25 Best Budget EDC Gear Options Under $20

welcome back everybody my name is Tyler Martin this is the best MATC and it's time for another video on budget gear I've done a lot of budget stuff lately I've just been on this budget kick because a lot of people for a long time said I only talked about expensive gear which one isn't true at all but also because while my tastes have changed and expanded and kind of gotten a little pricey a lot of a lot of gear I carry is pretty expensive there's also plenty of budget gear that I still carry and stuff that won't break the bank and is just as good if not better sometimes than the really expensive gear more reliable sometimes and of course more easily replaced this video was originally gonna be like ten must-have pieces of EDC gear under 20 bucks but it really just turned into hey here's a whole bunch of stuff that you can buy for under 20 bucks and it's all quality stuff well mostly quality stuff but some of it stills just worth having even if it's gonna fell on you sometimes you'll see what I mean with all of that said let's do the damn thing let's start with multi tools because that's probably gonna be the smallest category in this whole video because multi tools by their traditional name like this something like a Gerber dime those are typically going to be far more expensive than $20 so under $20 you're looking at a much more limited selection there are plenty of options out there but one of my favorite little micro multi tools the Leatherman Micra is thirty bucks so under 20 bucks options are limited a lot of people spend a lot of money on the little pocket pry tools made of titanium and all sorts of other gear all you really need at the end of the day it's just a little piece of metal something like this right here this is the night eyes doohickey it's got a few different tools on it which I find not really super useful but as a pry tool little impromptu flathead for a camera plate or a bottle opener this thing has been great they're only like four bucks you can find these at Walmart sometimes not mine apparently you can find them at Lowe's these things are widely widely available in very expensive at all but I would say be more popular little pry tool keychain do dad is from Gerber it is the Gerber shard and this is a little more robust it's definitely more of a pry tool it's curved on the end and it actually has a nail lifter whereas this one is just a little flat pry tool this one actually has a groove there where you can actually get under nail and pry never really had to use one for that but you have a Phillips head on this one as well the bottle opener I found on this one is a little questionable really it just kind of tears the bottle of cap this one clips on your keys using this big lanyard hole here my biggest problem with the Gerber shard is how uncomfortable it is to carry put this on your keys it just kind of never lays flat with everything else and if you carry in your pocket you've got this this hump it's always kind of in the way so the Gerber shard is a very popular tool also only five bucks give or take it's gonna do everything that the Lynch Northwest all-access pass is going to do and more and it's you know less than a tenth of the price it's like a 15th if the price now moving away from just a little pocket prize you have one of the most common Swiss Army knives and carries especially on keychains the Victorinox classic SD it is a tiny tiny little multi well this is the a locks version and I should note I don't have a version of the classic SD that's under $20 but I wasn't gonna just buy one for this video just because I had classic scales instead of metal this is the a locks version it's about 25 the plastic version you can get for around 16 to 20 so they come in a bunch of different colors and graphics and stuff in fact blade HQ has a mermaid version of this knife which I do own as well but I wasn't gonna include that either anyway all you get on this tool is a very small blade you have a nail file and a flat head and a pair of scissors and a little split ring for your keys this thing is very very slim very lightweight very inconspicuous but it can also just get the job done you need to cut a little something with some scissors or a knife you got a tiny little knife and for me the main reason I've ever really carried a classic s D is the scissors the nail file that's really about it really solid option for about 16 bucks they are as the name suggests a classic highly recommended well for me to the one that I've always used always and as you can see it's been through it this is the Gerber dime and this is more along the lines of your traditional multi-tool now these also can go up to $25 but I have regularly found these for 1516 bucks more recently they've gone up in price and I'm not really sure why that is but typically these are under $20 so I'm including it in this you've got a pair of scissors you have a little flat head as well as a file I have a metal and a wood file I believe you have another flat head here on the inside you've got full set of pliers you have a bottle opener and lanyard hole here and then you've got your knife a package opener and I believe that and it has served me well for a while it was my little fishing tool it's a small little pocket multi-tool it's not heavy-duty it's gonna be light duty work only but those are the multi tools I would recommend under 20 bucks probably the biggest selection under $20 it's going to be pins because you have your zebra f30 once you have your paper may