$8 garage sale crock pot saved my Super Bowl party and I almost walked right past it
I grabbed a beat up crock pot at a church sale in Dayton for $8 thinking it was probably junk, but my $60 new one died mid-party so I plugged the old one in as backup. It kept 6 quarts of chili hot for 5 hours while the fancy one sat dead on the counter, and now the cheap one lives on my counter full time. What is the cheapest thing you almost skipped that turned out to be your best kitchen find?
That line about the fancy one sitting dead on the counter is the real lesson here. The old ones were built with thick ceramic and simple parts, so there is nothing much to break in the first place, while the new stuff has circuit boards and timers that quit after a couple years. My mom's 1970s crock pot is still going and it has one knob, which is all you need to keep chili hot for a party.