Best Ongoing Black Friday Deals Under $50

The 600-watt NutriBullet Original NBR-0801 Personal is a great value that nailed the functional aspects of our lab testing, earning top-notch ratings for ice crushing, making icy drinks, pureéing raw vegetable ingredients into a soup, and durability. That elevates it to one of the highest-rated, most budget-friendly, and lightest personal blenders (4 pounds). Where it falls short is its mediocre ratings for predicted reliability, owner satisfaction, noise, and convenience (it’s push-down operated). So while it can make excellent smoothies, soups, and salsas, it can also develop problems within the first four years of ownership. It has one speed and comes with 18-ounce and 16-ounce cups.

The GE G8H1AASSPSS Blender is an immersion model that comes with a whisk and chopper, and it’s available now at a sweet price. It showed excellent performance in our soup puree tests, and the chopper attachment did a great job grating cheese. The whisk attachment allows you to quickly whip egg whites to stiff peaks and easily turn heavy cream into rich whipped cream.

This price is $10 less than it was during the last big sale, making it an exceptional time to buy.

The unassuming, inexpensive Hamilton Beach 12-Cup Programmable 49465R, which typically costs $40, might be easy to miss, but it can brew a mean cup of joe at a fantastic price. It has all the essentials in a basic black-plastic finish. It’s programmable and has auto-shutoff. What’s more, it does a superb job in our brewing test and can make a fresh pot in just 10 minutes. This model also performs strongly for convenience and carafe handling in CR’s lab tests. But it’s worth mentioning that this model is more prone to overflow, unlike some other models we’ve tested.

When you think of the brand Instant Pot, its line of multicookers usually comes to mind, but the company has branched out into coffee makers and frothers. Its affordable Instant Milk Frother, which typically retails for $40, was one of the best models in our at-home review, offering performance almost on par with the Nespresso Aeroccino4 milk frother, which costs more than twice as much. The only downside is that the Instant Milk Frother isn’t dishwasher safe, since its controls are built into the side of the carafe. Cleaning is still a breeze, though—you just need to hand-wash it with a wet cloth.

This was about $5 less last week, but has remained steady in the last few days, so it likely won’t go any lower.

The Cuisinart CPT-122 Compact Plastic two-slice toaster delivers an overall solid performance and comes with cord storage, as well as defrost and reheat settings—features you don’t always see on budget-friendly models. It turns out perfectly browned toast in both our full batch and one-slice tests, and does so rather quickly. You can also expect cleaning to be fairly easy.

ThermoPro’s SmartBT Meat Thermometer TP920 is one of the lower-priced leave-in two-probe wireless thermometers. It sends instant temperature readings to your smartphone via Bluetooth, offering excellent response time and accuracy. The easy-to-use app estimates the remaining cooking time for nearly all cuts and varieties of meat based on guidelines from the Department of Agriculture. The price is $4 higher than it was on Cyber Monday and Black Friday.

All-Clad takes the prize in our uncoated pans, and we also like this All-Clad Pro-Release Nonstick. And it costs a lot less than its brandmate above. Cooking evenness and durability both receive Very Good ratings, but this pan is a little more difficult to clean than some of the other coated sheet pans.

The Kaqinu 12.6-inch carbon steel wok, $4 more than it was over the weekend and closer to its typical sale price, is flat-bottomed, has a hammered texture and comes pre-seasoned. In our tests it aced the cooking evenness test; its speed of heating was very good, and we found it easy to use. Cleaning, however, was a bit of a challenge. The metal section of its handle is short, and so is less likely to be grabbed by unwary cooks. It lacks an extra handle, making it harder to move when full. This wok comes with a wooden lid and a variety of stainless steel utensils.

This low-priced wireless earbud from JBL delivers acceptable sound quality and top-notch active noise reduction. These have silicone ear tips that isolate outside sounds and an ambient sound monitoring feature. They’re not high performers, but at this price, they’re great to give to kids who tend to lose things or to just toss into your gym bag or backpack for a spare pair.

If you want a reliable pair of noise-canceling headphones under $50, this Soundcore model could be right for you. Soundcore Q20i Hybrid Active Noise Cancelling headphones performed admirably in our tests for noise reduction and sound quality, and they come with a detachable audio cable and a USB-A to USB-C charging cable.

For simply listening to your favorite playlist, the JBL Tune 510 hits the value button. These on-ear headphones don’t have active noise cancellation and offer only modest physical isolation. But they sound a lot better than they should for under $30, comparing favorably to headphones that cost hundreds of dollars more.

This 2-inch memory-foam topper provides great support while still allowing you to sink into it. And at 8 pounds, it’s not overly heavy to maneuver. It’s flippable, but this deal doesn’t come with a cover (though you can add one on yourself), and a lack of corner straps means it might shift around. You can return Linenspa products for a full refund within 30 days of purchase.

The bristles in this makeup brush set are soft, even, and, perhaps most importantly, dense. The handles are smooth and comfortable to hold. Our tester lauded the powder brush, which easily deposited and blended product, even in smaller areas like the inner eye. And the blush brush was one of the best we tested for blending both powder and cream blush.

