Frugal Products that have Improved My Quality of Life

I mentioned this in the introduction for a reason. I love it! It boils a little over 6 cups of water in a matter of minutes. And when I say boil, I mean boil. This thing doesn’t get the water luke warm, it gets it to a raging boil.

I wasn’t even a big drinker of tea before I bought this, but now that it’s so easy and cheap to get a cup going at night, I can’t resist having a cup or two after I get home from work.

A few reviewers have claimed that there is a plastic taste in the water, which I have never noticed. Take a look at the reviews, but judging from how hot the water gets I can’t imagine any plastic taste remaining after the first couple of boils.

If you’re that worried you can try this stainless steel one. Although it’s a bit more, it’s also cordless, which I imagine would be nice :)

Since there are two of these, you actually get 240 tea bags. That comes out to $0.09 per cup of tea. If you think that's a lot, seek medical help immediately :)

I like to alternate which flavor I take each time I make a new cup. I generally leave the next flavor flipped on top of the rest to keep track of it.

Seriously, combine this with the above tea kettle and you're sure to develop a healthy new addiction :)

And at this point, I realized I was a hipster. First the tea, now incense? I've even started reading the newspaper and drinking coffee. Yes, it could be happening, but I have embraced it. After all, I still haven't started listening to dub step.

On a more serious note, I'd say there are around 12 per box in this set, but I admittedly haven't been counting. That comes out to around $0.12 per stick, each of which lasts around an hour and a half. I'd say 4 of the scents are great, one is very good, and one is okay. I stay disciplined, as with the tea above, and rotate them out though, so I'm not even sure which is the one I don't like. I think it may be the sandalwood.

One of them has a nice Christmas smell, and one smells like a freshly burning fireplace. This is a great way to stimulate the senses on the cheap!

Perhaps it's a little expensive for just a holder, but I didn't want a wooden one. I wanted something solid, and this is definitely it. It's hard to see from the picture, but there are actually 5 holes for holding multiple incenses, but I never use that "functionality".

If you plan on burning a lot of incense, this is a nice investment that will never break. My only complaint is sometimes the holes aren't tight enough depending on the incense stick size (which varies, even within the same package), so the stick will hang over the edge. Usually a bit of tweaking can prevent this. Plus, I'd rather it actually fit than be too small for half the sticks.

If you hate cooking (I'm lazy), this is for you. Heck, if you love cooking you'll probably get even more out of this. If you tend to eat out to avoid cooking, you'll save a lot of money buying ingredients for the slow cooker.

Having a slow cooker will change your life. There are tons of recipes that let you literally throw a bunch of ingredients in, start the thing, and go to work. When you come home it will be as if the gods gifted you with a delicious, hot meal.

Actually, the only problem is that you can make so much food that you have to force yourself to eat it all before it goes bad. And by day 5 of eating the same stuff meal after meal, you'll probably be ready to make something new. This is a feature, not a bug.

Just talking about this thing reminds me of all the meals I've cooked in it. Now I'm extremely hungry.

I made the mistake of buying an $8 pair of speakers for my mini media center in the living room at microcenter (which was a horrible experience in general, but I digress). I threw them away in less than 5 minutes.

These speakers are by no means expensive, but for their price they get loud, and the quality is much better than you'd expect for the price. I'd say the ideal situation for these is if you want to improve your crappy TV speakers or laptop speakers for parties. Obviously, if you're an obsessive audiophile you probably won't like these. Then again, if you're an obsessive audiophile, you shouldn't be reading this far into the review anyhow.

Ready to splurge (I call it investment)? These speakers are for you. I decided a little while ago I was ready to step up my audio. I love music and was tired of being cheap when it came to the quality of my equipment.

These things sound fantastic, plain and simple. The highs are crisp and the bass is strong and punchy. I will give one caveat though: the mids aren't as powerful as the lows and highs. For music I find this is not a problem, but for movies it can cause dialog to be drowned out by loud special effects. Usually I am able to just turn down the bass and treble and turn up the volume to even it out, but I didn't want to recommend the product without you knowing this.

If you think this will be a problem, here's another speaker set I was looking at before I decided to go with these. I have never listened to them, so I can't vouch for them. They are $40 more, but from my understanding they are more well-known and accepted in the audiophile community. If you do end up trying them out, please let me know what you think.

