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People share 30 things they bought for under $300 that have significantly improved their lives

"A wagon for groceries! OMG!"

Image via Canva

People share affordable products under $300 they use daily that have significantly improved their lives.

Frugal shoppers are always on the lookout for good deals to save money. And buying items on a budget that actually prove to be good quality and truly useful is a rare combination.

In a Reddit forum, member @MedfordQuestions posed the question: "What’s something you bought (under $300) that noticeably improved your quality of life and you actually use every day?"

Smart shoppers happily shared the best buys they've made that have had the biggest impact and improvement on their day to day lives. These are 30 of the best products under $300 people use daily that have significantly improved their lives.

 shopping, bargain, buying, buy it, shop Ill Take It Brandon Scott Jones GIF by CBS  Giphy  

"Tons of answers, but today I'm saying curved shower rod. Cost maybe $15 but it pretty much added two full feet of space at shoulder-height and my shower doesn't feel claustrophobic anymore." —@far_tie923

"75 yr old retired lady with my car parked away from my condo front door. A wagon for groceries! OMG! Thankful for it every time I use it. Also, it came in really handy taking my toddler great-niece for her first Trick or Treat!" —@pook1029

"Surprisingly, an electric toothbrush. I kinda thought they were a waste of money until I got one for Christmas about 8 years ago They actually do an incredibly good job." —@STLGentleman111

 electric toothbrush, electric toothbrushes, electric toothbrush gif, dental, dentist Camera Teeth GIF by Big Brother 2022  Giphy  

"A vacuum robot - especially if you have pets. An air purifier - stopped sneezing every morning as soon as I woke up. Automatic cat feeder - now I just refill (and provide wet food) and its easier to control portions." —@catfvb

"A good ergonomic desk chair. Didn’t realize how much my back was suffering until I upgraded total game changer." —@Nintengodboi

"Noise-canceling headphones. They give me peace of mind whenever I need a break from everything." —@UsefulIdiot85

 noise cancelling, noise cancelling headphones, headphones, cancel noise, no noise Season 6 Headphones GIF by Parks and Recreation  Giphy  

"Leatherman multi-tool. It has saved me in so many situations and is essential when I'm at work." —@Quicky-mart

"Blackout curtains for my room. Absolutely improves my sleep quality, especially during the times of the year when the sun rises earlier." —@lilmemer3132

"I started taking vitamin d3 5000iu daily (with magnesium and vitamin k2 for absorption) because i read it'll help my psoriasis. Didn't help my psoriasis, but my lower back pain was gone. Like poof, disappeared. This might not work for everybody, but it worked for me. All for some cheap vitamins." —@uncultured_swine2099

 socks, matching socks, spongebob, buy socks, new socks spongebob socks GIF  Giphy  

"Throw out all your socks and buy a bunch of identical ones. Never have to worry about matching again." —@DismissDaniel

"A really good pillow!" —@Sunlover67

"For me it was my walking pad for under my desk when I WFH! I am obsessed with it. Before I would sit all day and then feel rushed to immediately get outside and moving after work. Now I walk while I work and have so much more time to do stuff with friends and family after work because I'm multi tasking. I'm also the leanest I've ever been!" —@FairCandyBear

 walking pad, walking pad gif, home walking pad, indoor walking pad, steps Motherhood GIF by mom culture®  Giphy  

"A fitbit. Since I bought my first fitbit ~7 years ago, I move more overall, am much more active, and feel better. Proof? I'm currently on a 1673-day streak of >10K steps/day, my base heartrate is 53, and I'm 70 years old." —@DrGail106

"I have 3 laundry baskets in my trunk for shopping and groceries. It’s much easier to carry in a real full basket than lots of bags. I also find it helps in keeping my car organized and I get to organize the baskets when I put the groceries in the cars." —@morningchampagne

"I recently bought a charger with two USB-C ports and one USB port. I love the flexibility of charging my phone, watch, and something else with one box!" —@TrumpetsGalore4

 good sleep, pillows, pillow, cuddle pillow, sleep sleep gif  Giphy  

"Pillows between your legs. I use a king at 6’0 and adjust based on if my knees like it more if the whole body. The amount of stress it takes off your hips and back is ridiculous. Also a cuddle pillow, which is what I call a super soft pillow I wrap my arms around. Great for your shoulder, and also, obviously, great to cuddle." —@BooksandBiceps

"Kindle. I got mine maybe a month before covid hit and it really helped to keep me entertained during lockdown. I've read over 100 books per year since getting it." —@steff-you

"Coffee mug warmer. Daily at work. It’s the little things." —@ChrisShapedObject

 bidet, bidets, bidet gif, bidet toilet, bidet vs toilet homer simpson episode 23 GIF  Giphy  

