Best Deals Under $25

This dishwasher detergent from Presto! is a CR green choice, meaning it has a lower environmental and health impact, based on its ingredient transparency and ability to clean. While it isn’t among our top 10 dishwasher detergents, it received an excellent score in our tests for how well it removed a caked-on purée of foods from glass dishes. Its formula contains enzymes to help break up food debris from dishes and is bleach-free.

Dreft Pacs do fairly well in our ratings for single-dose laundry detergent pods/pacs. They received excellent scores in removing blood and chocolate and very good scores for removing body oil, dirt, salad dressing, coffee, and grass. According to the brand, its formula is gentle enough for washing babies’ clothing and is “lightly scented.”

Quilted Northern’s three-ply toilet paper is the strongest TP we tested. It’s linty, though, and takes a long time to disintegrate, so isn’t great for sensitive plumbing.

This static spray performed well in our tests and has an artificial, but quite light, scent. It was a few bucks less on Prime Day, but if you are sick of static cling and don’t want to rely on dryer sheets, this could be a great tool to keep on hand.

This budget-friendly butter crock has a retro look, akin to something you’d find in an antique shop. It’s dishwasher safe and comes in a plethora of colors, including robin’s egg blue, classic red, sapphire blue, and white.

If you want a microwave popcorn maker, this BPA-free model was our favorite from our evaluations. It’s glass and dishwasher safe. But note that it works only with microwaves with a turntable.

This handy nonslip silicone mat comes with measured markings that can take the guesswork out of baking. The food stylist and cookbook author Jesse Szewczyk loves to use this silicone mat for rolling out dough to specific shapes and doing so much more. “Need a 10-inch circle for a pie? Or an 11-inch square for shortbread?” he says. “Just check the mat! Not only does it help make measuring easy, but it’s nonstick and makes cleanup a breeze.” The best part? You can roll it up and take it to the sink—no need to clean the countertop—and just as easily stash it in a drawer when you’re done.

Our grill expert recommends these sheet pans as the perfect accessory for transporting food to and from the grill and the kitchen. He uses one for raw food and the other to bring everything back once it’s cooked. And while hand-washing is recommended to avoid discoloration, he cleans them in the dishwasher on the sanitize cycle after he’s used them to hold raw meat. He even says the resulting discoloration has not affected their performance, and he’s owned them for over a decade.

The Sweet Alice grinders operate differently from other sets we’ve tried. When you invert them, as you would with a manual pepper grinder, the mills automatically start up. They have soft LED lights that beam toward the area you’re seasoning. And the high-volume reservoirs are attractive, too: You can see right inside the mills. We appreciated the even grind, even on coarse settings, and found them to be quite easy to fill. They were among the most difficult of these grinders to clean, though.

The Anker Nano is particularly pint-sized, at just 3.6 ounces. It receives solid marks for charging speed, both when it’s charging a device and when it’s being recharged at the wall. And it has two USB-C ports, including a foldable male USB-C port you can plug directly into your phone—no connecting cable needed. The Anker Nano only has enough capacity to fully charge an average smartphone from zero battery about once or to top it off a few times—so this wouldn’t be the charger to take on a days-long trip. But it does have handy LED lights that show you its battery status, so you know when it’s time to plug it back into an outlet.

Much like trackers made by Samsung and Tile, Apple AirTags work best if it’s within Bluetooth range (roughly 30 feet) of your own phone. But, that said, there are millions of iPhones and other Apple devices roaming around out there that can pick up a signal and discreetly convey it to you when you find yourself searching, say, a park or a school campus for the keys you dropped. Is the tracking pinpoint accurate? No. But it’s close enough to give you a huge head start in your search.

These towels are perfectly acceptable entry-level towels. They’re made from extra-long combed Turkish cotton, so they’re somewhat soft, but because the pile is thin and light, the Company Cotton bath towels from the Company Store don’t exude elegance and luxury. Those who prefer their towels to have a more textured surface should consider these, as should folks who want good-quality materials without a big price tag. It’s one of the most absorbent towels we tried, yet also nears the top of the list for drying time. So while it isn’t the most spa-like towel, it nevertheless has superb performance.

