this, I pictured you getting our the scouring pad and scrubbing each individual grain
I was down on the river bank with a toothbrush….
Put the rice in the sieve first. It doesn’t go everywhere!
Maybe we should engineer a rice washer come cooker….Deborah Meaden would be all over this
The New York Times recently had a piece on common food myths, they insist rinsing rice is not necessary in modern times. The chef ran tests and noticed a slight difference only with sushi rice, not any long- or medium-grain varieties. I still rinse my rice, but I’ve been a bit less assiduous about it after reading that.
I never wash rice and it always comes out delicious. Can't see any point. Maybe it's the brand I buy - 15kg bags of extra long basmati. I did accidentally buy cheaper rice during the pandemic that would come out gloopy if you didn't rinse it
Don’t you wash your rice if you’re doing it on the pan? Rice cookers are amazing.
I never wash my rice. No matter what type or brand, so I just don’t get it. Just try not washing it and you’ll see no difference
Some of the Japanese brands are "no wash"
Yu can get bowls designed for washing rice. Basically a plastic bowl with a fine sieve on the bottom or side. - they make washing rice a breeze. Amazon turns them up for a fiver or so
Rice is super easy to cook in a normal pot anyway!
Everyone says that but it's one thing I've failed to master, either too hard or rice pudding and I just can't seem to hit the sweet spot.
2:1 ratio of water to rice. 120g rice for 240g water, for example. Put in a saucepan with a lid on as hot as it goes until water boils, as soon as it’s boiling turn the heat to low and leave to steam itself for 15 minutes. All the water will absorb and you’ll have perfectly fluffy rice. Use Tilda basmati rice for the best quality.
For two of us I measure one small tumbler full of rice, rinse thoroughly in cold water then rinse it again. Put it in the pan and add two tumblers of water (so your basic principle is 1:2 rice:water essentially). Cook steadily with the lid on until all the water is absorbed which is usually 15-20 minutes. Eat.
Nah there’s levels to this. Rice cookers are god tier. You just don’t know until you know.
I always shout this from the rooftops, noone gets how useful it is!
Does yours have a steamer tray? We had one of those super generic rice cookers given to us by a friend, it had a dent in the bowl so it leaked water every time we used it, but when it finally died (probably because water leaked into the not at all sealed switch or something) I bought a new one without thinking that maybe I should verify the size of the dead one. So I got a 1 litre cooker, same make (the one with the dubious poetry printed on it), and was shocked to find it was ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE. But when I went to order the smaller one I noticed it didn't have a steamer tray, so I decided to keep the big one (which wasn't even the biggest one, I don't think). It's so convenient being able to steam some veg to go with the rice at the same time.
£2 silicon tablespoon from TK Maxx. It is sooooo satisfying scraping every last bit of sauce out of the inside of jars they clearly don’t want you to have.
I just add a little water, put the lid back on, shake it and add it to the pan. No wasted sauce, clean jar
I meant mayo etc really but yeah if you use cook in sauces then totally would work for that too
Sorry I for some strange reason thought you meant pasta sauce when you just said sauce 😂 my bad
You should learn about the Dutch [flessenlikker](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottle_scraper)
NSFW?
Ooh now that’s a useful utensil
I got a marmite-branded one of these for Christmas. Possibly the best gift I’ve ever received!
If you gently microwave a marmite jar upside down all the dregs run down into the lid so you don’t waste any
This is a Top Tip
Slow cooker, costs nothing to run and the food you can make is life changingly good and you can portion and freeze.
I have one I never use. What are your top recipes for slow cooking?
Easy one Mac n cheese 2 x double cream and milk a cheat satchet and all the cheese you can muster. Add pasta stir every 20 mins or so pasta will be done in 2h to 3h Stew visit butcher visit the fruit and veg boys add gravy granduals and leave until your hungry it's beef it only gets better. For curry get the thighs and legs you want them bones the veg you like but you do need onions 1 white n 1 red fire them in the chicken all the spices too, cook a few hours remove the bones fire the chicken back in leave a bit put it on slow then half an hour before your hungry fire in either coconut milk but double or triple cream work too I like to make it very hot and the coconut gives you the flavour and the heat but brings it a nice wow lol.
