Dropped $4 on a sheet pan at Goodwill in Kalamazoo and it turned my basement into a parts washer
Back in high school we built tray ramps with whatever the lunch ladies left out, and I still think that was peak free engineering. Last winter I paid $4 for a dented sheet pan at the Goodwill on Westnedge in Kalamazoo, mostly to catch oil drips, and now it's my main tray for sorting bolts and soaking carb parts. Funny how a bent pan beats the $30 plastic tray I grabbed at a parts store a while back. What's the cheapest thing you've bought that ended up being your go-to work surface?