"Bidet is THE answer in the summer especially." —@Resident_Letter_214

"Bought a weighted blanket and my sleep improved 100%." —@Single-Zombie-2019

"Adopted my dog for £165 from the shelter. Pure joy every single day." —@Urban_Peacock

 screw driver, electric screw driver, electric screw drivers, screw driver gif, screws Shoot Shooting GIF by Stavario  Giphy  

"Electric screw driver for $15 is my favorite product of the year - built a whole kitchen of Ikea cabinets." —@GUmbagrad

"Zojirushi rice cooker." —@Neerolyte87

"Said it elsewhere, an extra freezer. So good to have the extra space!" —@Nastyoldmrpike

"A Tilley hat. I've had mine for about 10 years. It's been through oceans, pools, rivers, lakes, waterfalls, washing machines...and it still looks brand new. Still has a lifetime warranty. Still has a warranty protecting it against being lost. AND it fits my large, misshapen head. Best $100 I ever spent." —@crunch816

 dental floss, dental floss gif, flossing, floss teeth, flossing teeth Maggie Gyllenhaal Teeth GIF  Giphy  

"Dental floss. Learned my lesson after one root canal. My mouth is so much healthier. I can’t go to bed without flossing or my teeth feel disgusting." —@grptrt

"Prescription eyewear from online seller (ie Zenni). My optomitrist quoted me $ 600 + tax (CAN $)for the lenses alone - not including new frames ($ 375 + tax for the ones I liked). Instead I bought a style of frame I had been wearing for years, and including my complex and somewhat high progressive prescription it was about $ 150.00 USD including shipping. I wear them everyday, have had many complements and best of all I CAN SEE. This was a life changer." —@Kindly-Can2534

"A milk frother. I use it to froth my half and half every morning, the husband uses it to mix pre workout, I use it to mix flavor packets into carbonated water and I use it to mix chocolate collagen in milk for chocolate milk. I’ll never live without one and they cost $10." —@Toby-the-foodbambino

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Yes, there's blood in this tampon commercial. And yes, it's awesome.

More of this, please.

Too often, you'll see something like this in an ad for tampons.


Photo via iStock.

White shirt, white sheets, white everything.

Or this.

Photo via iStock.

What is that mystery blue liquid anyway?

This probably looks familiar.

Photo via iStock.

"Let's go with pink," says every person making a decision about the color of feminine hygiene packaging.

And this monstrosity?

Photo via iStock.

Wow, we get it already.

For the most part, tampon commercials don't really know how to sell their product in innovative, stereotype-busting ways.

Sure, sometimes they can be clever. But all too often, they rely on obnoxious notions about gender and female fragility and try to hide the fact that menstruating is not, in fact, fun. Like, there's such a thing as a "happy" period? And why is everyone twirling in white yoga pants all the time?

Admittedly, promoting a product that involves blood and genitalia can be a hard sell.

"I'm not saying that I want to see blood in tampon commercials," Dodai Stewart once wrote for Jezebel. "I don't know what I want to see. And it seems like the ad execs don't know either."

But there's got to be a better way. Right?

That's what makes this new tampon commercial so fantastic.

Unlike most other feminine hygiene ads, it doesn't shy away from showing some blood (albeit in an unexpected way):

The ad — promoting the U.K.-based Bodyform's Red.fit campaign — depicts what the website Elle India describes as "the strength, the ferocity, and toughness of blood on women" without awkwardly resorting to flower petals, weird blue liquids, or models with perfect teeth.

Ad execs: More of this, please.

Family

If you see the 'Safer Choice' label at your local market, now you can know what it means.

True
Seventh Generation

Bad news, folks. Your house? It's kinda dirty.

But you're not alone. The world is a dirty place, and every time we step into it, we bring home morsels of its muck.

GIF from "Chappelle Show."

As do our housemates.

Image by Nikolas J. Britton/Wikimedia Commons.

And all that dust? That's the dirt we track in, our hair, fibers from carpet, bedding, clothing, and upholstery, food crumbs, dander, bug poo, and who knows what else.

GIF from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

And sometimes we're just clumsy, messy, germ-y people.

Maybe just ... get used to hard-boiled.

That's why we clean. But we don't just do it to keep our homes sightly. It's also good for our health.

There are billions of bacteria living in our homes — some potentially harmful. And they love gettin' cozy on the surfaces we come into contact with the most.

Photo by Rachel Zack/Flickr.

Cleaning doesn't just protect us from disease-causing germs — it can even boost our health.

An Indiana University study revealed links between home cleanliness and physical fitness. Researchers found that the tidier the participant's home, the more likely they were to lead healthy and active lifestyles.

Ironically, a lot of the products we use to clean are potential health hazards.

It can be hard to determine at times because under current law, companies that make cleaning products don't have to print full ingredient lists on their packaging.

Photo by Maz Ali/Upworthy.

You can squint your way through tinily printed precautions, but vague references to "other ingredients" aren't very helpful with choices about our health or the environmental impacts of our cleaning products.

The EPA thought we needed a better way to find safer cleaning products. So they started their own label.

