Five Gadgets You Never Buy But Can Always Use

If you’re like most people, there are a few gadgets you wish you had picked up before you realized you ran out of them or needed them most. Here’s a list of a few gadgets people wish they had along on a trip or stored away somewhere at work or home.

Power Packs for Your Phones
They don’t cost that much or take up that much space, but they could sure save you from a dead phone battery situation. Most of these will cost you around $20 or $30 and provide hours of battery use. Some are built into a case while others offer solar or wind charging.

Ink Cartridges
You can usually get a much better price online than you can at your local pharmacy, so instead of waiting until the ink runs out at 9:00 at night, why not plan ahead and order a set of cartridges to have on hand when the low-ink indicator flashes on your screen?

Memory Cards for Cameras
In case you never upgraded the low-capacity memory card that came with your camera, you might do well to buy an inexpensive card to take along on your next outing. Nothing is worse than being forced to sacrifice an old photo or video so you can take new ones.

Extra Phone Chargers
They don’t cost much money. But when you forget to plug your phone in at night and end up at work with a dead phone battery, you’ll wish you had an extra charger in your desk drawer.

Power Strips with USB
You can get these from many vendors, but Monster makes a nice one for charging devices like a laptop or a Garmin and USB accessories. It sells for around $20. You can use it at home, in the hotel, or make it easy to convince someone at the airport to share an outlet with you.