If you want an electric toothbrush that won’t cost an arm and a leg, the Sonicare 4100 is a good choice. This is the standard sale price that’s available more often than not, but it’s much cheaper than other options that rate just as highly in our tests. Although this toothbrush is on the simpler side when it comes to extra features, it still performs admirably when it comes to teeth cleaning and ease of use. It offers two cleaning modes, and it comes with two especially helpful features: a timer and a pressure sensor. It doesn’t offer any connectivity to an app.

This roll-on sunscreen has zinc oxide as its ultraviolet-screening ingredient. It’s fragrance-free, though it has the scent of wet clay, and rolls on smoothly. It shields skin very well against the ultraviolet A rays that can cause DNA damage in skin cells, but its performance for SPF (ultraviolet B—the rays that cause sunburn) was not as good in CR’s tests.

Something as simple as a splurge-worthy body wash can be a little luxury that goes a long way. Bathing Culture’s line of green-minded and deliciously scented bath products is a prime example. It also happens to be a hit with shopping editor Mary Beth Quirk, who suggests it as a great gift. “I absolutely love the smell of the Cathedral Grove scent; it’s refreshing without being too overpowering. I also like its silky texture, and the fact that a little goes a long way: I only have to use a small amount on my washcloth, so it’ll take me a while to work my way through the bottle.”

The Papillon Shiatsu Neck and Back Massager Pillow is at the lowest price we’ve ever seen. It checks a lot of the boxes for being the perfect massager. It’s effective and lightweight. In fact, it’s the lightest of all the electric massagers we tried, according to our measurements. It’s also fairly inexpensive. You can use the massager on different body parts, such as your back, neck, shoulders, legs, and feet. It also offers a good amount of heat.

According to CR’s tests, this arm monitor has excellent accuracy and also earned high marks for convenience and comfort. It features an irregular heartbeat detector, a blood pressure risk category indicator, a data averaging function, a one-size-fits-most cuff, and the ability to sync via Bluetooth to the iHealth MyVitals app. It’s just a few dollars more than its Cyber Monday and Black Friday price.

The O-Cedar mop, which is $3 more than it was over the weekend, comes with a bucket that wrings out excess liquid andworks on all floor types. The mop head itself can be removed and tossed in the wash, giving your mop more longevity, and it also outperformed the other mops we tested for absorption, tackling honey, soda, and dirt with ease. The spinning feature is activated with a foot pedal, making it very easy to use as you move through your home. Bonus: the bucket uses two separate tanks for clean and dirty water.

With a built-in anti-theft security system, this compact sling bag can be a saving grace for those traveling with valuables. “This bag has a slash-resistant mesh barrier in front, sides, and bottom body panels, plus a slash-resistant strap. And the RFID-blocking organizer on the front locking zippered pocket is perfectly sized for a phone,” says Anne McAlpin, author of “Pack It Up: The Essential Guide to Smart Travel.” RFID, or radio frequency identification, prevents skimming theft, which can occur when illegally installed devices capture personal data, such as PINs, for ATMs.

This is $6 more than it was over the weekend.

The TP-Link Tapo D210 is one of the most affordable doorbell cameras in our ratings, and it outperforms many of the more expensive models. The doorbell is battery-powered, meaning you don’t have to mess with doorbell wires, and it comes with a plug-in doorbell chime in the box. Features include activity zones, color night vision, local video storage on up to a 512GB microSD card (not included), person detection, pre-recorded responses to ask visitors to leave a message, and voice/app control via Amazon Alexa and Google Home. Best of all, none of these features requires a subscription.

The Arlo Essential 2K (VMC3050-100NAS) is one of Arlo’s more budget-friendly security cameras, and we’ve never seen the price dip so low for this three-camera bundle. It performs well in our tests and features a built-in spotlight, a siren, and voice/app control via Amazon Alexa and Google Home. Additional features, such as activity zones, person detection, and cloud video storage, require an Arlo Secure subscription.

One of the best (and least expensive!) doorbell cameras you can buy, the TP-Link Tapo D130 offers a bunch of features—even without a subscription. These include 24/7 recording with local video storage on a microSD card (up to 512 gigabytes, sold separately), AI object recognition (for people, vehicles, packages, and pets), activity zones, and color night vision. This model needs low-voltage doorbell wiring for power. Cloud video storage is available via subscription.

The Arlo Video Doorbell 2K is one of the best video doorbells you can buy. It provides the flexibility to install it wherever you need it. You can run it using the rechargeable battery or hardwire it to a home’s doorbell wiring for continuous power. Features include geofencing and voice/app control via Amazon Alexa and Google Home/Assistant. Cloud video storage and additional features (such as alerts for people, packages, animals, and vehicles) require an Arlo Secure subscription.

This is the best price we’ve ever seen for this model, so even though this deal is available often, you won’t find a better offer.

The Roku Streaming Stick 4K shares most of the same features as the more expensive Roku Streaming Stick 4K+, including improved WiFi, support for HDR10+ and Dolby Vision HDR, and compatibility with Amazon Alexa, Apple AirPlay, and Google Assistant. But it uses the older WiFi 5 standard to connect to home networks and comes with a standard Roku remote.

The PetSafe Creekside Ceramic Pet Fountain holds a modest 60 ounces of water, making it the smallest of all the pet water fountains I evaluated. It’s crafted from scratch-resistant ceramic and uses two filters—one carbon and one foam—to keep the water clean and debris-free. Assembly was surprisingly straightforward and intuitive. The fountain is quiet and dishwasher safe, and its larger size makes it a good choice for a multi-pet home.