For some, there’s no better way to spend an afternoon than window shopping (and maybe buying something) at the hardware store. If you’ve got a few bucks burning a hole in your pocket and you’re looking for a little direction, you’re in the right place.

These aren’t just products with a price tag under $25 that Lowe’s happens to sell. They are tools you might wish you had sooner, or include useful features you may not have seen, but that’s not all. Each product had to meet several criteria (including but not limited to positive user comments) to be included.

Maybe you want to expand your collection of tools and DIY accessories, or you’re trying to find a gift for the tool lover in your life on a budget. With a budget of just $25 and a trip to your local Lowe’s, you could walk out with something pretty cool. Here are seven affordable options to get you started.

In your garage, you might be putting up shelves, mounting pegboards, hanging heavy tools, and more. There are half a hundred reasons you may need to find a stud hidden inside your walls. That’s where a stud finder comes in handy.

The Zircon StudSensor L50 stud finder runs on a single 9V battery and can find wooden or metal studs up to 3/4 inch behind your walls. It also has a feature called WireWarning, which can detect live, unshielded AC wires up to 2 inches deep, so you don’t accidentally drill into them and cause an electrical problem or an injury.

The StudSensor L50 also has a feature called Spotlight Pointer. When the sensor detects the edge of a stud, it beeps, and the stud’s location appears on an enhanced LCD display. Meanwhile, the Spotlight Pointer shines a light in the shape of an arrow, so you know where to mark the edge. As long as you know how to use a stud finder, it can help you hang heavy things with confidence and ease.

Most major brands make measuring tapes with rigid tape and a limited range. If you’ve got an ordinary tape measure in your tool set, there’s a good chance it’s 25 feet or shorter. That’s long enough for small projects, but you might run into trouble if, for instance, you’re trying to measure your home’s exterior walls before buying paint.

The Kobalt 100-foot tape measure is more flexible and winds into the handle between uses. Not only can this tool measure much larger objects and spaces, but the flexibility also means you can use it to measure curved or irregular surfaces, and that’s not all.

A nylon coating protects the tape measure from wear and tear, while ground stakes let you secure the end of the tape and take your own measurements. This tape measure features a high-visibility design so you can see your measurements from a distance. Markings are printed on both sides, so you’ll still be able to see your results even if the tape measure gets twisted.

As the name suggests, a regular square lets you check for 90-degree, or square, angles. An adjustable square, also known as a T-Bevel, serves a similar purpose, but can be adjusted to measure a wide range of angles.

You don’t necessarily need exact measurements when you’re building a treehouse or slapping something together for personal use, but if you’re building things that have a very low tolerance for misalignment, a square and angle finder can be a game-changer. You can measure inside angles and outside angles according to your needs.

The Johnson Level aluminum adjustable square is designed to last a long time. Its handle is made of solid aluminum with an angle measuring blade made of stainless steel to minimize rusting. The handle and blade are attached with a locking bolt, so that when you’ve made your measurement, you can lock it into place and transfer those angles to your other materials to ensure they line up.

This pen-style measuring tool uses light to determine the distance between itself and another object. When you make a measurement, a laser beam fires out of the front of the tool. The beam travels at the speed of light until it encounters something like, for instance, the opposite wall of your living room. When the bounced light comes back, it strikes a sensor, and the tool determines the amount of time between when the light left and when it returned. It compares the time traveled to the speed of light and, presto, you’ve got your distance.

The WEN indoor laser distance measurer can measure distances between 1.7 feet and 32 feet with a variance of only a 1/4 inch or less. Measurements are calculated from the back of the tool, so you can put it up against one wall and measure the distance to the next.

A digital display shows you the laser’s battery level and your measurement results. It has just a single button that controls everything. Pressing the button once turns the laser on; pressing it again takes a measurement. Pressing and holding the button lets you choose either metric units or feet and inches. It automatically turns off after two minutes.

Pointing a finger is a famously poor way of showing someone what you’re looking at, especially when you’re dealing with small parts, complex objects, or when there are many objects in roughly the same space. The Klein Tools inspection penlight offers a solution to that problem.

This small inspection light offers 70 lumens to shine light into dark areas, but that’s not all. The laser mounted to the top shows up inside the illuminated space, so you can pinpoint exactly what you’re looking at. An aluminum construction and textured finish offer IP54 dust and water resistance, a better grip, and 10 feet of drop protection.

It has a removable pocket clip, like you’d find on the side of a ballpoint pen, for easy storage between uses. It’s ready to use right out of the box, and you can get 10 hours of use from the pair of AAA batteries pre-installed in the penlight. Perhaps the best feature, or at least the coolest, is the ring around the front of the light. It’s made of a similar material to the glowing stars kids put on their bedroom ceilings. The ring charges when the penlight is on, then glows so you can find it if you drop it in the dark.

A multimeter can measure various electrical aspects for a variety of professional or DIY jobs. You can use one to make sure the power is off so you don’t get electrocuted on the job. A multimeter can also be used to identify the root of a problem in your car, in your house, and elsewhere. For instance, if one electrical outlet has power and the next one doesn’t, there’s a good chance the problem is somewhere between those two points.

The Kobalt digital display multimeter can measure AC and DC power and test the leads on different types of batteries. It has seven available functions and 16 ranges, allowing you to measure voltage, current, and resistance. It should be noted that you might have problems at extreme temperatures (below 14 degrees and above 140 degrees Fahrenheit) or when the relative humidity rises above 70%.

The multimeter comes with a 12V battery pre-installed and test leads to take measurements. The power button turns it on or off, and the hold button freezes the current reading on the screen when you press it once. Pressing it again will clear the screen so you can make another measurement. Just make sure to follow all safety protocols whenever working with electricity. When one mistake could be your last, it’s best not to make any.

It’s not uncommon for a person’s garage to be poorly lit. Often, the garage door opener might be the only light in the space. If you’re looking to add more light to your workshop, the Utilitech under-cabinet lights could be a good place to start.

They come in 10-inch, 18-inch, and 24-inch sizes, and you can choose a package with either two or four lights. Built-in magnets let the lights attach to metal surfaces without tools or much effort. The under-cabinet lights can be mounted to other types of surfaces with the included adhesive backing. A small dome next to the light contains a PIR (passive infrared) sensor for motion detection and a battery charging light.

Each light offers a bar of white light, and you can adjust the color temperature with a button on the side. The lights are powered by rechargeable batteries using a simple USB-C cable. If you leave the light on constantly, you’ll get between eight and 10 hours on a single charge. If, instead, you use the motion sensor function, it could be as much as a month between charges.

Every product on this list had to pass through several gates in order to be included. The first gate is relatively straightforward and apparent in the title. Anything over $25 (before tax) was ineligible for inclusion.

The second gate was a little bit tougher; to be included, a product had to be something the average person might not have. Or, at the least, includes features that are atypical and useful. We’re sure you can find plenty of cool tools and products under $25, but you’re not here to hear that you should have a hammer. You already know that, and you (probably) already have one. It also had to be useful. Just because most people don’t have a product doesn’t mean they need it.

Finally, each product had to have someone (or a lot of someones) vouch for it. In some cases, that means a SlashGear author has used the tool and found it to be worth recommending. If someone at SlashGear can’t vouch for a product, we look to people who have used and reviewed it. To make the cut, a product had to have at least 100 reviews (usually many more) and an average rating of at least 4.0 stars.