What is your favorite under-$10(ish) kitchen tool/helper/doodad?

Messermeister serrated peeler.
No more boiling peaches for pies and jams.

Yes, Bevi, the bamboo tongs, thanks for mentioning those . . . . you could get good ones at Cost Plus for under $2, last I checked.

Very old vegetable peeler, tongs, wooden spoons, microplane.

My trusty flat wire whisk - I have two sizes and use them constantly. They get to the edges of a sauce pan much more reliably than a balloon wisk.

We are both cooks and In a 2nd relationship. We combined 2 well stocked kitchens. So I've been looking at the most used low cost pieces. I think it's a pair of locking tongs.

Dollar Store hand held grater. 😊

I like hand knit cotton dishcloths. Great texture for wiping down counters and such.

mini offset spatula

Bench scraper, whisk, or rubber spatula.

Is this for a fluff article to insert your own merchandise? Or are you really just curious, lol. You could pick a few of these handy dandy kitchen helpers and write an in-depth article about the inventor, state of manufacturing, interesting facts, etc. Include recipes with ginormous photos strewn within the article that use said products for click bait.

A combination peeler/julienne cutter. It looks like a 2-headed peeler with a peeling blade on one side and a julienne blade on the other. Indispensable! I think I paid around $10 for it.

any one of my sharp kiwi knives. or my piece of rubber thingy that helps me open tightly closed lids on jars.

My handheld milk frother. It works great for mixing cream into coffee and for making hot cocoa. Between my husband and me, it gets used several times every day.

Hands down my very old vegetable peeler. Not only for vegetables, curls of chocolate, peeling fruit: apple peels (add whole cloves, water and simmer for a warm, cozy seasonal scent) and add orange peels for an extra burst, zucchini ribbons, shreds of cheese, endless uses! BB

Hands down the little silicon pot sleeves that I slide over the blazing hot handles of my oven-safe sauté pans. My husband, after the 57th time hearing me shout strings of unprintable curses after making a frittata (or anything else) and forgetting the handle was approximately the temperature of the surface of the sun, ordered me some. Now neither my hands, nor my children's ears, are scorched.

I love my flat whisk. It gets into the corners of a pot when making custard, it serves as a kind of sub for a slotted spoon to lift things (hard-boiled eggs for example) out of hot liquid, it fits my small hands. I reach for it much more often than for my balloon whisk.

I got one of these microplane grating cubes. I haven't tried it out yet but there is always something that needs to be grated.