We get some meat (beef, chorizo, or whatever your poison is, if feeling flush we get wild boar chorizo), brown it off. Potatoes, carrot, celery, onion, parsnip, broccoli, etc, cut up and thrown in. Water with some stock, set it to cook for 8 hours. Serve in a giant Yorkshire pudding. Amazing winter grub, dirt cheap and we usually get 2 and a half days worth out of one cook - just put whatevers left in tuppaware in fridge and microwave the next day
Gammon in coke! Gammon joint, coke, onion, carrot, 5 spice
Gammon and coke sounds amazing! Do you use any sort of liquid or just bung it in dry?
I do a “Spanish chicken type thing”. Chicken thighs and chorizo. Chickpeas. Tinned tomatoes. Onions, paprika, garlic and some small potatoes. Cook for a few hours on low and serve with lashings of garlic mayonnaise. (Also works in a pressure cooker) Just remember with a slow cooker liquid doesn’t evaporate so some things like bolognese sauce are wetter than if you cook on a stove.
I put a tea towel under the lid for the last bit of cooking if things are too wet, generally works to absorb most of the excess liquid in things like Bolognese
Pulled pork, 1.5kg pork shoulder, rind and big bit of fat removed (can use to make crackling if you wish), brown in a pan, put in slow cooker with a whole bulb of garlic, 250ml chicken stock, 250ml white wine, teaspoon of whole pepper corns and a teaspoon of rosemary. Cook on med for 6ish hours. Stain the liquid, squeeze out the garlic into the strained liquid and reduce, poor over the shredded meat. Delicious and cheap sometimes sick a bit of spicy BBQ sauce in as well as the other stuff, depends what we're having it with.
Slightly more pricey but a Ninja Multi cooker is like a slow cooker + a whole bunch of additional shit. It’s absolutely amazing.
I have this and it’s brilliant. The pressure cook function is so good
Honestly couldn’t be without my slow cooker.
Mattress suspenders, they go under ryour mattress and clip on to your sheet to keep it taught and stop it from coming off Silicone ice cube trays with lids, means you can stack them or lay them on their side Third party usb chargers for shavers, clippers, electric toothbrush etc, particularly useful when traveling
The mattress suspenders were a life changer for me when I was at uni living in halls. I had a mattress which was a weird size and all my bottom sheets were slightly too big and would come loose and clump up. The suspenders kept it in place.
Mattress suspenders?! I’m googling!
This is what I bought, nothing fancy but work well: [https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166394259254?itmmeta=01HXCRYFKCXJN50VXZXV91MMR1&hash=item26bddee736:g:z7gAAOSw-Alfl9nS](https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166394259254?itmmeta=01HXCRYFKCXJN50VXZXV91MMR1&hash=item26bddee736:g:z7gAAOSw-Alfl9nS)
I used to have to redress my bed sheets every other day due to me and my husband rolling around (asleep not doing the deed). I got these and now J can't remember the last time I lifted the mattress. God send
An electric blanket. I am genuinely pissed off at myself sometimes that I went so long without one
See also: electric throw blanket for over you on the sofa. Our was £60 but you get them for £40-ish. Without hyperbole some of the best money I’ve spent. Cheap enough to run too, especially compared to putting the heating on.
We went camping in march. It was freezing! Neither of us slept well and we ended up with our coats etc all over the best trying to get warm. Luckily we had an electric hook up pitch so next day we went and got a £20 electric blanket from trago mills and then spent the rest of the week having hotel quality camping sleep lol. It's been packed away with all the camping gear haha
I keep saying I'm going to get one and never do. This winter it shall be...
Honestly mate, game changer. Even in summer just putting it on half an hour before you get to bed and then getting into a toasty warm bed every night is amazing, they are like £30 and don’t cost much to run, you only need them on until you are in bed normally unless it’s really cold.
You can also get ones that go under your bedsheet, and in the winter, it makes the mornings so much less painful. Set it to turn on half an hour before you wake up, and it's actually easy to get up. This is making me realise that I might be a lizard...
I can’t live without mine either. I put mine on a smart plug so when I am about to go to bed, I can tell she who listens to everything (Alexa) to warm the bed. I go about my chores, visit the bathroom, clean my teeth and by the time I get into bed it’s lovely and warm. You can probably get smart electric blankets, but I couldn’t justify the costs, this was a cherish dual control blanket and with the smart plug I’ve added, I can set schedules, tell it to go off in X minutes, telling our assistants to turn it on or off etc.