The Guohaoi Cooling Blanket offers strong cooling performance and features a similar smooth, swimsuit-like feel. It’s made with a nylon-polyester front and a cotton back, and includes a satin border, though the build quality and stitching are less refined than the Elegear. While it stays cool during use and doesn’t retain heat, issues like the loosely attached layers and less comfortable design make it a less compelling option than the Elegear Cooling Blanket, which costs a bit more right now but performs a bit better.

If you’re looking to store your winter clothes, vacuum storage bags can be a great way to get them out of the way without taking up a ton of space. And this set of three from MagicBag could be a good option, especially for under $10. While these bags did require a big, more physical effort to seal, our evaluator noted that they didn’t have caps on the valves, which made it easier to use them overall. And with the zipper, one side is blue and the other is yellow—it turns green when it’s closed properly.

Lauren Kiesel, a senior user experience researcher at CR, tried this Tangle Teaser pet brush on her cockapoo (a cocker spaniel and poodle mix) puppy. She found the brush to be gentle, and the shape gave her different grip options as she maneuvered around her pet. It handled basic brushing with ease, but she had to use a sturdier wire brush to tackle more intense matting.

Need a litter box and don’t want to spend a lot? This is a great option, especially with the extra savings (even if it’s just a small discount). It could be the perfect way to keep your pets happy if you have a multi-cat home and need a multi-box solution. We tested this box with five different cats, and they all used it without any issues. In fact, the lower entrance made it easy for them to get in and out to do their business. And the snap-on lid offers a lot of privacy and helps keep litter in. But the latch isn’t super secure, so it may not be ideal if your cat is especially active in the litter box.

Looking for an interactive toy to entertain and distract your cat that doesn’t require your full attention? This could be just the thing you’ve been searching for. Here’s how it works: Insert the small rolling, tweeting, light-up ball into the mat, then sit back and watch as your cat attempts to hunt down the ball.

“I succumbed to Instagram ads for this impossibly fluffy cat bed, and it did not disappoint,” says CR health and science writer Catherine Roberts. “I can’t speak to the anti-anxiety claims, but both our cats love it and play subtle mind games over which one of them gets to claim it for days at a time. I also got one for my friends’ very picky cat, and she turned out to love it, too.” This cat bed is available in four sizes and five colors. “I prefer the unicorn rainbow ice cream color. I wish they made it in human size,” says Roberts.

The Vet’s Best Toothbrush & Enzymatic Toothpaste Kit includes a triple-headed toothbrush with a unique design. Instead of brushing your dog’s teeth back and forth and from front to back, you insert their teeth into the brush head and brush up and down or side to side while three rows of bristles encapsulate the teeth to provide three-dimensional brushing. If you’re new to this design, it could take some getting used to (for both you and your dog). The toothbrush comes with its own toothpaste, which we didn’t evaluate. 

This is a great, budget-friendly option if you’re not sure your pets will adapt from a bowl to a fountain. You can try it out without investing too much (and you can always invest more in an upgrade later on if you want). The Veken water fountain, consisting of five parts, was intuitive for our tester to assemble, and the carbon and foam filter replacements are low-cost as well, at $10 for a four-pack or $24 for 16. It was the noisiest option, but that didn’t deter the tester’s pets. And the flower can be removed for a low-profile bubbler effect rather than a raised fountain.

“I have two of these, and they’re great because they encourage the cats to drink more water,” says Amanda Arnold, senior manager of business analytics at CR. “Cats notoriously don’t usually drink enough water, so having these helps keep their water cleaner and the kitties healthier!” The fountain comes with a filter inside and is dishwasher-safe.

The Chuckit Classic is ideal for dog owners who are searching for a low-tech ball launcher. It requires no setup and still allows you to get involved in a game of fetch, but takes your natural throwing arm to the next level. The plastic handheld launcher comes with one fuzzy 2.5-inch tennis ball that is stored in its “claw,” which keeps a solid grip on it so that it doesn’t fall out. When you’re ready to play with your pup, you treat the launcher like it’s an extension of your own arm—pulling it back and then launching it forward to release the ball from the claw. 

One of the nicest things about this launcher is that you can retrieve balls (including saliva-coated slobbery ones) with the claw itself so that you never have to touch the ball with your hands.

