An electric 'coffee grinder' just for grinding up spices / seeds. Don't use the regular coffee grinder, or your coffee drinking housemates will get super annoyed. The flavor, and nutrition is so much better when you cook with freshly ground spices.
A decent pen and/or pencil. I have several nice fountain pens that I use for journaling, but I use my Zebra F-301 ballpoint daily for general notes/etc. -- ~$10 for a 4 pack on Amazon. If you prefer a pencil, you can pick up a Pentel Sharp Kerry for under $20 on Amazon.
I prefer the Pilot Precise V5 as my favorite cheap and ubiquitous pen upgrade. Everyone remarks on how smooth it writes. Not the best for labels with gloss though is the only catch with it. Capped or retractable versions, and while I like the V5 (0.5mm tip) because I write smaller, they also have a V7 (0.7mm tip) for those that write larger or what bolder lines.
After that, hop on Jetpens and there are tons of <$10 pens that are way better than anything in a store, or refills to turn your favorite cheap pen into an undercover fancy pen so you don't need to worry about losing a fancier pen body. I stocked up on so many great pens, and now I have a job where I hardly ever have to write and I really miss getting to use my pens all day. The cheap office pens skip and are so scratchy it feels like drawing on dirt with a stick in comparison.
That's a great tip about the "undercover fancy pen!" I hadn't even thought about that, but I'll definitely be doing it now!
A coffee cup warmer. No more getting up from my desk to nuke cold coffee.
Get a double walled cup, i can have hot coffee for 4 hrs and warm for another 2-4 hours
Those are stupid cheap at the thrift stores and there's always one there.
A key wallet ; Keep your keys organized, stops them from jingling, can put smart cards in it too. Easier to hand off to friends to borrow. I hate jingling keys.
Orthotic shoe inserts. The good ones (superfeet) cost more than $20 but I was able to use my HSA $ to buy another brand for $0 out of pocket. Feet not hurting is worth the money.
Foam roller. I roll out my back 2-3 times a day.
Can you tell I'm getting old?
A usb-rechargeable battery bank that doubles as a hand warmer. Comes in handy for computer time in the cold basement and during a power outage, was extremely useful to charge cell phone
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