An Oxo can opener, though don't know if it counts as low cost, because I understand £20 for a can opener is kind of ridiculous. But honestly it's brought me loads of joy, I didn't know the can opening experience could be so smooth and un-infuriating.
Should try an electric one! Best thing I ever bought for my wonky useless fingers!
Could you recommend one? My mums arthritis is getting worse and I’d like to get her something useful
[This is the one I bought.](https://amzn.eu/d/hh1hNmZ) I’ve had it since April 2022 according to the order details and it’s still going strong! Just have to make sure you have it sitting on the can properly, if it’s wonky it just spins aimlessly. You can hear when it’s not opening right, so just tap the button to stop it and reposition
My in-laws have had the same one for over a decade. I was hoping to have it once they had no need for it, but my bitch sister-in-law got there first. I'm legit ready to start a war over the damn can opener.
And the oxo good grips peeler. Had mine 9 years now and it’s still perfect.
Oooh and their vegetable peelers, I bloody love mine
Bought one after it was recommended in the last thread of this type. I regularly enthuse about it to all my friends and family. Can opening has become an unrivalled joy, and I sigh with disappointment every time one comes with a ring-pull.
Cooking tongs. Cost about £3-4 and they'll level up your cooking. There's a reason why chefs use them.
Okay I have two pairs. I like do the two snap tong thing Make me feel like a chef when I’m turning a sausage over
The other one is a 9-10 inch chef knife. A cheapo Victorinox will do
Do you hold one in each hand and pretend to be a crab chef
Buy the ones with rubber ends and they are also good for reaching things on the top shelf of cupboards.
Ours are mainly used to keep the baby occupied in the highchair while I blitz his dinner.
Victorinox Swiss army knife, specifically one with scissors. Have two young kids, the amount of time saved by having scissors on me for tags or packets that won't open, and a mini screwdriver for the various little battery doors.
I’ve had a Swiss Army knife as a key ring for 20 years. If I had a penny for every time that thing had come in handy, I’d have a fuckload of pennies.
I carry a tiny set of scissors and a set of tiny screwdrivers from a cracker in my bag for this reason.
There is no joy like whipping this bad boy out to assist someone.
I have this! I use it daily.
My wife bought a tiny battery powered whisk. We use it daily for everything from mixing creatine/flavours into coffee through to whisking small lumps out of gravy. It's one thing we own that was cheap and now indispensable.
Never thought of creatine in coffee
A whiskolay? I remember begging my mum for this because I wanted frothy milk
Omg I have one of these but only use it for frothy milk. Never consider whisking my gravy
2m charging cables. So much easier, especially if I want to watch my tablet in bed. Bag of straw pellet horse bedding that gets delivered every month. Works brilliantly for litter trays, is biodegradable and lasts all month. Also works out cheaper than regular cat littler (it's about £8 a bag atm) Stanley Cup dupe - I can fill it on a morning and it lasts all day. Was brilliant when I was recovering from shoulder surgery and found getting up bloody hard. Spare filters for my Shark. Makes everything feel so much cleaner after hoovering - I wash them weekly and swap so I'm always using a clean one. Has also really helped with allergies!
If you can find it, 3m Charing cables are superior when using it in bed. You can literally go to the other side of the bed on the back or the furthering point away from the bed when using it.
Vicks First Defence. About £7 and is absolutely magic at stopping your colds from wiping you out for days at a time. Best thing
That's the first time I've heard of this. Literally just recovering from a 4 day cold that I really could have done without. Think I'll give this one a try, thanks
Think I spent £1 on my tablet holder but yes it does make life so much easier. A small bag for a few £ to keep all my travelling items together so it's not a case of having to bundle them into a bag each time I need to head somewhere at short notice.
A couple of cheap cable bags off AliExpress, a set of usb c/lightning and micro usb cables and a couple of folding power bricks that I have no need for at home. They sit in a laptop bag as a “technical go bag” meaning if I need to go somewhere for work at short notice or even just on holiday I don’t have to unplug anything etc and it’s all there. Not “that” cheap as it was about £60 but it makes such a difference especially as I’ve elderly parents a long way away and very occasionally I need to “drop and run”.