I got tired of my phone's alarm not actually going off when I set it (like today, for instance), so I decided to get a simple, reliable alarm clock. It has automatic daylight savings time adjustment, and oddly enough was preset when I got it to the right time.

It's pretty standard, but one of the things I love about it is the snooze function is 10 minutes, which seems perfect to me. Again, much better than my 3 minute snooze on my phone. Actually, the more I talk about it, the more I hate my phone.

It's attractive enough, and the big display makes it easy to see from across the room. If you need a reliable clock, look no further!

An umbrella is like a plunger, you never think of buying one until you need it. I had run around for years buying those $10 umbrellas in convenience stores when it was raining, until I finally got fed up with them lasting a day before breaking.

There's not much exciting about an umbrella, but this one gets the job done. It's relatively inexpensive, holds up well, and is large enough for my needs. It came with a little carrying bag as well, which I never use.

If you don't have a good quality umbrella yet, do your future self a solid and get one of these. When I purchased this, there was a black version. They may just be sold out of that color, so if the current colors don't tickle your fancy check back later. The other good thing is that the company that sells them has very good customer service, so if you don't like the product they will likely be good about giving you a refund (I had to return another product through them in the past).

I decided to go ahead and get one of these because the heating in my room is incredibly unpredictable. One minute the radiator is on and the temperate is fine, the next minute it's off and I'm freezing cold.

The great thing about this little gem is it lets me quickly change the temperature in my room. The adjustable knob lets me get to the perfect temperature without having to rely on strange combinations of my fan combined with the radiator in the room.

If you find yourself getting cold in your room often, I'd highly recommend this.

If you don't have an Ikea store near your house, or don't want to go on the verge of killing yourself by actually visiting one (yes, it's 1000 times worse than you could ever imagine), these lamps are awesome. When I bought it they were $25 a pop, which it looks like you can still get if you choose a different vendor (but I like using Amazon Prime).

I'm almost hesitant to recommend them, because there's already an epidemic of Ikea furniture in every household. Never the less, these things put out a nice soft light, have a handy foot on/off switch, and appear to take up a lot of space for the price.

One thing I'd recommend is not going with the overpriced Ikea bulbs. You can use 40 or lower wattage candelabra (chandelier) bulb in these just fine, and they are like 4 for $1 at Walgreens.

This is a nice little desk. I guess my only complaint about glass is that it appears to get dirty faster. Other than that, this was definitely worth the money. It's quite sturdy, and glass does look nicer in general.

A warning though: when you go to put this together, don't be arrogant and assume you know which way things go. I wasted an hour putting parts together the wrong way because I thought I was too smart for the instruction manual. Turns out I am not smart. I am stupid.

I can hear the "WTF"s already. I know, I know, it's an airbed. Not exactly the pinnacle of frugal investment strategy.

Let me tell you about my motivations for getting this. I was subletting for two months and I didn't want to go through the hassle of purchasing an expensive mattress and having to move it shortly afterward. What this mattress made me realize is I love having a Queen sized bed.

Now I'm sure you're worried that this thing wouldn't be comfortable to sleep on. And if you already have a mattress, I'd say "why are you even reading this?" But I can assure you this thing is quite comfortable, and I have had other partners sleep on it with no complaints. I was originally going to get this mattress topper to help firm it up, but once I actually tried out the mattress I decided I didn't even need it!

Again, if you already have a mattress, you probably (read don't) need this. But if you are in a transitional period, or perhaps need something for a guest room, this thing is really comfortable and firm for the price.

This is a horse head mask. It currently resides on my desk lamp in the corner of my room. It stares into my soul.

I bought this for Halloween without realizing it's nearly impossible to have a conversation with someone while wearing a horse head mask.

Was the purchase worth it? I regret nothing.

As I mentioned in my airbed review, I've had my eye on this for a while. I think once I bite the bullet and purchase a full sized mattress, this will definitely be bought shortly thereafter. I've heard it has the same effect as a tempurpedic mattress for a fraction of the price.

I've wanted a netbook for a while now. I'm a writer by hobby, so the idea of an uber portable laptop where I could go and write anywhere just makes me giddy. I already have a perfectly good monstrosity of a laptop, so I can't quite justify this purchase as of yet. A man can dream, can't he?