ink joy's the pilot g2 g2 minis there tons of pins that are just perfectly fine under 20 bucks but once you start looking into more once you start getting into slightly nicer pins and still staying under that $20 it does filter out quite a bit pretty quickly but I would say these are probably the most common and the reason for that is because they're just rock-solid the most common I would argue is the Fisher Space Pen pulley at least in the EDC world because it is so compact and it's just darn reliable they write on anything anywhere anytime upside down underwater in space it doesn't matter these things just right and that's because they have a pressurized refill inside and they were designed for space not the bullet necessarily the original space pen was but the bullet is just a very compact very Karia bullpen the problem I've always had with Fisher space bins is that the ink refills are a little blotchy they skip a lot while you're writing but they're also so easy to lose trave ex and and you can buy one with a clip but tray of X also has version of it the flat cap but there are just so many different versions of the Fisher Space pin bullet and they range from like 15 to 20 dollars you can also go up in price well over $20 if you want to get a titanium version or a copper version they can get up to 60 70 even a hundred plus dollars for a Fisher Space Pen aside from the Fisher Space Pen you have two very similar options here I would say the more robust option that I would choose is the zebra f70 one if you also have the Parker daughter this is what I modified for my budget carry video the best EDC under $100 I acid etch this thing which kind of mucked it up a little bit it's a little sticky now solid pin the Parker dryer insert is one of the most loved out there you can put just about anything inside this you can put a Schmidt ez-flo 9000 ash Neider Julian there are tons of different refills you can put inside this pin and the f70 one is really cheap this is six dollars compared to about 8 to 12 14 15 dollars depending on which version you get the f70 one is just six bucks the refills inside them are a little less Universal I guess you could say the refill inside this one is the g18 it's a little less common but two pin itself it's a zebra it's gonna write beautifully and these at 6 dollars are a steal this one is also a really great option but pins really are just gonna come down to personal preference and how you like to write what works best for you for me I like to go very compact on pins so if I were to choose one I would probably go with this tray VAX version of the Fisher Space Pen just because I like the flat cap but also the matte black finish you can get this one in a matte black finish with a clip as well but I would go with one of the Fisher Space pins with a fine refill in it instead of the medium but that's just me these are just some of your best options for pins under 20 bucks there are dozens maybe even hundreds of really great flashlights to buy under $20 but these would be the ones that I would recommend my personal recommendations however are the i3t and the Iowa just throwing that out there the other option for mow light is an i3 eos which is a twist triple-a so it's kind of like the middle ground between the i1r and the i3 t it's a twist triple-a flashlight this one is probably the limit of what I would want to carry on my keychain but it would be great for a keychain flashlight because if it does die you can just pop another matter in there no matter where you are you can find a triple-a anywhere and that's gonna be the case with any of these triple A's and why people like Triple A flashlights so much for me personally I like something I can recharge for me my favorite budget flashlight is the i1r and it's because it is so so tiny you can put this on your keychain and totally forget about it it's like it's not even there and it isn't super bright I think you get about 150 lumens out of this one this brightest setting and it's only gonna last for about 20 minutes but in a pinch this thing has been a lifesaver that low mode is plenty for finding stuff in total darkness and when you need a little extra light this 150 is actually fairly bright and you're not going to get much more output out of any of these you're just gonna get longer run times the lumen tops cool triple-a is the one that I carried for my budget video and I mentioned that I did not like this light the reason for me is just the interface is opposite for what I want you can't do any momentary on with this light so you have to fully press it on and then select your mode the O light is the opposite you can half press and select your mode and then full click to have continuous on I prefer the way that Oh light does that but this flashlight is honestly perfectly fine there are very very similar flashlights this one's more compact but they're both around the same price these are both twenty dollars this IDE leaves about ten bucks and this one I think I got this one for the video this is the luma top EDC oh one I think I got this one for seven bucks but this one is gonna be very similar to your whole life you've got plenty of options under $20 for flashlights but lumen top tool and a light would be my two brands that I would say stick to under 20 bucks these are the ones that I would recommend so when it comes to keys and key solutions and key organizers and keep clips and ways to attach things to your keys or better ways to hear your keys there are a billion options under 20 bucks you can spend