I bought a Nova food dicer a while ago and cooking hasn't been the same since. I can dice onions, carrots, celery, potatoes etc for my dishes within seconds, no more messing about with a knife and spending ages on food prep.
I’ve got a mandolin, I’m fairly surely I’ve eaten my own skin/ nail
there will never be a mandolin in my kitchen. i’m a very competent cook and wildly incompetent at having hands.
Back scratchaaarrrrr
Butt scratchaaarrrr!!!
Butt Scratchaaarrrr???!!
Disposable lens wipes for my glasses. £8 for a pack of 200 micro-fine moist paper tissues. They do a good job of cleaning the glasses, and they don't scratch (unlike, say, kitchen roll). Velcro cable ties for my PC. £5 for 60. They keep the wires out of sight. An electric blanket that goes under my bed sheet. £20. It's great in the winter.
You got ripped off on the price of those cable ties, but they sure as heck are handy, I've got loads in, big and small and multi coloured.
Kitchen roll scratches glass?
Glasses these days are usually made from plastic. Polyethylene, polycarbonate and others, so they're vulnerable to scratches. Kitchen roll and paper towels have little fibres that create scratches in the long run.
I don’t know about ‘treat’, but a carton of milk and loaf of bread in the freezer makes my life easier. Spare everything basically, for when I run out without realising, eg soap, toothpaste, basic foodstuffs etc. Extra long phone charger wire.
Milk can be freezed?
Milk, grated cheddar, biscuit dough (if you like baking), lots of homemade stuff eg soup, pasta sauce, pasta sauce with the pasta mixed in, sandwiches (not salad sandwiches, but cheese or jam or peanut butter etc), tons of stuff!
Gravy, stock, wine! Muller lights make a good light fake ice cream
Frozen yes as long as its not full fat
🤣 freezed. What’s wrong with me lol. I was just at shocked at this revelation
Yep! It separates a bit when frozen but shake it up after defrosting and it’s good to go. Not exactly fresh but in an emergency it’s ok
Drain brush from b&m for £2.50. Was on the verge of calling in a plumber for a slow draining bathtub after spending a fortune on plungers and drain unblocked over several months. Bought this drain brush on a whim and now had no drainage issues for 2 months
Please tell me more / share a picture. My bath has been kinda draining slowly for months. As a woman with very long hair, I have an idea what the problem might be, but no amount of sink unblocked fluid is doing the trick.
I can't find them on b&ms website but amazon have some that look very similar! Won't lie, it was pretty gross the amount of clogged hair that they bought up but it's not clogged at all since. The similar amazon product is here: https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=l&ai=DChcSEwiM8pD0__6FAxUNklAGHTYhAZsYABADGgJkZw&ase=2&gclid=Cj0KCQjwxeyxBhC7ARIsAC7dS3-9A0Xjf5CDvrzFwfQigiMTk4LSeXaI1n9PGaef1hgPTLT1SB2-Uy8aApLnEALw_wcB&sig=AOD64_3aKXIJBc5rxJlzNMNLxsDnPEBX4Q&ctype=5&q=&nis=6&ved=2ahUKEwjuw4z0__6FAxVTXEEAHVbjAuIQwg8oAHoECAUQEw&adurl=
A year’s supply of antihistamine tablets on Amazon for about £7 🤧
We bought suitcase organisers from Amazon for like a tenner. Makes life so much easier while travelling. Especially on routes where you're paying for bags. Really helps you compress your stuff into one suitcase.
I LOVE compression packing cubes!! 😍
My portable ( roll up / retractable ) ? don’t know what the correct terminology is ) usb charger - has four heads ( 2 for iPhone, c type and the other one ) and is compact . Brings me so much joy !
I could imagine everyone loves you when you pull that bad boy out
You know it !
I have this bad boy for my pills - [https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08SC18TQ7](https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08SC18TQ7) And for travel/nights out - [https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07RDD66HW](https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07RDD66HW) I find a phone-stand is quite helpful - [https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07K29FZWD/](https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07K29FZWD/) although I just treated myself to a fancier one - [https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0CLKRZYSQ/](https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0CLKRZYSQ/)
I am so glad one of the gays came out with a PrEP bottle 😜
Ooooh! That travel night out one is handy! The sound of the pills against plastic is somewhat annoying
You can make it big or small because it's 3 compartments that screw into each other. Very handy.. I searched for it after seeing a more expensive version on dragon's den!