This Biore UV Aqua Rich SPF 50 Daily Moisturizer facial sunscreen uses chemical active ingredients and delivers strong broad-spectrum protection, with excellent UVA coverage to help prevent premature aging and long-term skin damage, and very good UVB protection to effectively guard against sunburn. Its high-performing formula makes it well-suited for daily use as well as extended time outdoors, offering reliable defense in a lightweight, comfortable application. It’s a lotion with a citrus and lemongrass aroma, but it is not water-resistant.

This Neutrogena spray is very good in overall performance across the board, with excellent UVA protection and very good protection from sunburn-producing rays. It does not meet its labeled SPF 50 in CR’s tests, but the protection is still adequate. It has a moderately strong tropical, fruity aroma and leaves a slightly greasy film and a notable sheen on the skin.

The Arctic Air neck fan has the best airflow angle of every model our evaluator tried (and it’s not even adjustable). It’s also on the louder side, so it may only be a good choice if you don’t mind a little extra noise near your ears. This is about $5 more than the best price we’ve seen, but it is still a great price for a handy item to have on a hot day.

If you’re a fan of kebabs, skip the single-use wooden or bamboo sticks and invest in a set of reusable metal skewers. Our grill expert likes these from Cave Tools. Unlike round skewers, they keep even, really tender foods (like scallops) from spinning, making it easy to turn each kebab. And the raised racks keep the kebabs just above the cooking grates to prevent scorching, which is particularly helpful for foods like chicken, which takes a while to cook to a safe internal temperature.

This bundle is a great deal for both products, but if you prefer to just buy one or the other, the individual products are both on sale separately as well.

These colorful, extending s’more sticks are both fun and practical. Because they’re color-coded, it’s easy to tell whose is whose. They extend to almost 3 feet, and when you’ve had all the s’mores you can eat, they retract for easy storage.

The Brightech Pro Solar Powered Outdoor String Lights are the best in class in our tests, with above-average marks for light duration and a top score for ease of use. Long and widely spaced, these lights provide flexibility. You can run the strand as is for more subtle lighting or double up the cord to concentrate more of the light in a tighter space. Each of its 12 separate Edison-style oval-shaped bulbs has 24 LEDs, resulting in exceptionally bright light. The lights can’t be manually charged, but they do have replaceable batteries and an on/off button to preserve power.

It’s hard to compete with the value offered by the Gigalumi Grid Solar Pathway Lights. Their cost is lower (on a per-light basis) than just about any other path light we’ve seen, and yet they earn solid marks for both light duration and ease of use. The lights cast a dimmer glow than the other products we tested. But that may not be a deal breaker if you’ve got supplemental lighting elsewhere or you’re using these strictly to create ambience. There’s a single setting, an on/off button, and a removable battery, but the lights can’t be charged or angled.

Veken Packing Cubes provide great bang for your buck, though they are a few dollars more than we’ve seen recently. This set has the largest capacity among the cubes we tried, and you get eight different ones to stay organized: four small, medium, large, and extra large, a laundry bag, a shoe bag, a toiletries bag, and an accessories bag. The laundry bag, in particular, is on the larger side, which can be a real asset when you’re on a longer trip.

You can save a few bucks on this packing cube set from Amazon. The cubes come in small, medium, large, and slim. Overall, the quality is reflected in its name: It’s good but basic. And though it might not have extra features such as pockets or buckles, the Amazon Basics 4-Piece Packing Travel Organizer Cubes Set is perfect for people who don’t want to deal with too many cubes and just want something simple and functional.

If your wallet can use a little tidying up, consider taking a slimmer approach. Think of the Vulkit VC-104 as a low-risk stepping stone toward minimalist wallets. Featuring an aluminum case with an elastic front pocket (that’s great for folded dollar bills or coins), the wallet is available in a wide range of colors, including two-tone.

Traveling and want to stay safe and secure in your hotel? Keep this handy flashlight in your luggage to detect urine or other substances in your hotel room or Airbnb.

The Alcedo digital thermometer earned top marks for accuracy and consistency, and despite its very reasonable price, it’s packed with features. This model can be used as an in-ear thermometer and, when an included cap is affixed over the probe, it can also be used as a forehead thermometer. It isn’t used with disposable plastic probe caps, so it needs to be thoroughly cleaned after every in-ear use. But our testers found that it was quite easy to clean. The memory recall on this thermometer stores up to 20 temperature readings. You can also use the forehead mode to measure the temperature of objects, such as bottles of formula.