way more 20 bucks but for the most part under $20 is really the sweet spot for P stuff and I'm sure I'm gonna overlook some things that you guys would recommend if there's anything that you would recommend that I missed here just comment down below with what that is let's just try to tackle this beast as fast as we can one of my favorite pieces of gear that I've carried for over a decade are night eyes s these are the mini locking ones on though the exact name of the size but the locking s these are perfect for attaching just a flashlight or something to your keychain so you can quickly remove it but it locks so it's not going to come off accidentally I've lost so many things from the old s that did not lock and one thing to note about these is that they will wear out over time this lock will no longer work and the plastic will wear out and wear down and you will no longer be able to lock them these are not like a 5-1 spry ones sort of thing it's more of a buy it and use it till it wears out and then replace it with another set really how do you recommend them I use them a lot even if it's not for my personal keys I use them on other things all the time this one was a little hard for me to include but I had to because I really liked the design but some of these companies on Amazon that sell titanium carabiners and stuff they will rip off designs from different makers it's hard to really know who was the original maker of what anymore when it comes to this sort of stuff on Amazon as far as I know this is an original product I don't know for sure but this is a titanium carabiner key clip from bang TI and the way this split rim works is really really nice anything that saves my finger nose from getting ripped by a split ring is a huge win in my book the way this one works is you just pull the split ring to this side so you don't have to dig your nail under it you can just use the meat of your finger and pull it to the side and slide on whatever you want but this carabiner is the real trick here because of the way the titanium is it's got a spring to it and this gate is never gonna fail on you unless this cracks down error breaks which it could over time but these are just really really solid I find the size of this to be perfect I've been carrying my keys on this karabiner for about a week now with no complaints whatsoever I've had the eye one our iOS and the James brand Elko on this little wire cable I had my car keys on this and then my normal keys my house keys and office keys on another and this has worked really really well for my keys I miss my magnetic breakaways but I was just testing stuff for this video and I really like this bank - yeah carabiner it's a very compact very very sturdy I've not had any problems with anything coming off of this really like it this set though not cheap it being titanium this set is twenty dollars so you are going to spend a little more because of titanium but I think it's worth it for something like this this is something that I get a lot of questions about and and it's because this is my preferred key organizer this is just a little shackle and for years I've used orbit keys key smarts key bars all sorts of different key organizers but I always always come back to this key shackle right here or this one this one you can find at most hardware stores for about a dollar or two sometimes hobby stores will have them even smaller than this but the true utility key shackle you can get for about seven bucks on Amazon and it's just about as minimal of a key organizer as you can possibly get it's really just a screw and a u-bolt typically it comes with four of these little spring clips right here and you're supposed to put your keys on each of the spring clips and then those attached this but I just eliminate these from the equation and use this a little differently than how its intended and I prefer it like this but I really think that this is one of the best value key organizers you can get seven bucks and it has these with it as well which you can use in place of an eyetie zestier and attach stuff directly to your keys but the true utility key shackle is just one of my favourite pieces of gear and it's seven bucks next up is another split ring option where it's not going to destroy your fingers this is the X attack free key system and the way this split ring works is it's angled such that if you push on one side it opens it up just enough to get one of these flat split rings through there and you can put stuff on and take stuff off your keys without having to use your fingernails which is a really really really nice thing this set right here actually I got a two pack of these for ten bucks you think you can get one pack for seven York you can also find these at Lowe's home improvement I know I've seen them there you can find them at REI sometimes the echo tax makes a bunch of different survival and EDC items this right here the free key system is something I think is overlooked it's not something I carry anymore because I'm on to so many different things now but I love these little flat split rings seven dollars for one set of these or ten for a two pack is really not bad at all these are really also like a really great little stocking stuffer gift that you can give somebody and people are gonna love this next up is another item from one of my budget videos and that is the exact total technical keyring holder this goes on your belt and your keys go on this split ring and this right here is just one of the best pieces of gear you can get for $5 Bar