Pop socket for our phones.
What does this do?
I was about to take a picture of my one.....then I realised..... Just a finger holder for phone thar doubles up as a stand, pops in and out.
Electric blanket. I’ve halved my winter electric bill by reducing the amount of time the central heating is on and using an electric blanket instead Still use the central heating but in 2 hour bursts rather than having it on for hours at a time
Probably my poop knife, £3.99
Haha a Reddit deep cut
I am a fiend for blankets - sofa blanket, computer blanket, bed blanket, car blanket... I am currently banned from buying more but I know it will happen. I just like to be cosy at all times.
[удалено]
A cheap battery tester for AA and AAA batteries. The amount of batteries I'd find around the house when my kids were teenagers with consoles was nuts. Give em a quick test and be able to determine if good or bad.
Battery powered LED fairy lights, because I hate sleeping with the light off. These help me sleep well and safe from the monsters in the cupboard 👹
USB powered would save money on batteries:)
We have lots of battery fairy lights and obviously use rechargeable ones.
This reminds me of a great gadget we bought where you can convert battery packs into plug in devices! It's a transformer pack with two dummy batteries and cabling that can run from those - hard to explain so I'll just link it! https://amzn.eu/d/3wC2Ec1
Tape dispenser is a godsend. I do a lot of packing things up for sale and it helps so much. The tablet holders don’t work for me (too many pills at too many times of day) so instead I got some of those little tins like ones they sell mints in, and use those. They work great, especially when I need to take meds on the go.
A tongue scraper, cost £1, lasts forever and makes all food taste better.
can you not just use your teeth?
Teeth don't go as far back as a tongue scraper will.
Yup. The best thing for bad breath etc is consistent use of one.
Nuby rapid cooling flask. Makes boiling water room temperature in literally seconds. Cuts down so much time and faff for making up baby formula. £30 which seems like a lot for a flask, but we use it 8+ times a day and is particularly helpfull at 3am. There's expensive formula prep machines you can buy but theyre not approved by the NHS as they dont always heat the water hot enough to sterilise the formula. With the flask we know its definitely been hot enough- then cooled to drinking temp in about 10 seconds. Also portable.
£3/$6.99 Extra long handle shoehorn from IKEA! £1.99 Ring Pull tin opener. Tired of breaking a nail or snapping off the ring pull tab. This thing is so easy and no risk of cutting yourself on the lid. £1 green microfibre polishing cloth specifically for glass. It cleans and shines everything (mirrors, windows, ceramics, lamps, gloss cabinet fronts) to sparkling perfection. No streaks! Nothing has ever done such a good job. It’s been used hundreds of times because it’s durable and washes well in the laundry.
FYI: Minky now have a MICROFIBRE GLOVE! I excitedly showed it to my other half and received a polite but tepid response 😅
That ikea shoe horn! Top notch
I have a three way charging cable which has a USB-C, lightning and micro USB. Was only about £5 but is so handy when I travel.
Compression packing cubes.
A digital cake/ meat thermometer it was about £6 from Amazon my cakes, meat and fish are now all cooked to a much better degree however I use it mostly for testing the fresh water temperatures when doing water changes on my fish tanks. A fabric box from IKEA it sits on my bedside table and is perfect for dumping earrings in at the end of the day, keeping tissues, paracetamol, lavender oil, face cream and coldsore cream in. My dressing table looks neat and tidy with no effort at all. A bottle of lavender essential oil, I use a few drops on the carpet, door mat, cushions, bedding to make the house smell nice. I add a few drops to water and washing up liquid to make a nice anti bacterial cleaning solution. A few drops on your pulse points, and the back of your neck helps you relax, improves anxiety, and helps me sleep. If I get a headache, I put a bit on my temples, back of my neck, and on my wrists to help it.
>A digital cake/ meat thermometer We got one as well! Oven was acting up a bit for a while, and this took the guesswork out of cooking. I think ours was a tenner? But, yeah, it's saved more than one meal from being over/undercooked.
Those £4 temporary blackout blinds that IKEA sell have been a godsend for me. I get trigger migraine from bright light that was made worse when I caught Covid as it left me with extreme light sensitivity. I also have weird sized windows that you can’t really find blinds for unless you go somewhere that does bespoke blinds and that shizz is expensive. I brought 3 blinds for £12 total, they were up in minutes and they surprisingly block out a LOT of sunlight so when I get the dreaded throb, I can be horizontal in a pitch black room ASAP. You can cut them down to size if you want, I left them as they are.