Yes, like the Berry Gordy of the cleaning aisle, they scouted top talent from both environmental groups and conscious companies in the industry to launch Safer Choice.

Image via the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency/YouTube.

The Safer Choice label means every single ingredient in the product was reviewed by EPA scientists and cleared as being safer for public health and the environment.

They don't only evaluate products for chemical toxicity. The agency's criteria also covers labeling transparency, energy- and water-saving potential, packaging sustainability, and even products' ability to make a long-term positive difference.

Image via the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency/YouTube.

Oh, and seeing as how they're cleaning agents, they also test them for performance so consumers can get exactly what they expect.

Sure, cleaning's a chore. But if we can do it without potential risks to our health or the planet, well, that's worth a little jig.

So fresh. So clean.

Watch a quick primer on the EPA's Safer Choice label:

Family

Let's talk tampons and everything that is — and isn't — in them.

True
Seventh Generation

Behold, the humble tampon! An innovation so essential and effective that Consumer Reports named it one of the "50 small wonders" to revolutionize lives of consumers.

If you're a woman of reproductive age, there's a good chance a tampon has come in handy for you at least once. Image by iStock.

Historians credit the invention of modern applicator tampons to Earl Cleveland Haas, who patented the Tampax tampon in 1931 and sold his ideas to a sales conglomerate in 1934. But Haas was hardly the first person to think of internal solutions to managing menstruation. Women have been making their own tampons for hundreds — if not thousands — of years. Ancient Egyptian women used soft pieces of papyrus; Roman women used wool; Equatorial African women used bundles of soft grass. It seems as soon as women reach reproductive age, they're looking for ways — other than pads — to hide menstruation from everyone else.

That's one of the things that makes tampons so unique. They are discreet, super portable, and undetectable under clothing. They have a small waste footprint and, once governments finish getting rid of ridiculous luxury taxes, will be available for the same cost as pads.

Pads from the 1950s could also double as floatation devices in the event of an aircraft water landing.*

*This is not true, it just feels like it could be.

But for as long as they’ve been available commercially, tampons have been the subject of concern and controversy.

It’s not surprising why. Using a tampon is deeply personal. It is closer to our body than anything else, and our use of it implies a massive amount of trust and good faith.

Which is why when stories come out about tampons being unsafe, they really resonate.

To understand some of the historical context around our relationship with tampons, we need to head back to the 1970s.

It was a magical era of liberation, disco, and using high-tech synthetic fabrics in absolutely everything — even tampons.

In 1975, Proctor and Gamble started test-marketing Rely, a tampon made, for the very first time, without cotton or rayon. Instead, Rely substituted a mix of synthetic fibers to create a super high-absorbency product promising women more freedom by allowing them to wear a single tampon for up to a day.

Rely made bold claims, and they should have been tested. But right at the same time, Congress reclassified tampons from "cosmetic products" to "medical devices" in order to impose stricter regulations. Somehow, Rely managed to slip through the cracks.

In 1978, the Berkeley Women's Health Collective raised concerns about Rely tampons, particularly over how their synthetic ingredients could damage vaginal walls and create a breeding ground for bacteria.

Sadly, their fears were warranted. By 1980, toxic shock syndrome caused by high-absorbency tampons, including Rely, had killed 38 women and sickened more than 800 others across the United States.

Since then, there’ve been big changes in how tampons are made and regulated.

Tampons sold in America aren't made with synthetic fabrics or additives anymore — only with cotton, rayon (absorbent cellulose fibers made from bleached wood pulp), or a blend of the two.

For some people, that's still cause for concern. The issue you've probably heard the most about is dioxin — a byproduct of chlorine bleaching that the EPA recognizes as highly toxic and cancer-causing — and which may be found in trace amounts in some tampons. However, the FDA assures consumers that on their own, these minuscule amounts of dioxin aren't a risk to human health.

Image by iStock.

Tampon manufacturers are required by the FDA to list a bunch of information on their packaging, including information about absorbency and the risk of toxic shock syndrome, but absolutely nothing about ingredients. Any tampon companies who list the ingredients in their products are doing so voluntarily. For that, we thank them, but many people also wish there were strong ingredient disclosure regulations for even more peace of mind.

In the last few decades, there's been a lot of progress on destigmatizing periods and making "that time of the month" more manageable for women.


Sorry, Brick. This is — thankfully — absolutely not true.

It's understandable and encouraging that women are paying so much attention to and asking questions about what they're putting in their bodies. Think of it this way: The average woman's reproductive life lasts for 40 years, or about 480 periods. If she exclusively uses tampons, that adds up to an estimated 9,600 to 11,000 tampons.

With an increase in conversations around periods, there's also been an increase in options. Women have dozens of choices for managing blood flow during their periods — everything from super-absorbent underwear to silicon cups to organic tampons and everything in between. It all comes down to your preference and comfort level.

In the meantime, let's keep talking about our periods! The more open we all are about menstruation, the better.

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