None it's just it's worth way more than five bucks but that's what it costs and it's just so great it's just one of the best options for getting to your keys very very quickly it's mainly meant for utility belts and law enforcement and first responders but this right here for me was one of my favorite things that I've discovered some starting this channel which is saying something because I've discovered a lot of new things but this for just being five bucks I think it's a steal it's a really great piece of gear if you want something that's quick release for your keys and you don't want have to spin for a magnetic quick release you want something that's maybe a little more secure than that this right here is your option five bucks I do have different versions of this one but this is just the one that I got for the video and finally these right here are I've always liked these things but I've never really used them a ton these are just little steel cables for your keychain and I use it for something like this where I can put a couple pieces of gear on my key clip and I can just have them organized in different things stuff that I can change out very quickly on my key setup I have that I want are EOS the James brand elko knife I have my keys and then my holman office keys right it looks a little bulky right now this is not how I always carry it but when I'm headed out the door if I'm not taking my truck and I'm taking Alex's car I just take this off I have hers on one of these as well and I just pop hers on and I'm ready to go now this comes six dollars for a 20 pack the problem is they're not all great quality so go get one see that don't break off I almost lost some gear because of that one day so this 20 pack you're gonna go through a few of them to find a decent who made one there are probably better rams out there than this most of them are gonna be under 20 bucks this is just the one I went with I would not recommend the one I went with because even though they were rated highly some of them break this one's about to break as well so you will go through them trying to find a decent one this is one from the same pack and I've not been able to break this one so it's just kind of hit or miss on the quality of these steel cables what it comes down to as some of them just aren't crimped very well this is another really strong one so just double check the strength of these steel cables before you actually put your gear or your keys or anything on them because if they break while you're on the bow you're gonna lose your stuff and that's not something anybody wants to deal with so just double check the strength of these before you put your stuff on them three out of the 20 so far are no good that 17 left that are possibly great for six bucks it's worth risking having you know four duds out of 25 does even if it's 10 out of 20 that are duds six dollars for ten of them is still not bad they're inexpensive just double check the strength of them before you put your stuff on them that's the whole moral of the story except we're talking knives and there are a lot of knives under 20 bucks one of those would be the curse shuffle the curse all shuffle there's it's available and they won two in the DIY I think the DIY is the most expensive of the three but the crucial one and two I used to recommend those I no longer recommend those knives after carrying one for a long time I carried one personally for a long time and decided to no longer carry it and then I carried one for the budget challenge video and knowing what I know now I don't really recommend the Kershaw shuffle anymore but the squid which technically is usually priced a little over 20 bucks can be found in plenty of places under $20 this is a steel frame lock with an 8 CR 13 MOV blade it's kind of great ergonomics it's really small though it's a little small for my hands but if I needed a knife under 20 bucks and I could find this one Lois we're talking like a Pannell or a cheaper space army knife or something the squid is probably the knife I would recommend can also find an Ontario rat one or two many times under $20 they go on sell very frequently if you can find an Ontario rat under 20 bucks buy it don't even hesitate even if it's the assay version buy it under $20 it's a phenomenal knife and you're not gonna find really anything better under 20 bucks the CRKT squid is the knife I would recommend if you are looking for a $20 ix not great it's not perfect but it does have deep carry clip frame lock really saw the thumb stud great action there's not much to hate about the squid other than the fact that it's the other options are something like this the gerber EAB this is the EAB light but just a utility knife that you can throw in your pocket if you don't want to spend more than $20 on a knife I would recommend this because you can find them for as little as 8 bucks on Amazon alright they're also at Lowe's Walmart for about 10 to 12 dollars but it's just a little utility knife that you can change the blade out on and it's gonna be just as good as most other knives it's not heavy-duty that's for sure it's a very very light duty knife but it's worth the money and it can double as a money clip I've seen many people use this as a money clip but the other option is the screw pop so this is a keychain utility knife option just a very minimal discreet option for carrying a knife most people are gonna know what it is by looking at it if you have this on your keychain most people are just gonna think it's a bottle opener it's just a very