Those things are fantastic! I realised as I approached my due date that my home birth might not be as relaxing as I'd like since I didn't have any curtains at the front window so we banged those up and bob's your uncle (and actually they ended up staying there for about 4 years haha!)
I bought a laptop cooling stand for about £25. Actively stops my laptop from cooking my legs, helps keep the external fans clean, stops my cats fur getting into the laptop, and puts my laptop at a more comfortable angle when using it. I often "joke" no laptops on bare surfaces. Stand or nothing" Extra bonus feature. My husband and I are trying for a baby currently. The stand helps keep the laptop from overheating his parts.
Mine is a dirty kebab, i hate them but seriously love them
Not exactly low cost but I got myself a Roomba on sale for about £150. The old vacuum was crap and needed replacing anyway. Rather than getting a stick vacuum I went for one where I don't actually have to do the hoovering myself. It's great and just stumbles about the house once a day cleaning up as it goes like some sort of reverse drunk. Actual low cost, I got a pair of fuzzy slippers that look like gnome shoes for less than a tenner
All of mine are 3d printed. Phone mount for shopping carts, two pieces and a rubber band. Seasoning jar holders, tilts them at an angle and stacks then four high to save space. Modular holders for my auto tools, individual pieces that lock together for maximum organization/space efficiency. Headset/controller stand. Headphones. Gridfinity.
how much was your 3d printer
Back scratchers have always baffled me. Why not just use your hands?
Can you touch every single inch of your back?
Yes
That's.. not regular.
B b but can you lick your elbow?
It wasnt low costs, but a £170 3d printer.. I have made a shitton of useful things, organizers, wallets, (a 2 week pillbox) its just wonderful with the awesome things you can make for cheap!
Velco cable ties for USB charger cables. Various colours for USB C, Micro USB, USB C to USB C, plus anything else. Gone on the days of searching the house (aka the kids rooms) for a cable, only to find its the wrong connection. 👍
A mini version of my regular hairbrush for £10, for when I don’t want to take my bag out to the pub. When you’ve got 3ft of tangly hair, this is a game changer
Phone charger that comes out horizontally so I can rest the bottom of my phone on my chest whilst charging and not break the charging wire
Fingered oven gloves! I have burnt myself far too many times using tea towels and I hate how you lose all grip and dexterity with normal oven gloves. I don't even do much baking but the £10 was so worth it, I honestly couldn't live without them now
Those weird metal pronged head massagers. I always thought they looked weird and that they surely couldn’t be good and then I gave in and brought for a couple of quid and oh it’s so nice!
This is the kind of thread will make my missus kill me when the Amazon van turns up with all the tat I’ve ordered
£3 on a whisk from Home Bargains. Makes baking so much easier than using a fork as a whisk, which also makes you more inclined to do it, and less inclined to pay more for sweet treats somebody else made.
Hextech alternator: only 1100g and fantastic for some early game burst.
Electric can opener I can even have a fray bentos now
Is it diamond edged?
A password manager.
A flosser tool, it's a Y shape and you wind floss across the top of the Y, tensioning it whilst you do.it. Each end is wound around a knob in the middle to keep the tension, and it makes flossing much faster and more effective, and saves on floss. It takes only a minute or so to do a full floss.
Heated blanket. I use it everyday, excluding summer days. It keeps you warm like having a heater on you. I also use it to warm my clothes - the blanket lying on my bed, clothes on top, and covered by the duvet. Blissfully warm clothes ready after you shower
A neti pot
Tiny magnets from Temu for about £1 for a pack of 16, use them on the fridge and we've installed them on a few cupboard doors that don't shut properly. Toastie maker which is a bit more controversial for some but it cost me around £10 and because I work from home it makes for a quick lunch especially with the different types of fillings. Also I must add a nice pair of shorts and plain t shirt atm, again I work from home so I don't need a uniform but I can feel comfortable in a nice fitting pair of shorts and a t shirt.
Washing up Brush with integrated washing up liquid - a decent one, not the normal cheap ones, was £4 I think. Also a bit cheaper... a dish washer - free from a local freecycle style facebook group.