discreet options for carrying a knife or something to cut boxes open or whatever which is what most of us do anyway you can put any standard utility knife blade inside here it's great it's got magnetic retention too so if this lock bar does come open while it's on your keys you can't really shake the blade out I think this is a pretty safe option it's very discreet and they're only about 10 bucks and you never have to worry about going without a knife and if you hop on a plane you can just toss that keep this on your keys you've got a bottle opener there you go all right and finally we're gonna talk wallets because there are a lot of affordable wallets my least favorite in this list right here is the travel lambo wallet I carry this for my $50 budget video and it was fine it served its purpose it did the job I didn't love it but for I think I paid five or seven dollars for this wallet you really can't beat that it's really really inexpensive and it does the job what more could you ask out of something that was only five or seven dollars travel Lambo wallets regularly go on sale as well they come in a billion different colors and different materials this one that says leather don't think this is real leather I'm pretty sure it's pleather it is real leather it's like half ounce leather it's very very thin smells like plastic pretty sure it's pleather four five seven dollars you really cannot complain about this wallet at all if you do then you're just being too picky my favorite super cheap wallet is this one this is the one I carried from $100 budget video and this is the Kin just elastic band wallet I've had the tight wallet a bunch of different elastic wallets I love these things this one was only five dollars it's perfectly fine I could still carry it today I would have no qualms with this wallet whatsoever for five bucks so if you like that idea but want something a little more like the Trebek's armored summit wallet this is your next best option and this is a new wallet from Gerber this is the barbel wallet and you've got your same metal frame but instead of having a nylon band you have an elastic band the only downside that I've realized with this is that this elastic band allows cards to play a little too much and come up over this lip sometimes didn't really have any issues with it I've carried it some I think it's a great wallet for 20 bucks it's really really neat it's one of the best that you can get from that price point I think great little wallet and just because everything has a bottle opener you have a kept lifter right here on the back of the wallet but you do have to pull your cards out to be able to access that cap lifter right there and then finally one of my favorite wallets I've had this thing for a very long time I use it now for business cards and I just toss it down on my back but this is the chums surf short wallet this comes in on multitude of colors I found this one at REI you can also find this at Academy sports and they're all over the place they're only about 10 bucks on Amazon you've got a zip pocket on this side you have a zip pocket on this side with actually two different flaps with a window and you have another quick access pocket right here with there's typically a split ring here you could use this to hold gear like a flashlight I think it's holds the i3t perfectly you could also put a little pry tool down in there this could be your gear organizer EDC wallet and it works really really great I typically carry this wallet when I'm at the beach or when I'm on vacation or when I'm going fishing or round water because it's water-resistant it's not waterproof but really great option really cheap I do love this wallet as well so I've kept this one in my collection for a long time that is gonna do it for this video if you found it helpful and you enjoy the befit that thumbs up button down below and subscribe to see more stuff like this in the future and hit that notification bell so you're notified when I upload new videos and if you want to support what I'm doing here everything I talked about is linked down below if you click through those links and purchase anything I get a little bit of a kickback because those are affiliate links doesn't cost you anything extra it's just a way for you to support what I'm doing here buying the gear that you wanna get anyway you can also go to carry dot best which is my store carry Commission you can buy merch like this as and you can buy merch like this or branded gear and soon customized gear like pins and magnetic quick releases also from other stuff that I'm customizing myself by hand so be sure to go to carried out best you can also go to patreon.com/crashcourse there but be sure to focus on the web you can find us on Twitter and Instagram if SMED so you can find me taylor mart on twitter and instagram at cass protect and until next time 3 on you

Channel: Best Damn EDC [Taylor Martin]

Views: 878,698

Rating: 4.8558979 out of 5

Keywords: EDC, everyday carry, edc weekly, edc gear, edc wallet, edc knife, edc keys, every day carry, Tools, Gerber Shard, Nite Ize DoohicKey, Zebra F-701, Parker Jotter, Olight, i1R EOS, i3E EOS, i3T EOS, Lumintop Tool AAA, Lumintop EDC01, Keychain Flashlight, Titanium Key Clip, Exotac, FreeKey System, ZAK Tool, True Utility, Key Shackle, CRKT Squid, Gerber EAB, Screwpop, Utility Knife, Minimalist, Slim Wallet, Gerber Barbill, Budget EDC gear, affordable edc, edc gear under 20

Id: iE8ICoR5sK8

Length: 26min 2sec (1562 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 27 2019