You know me, a veritable tightwad. Reasonably cheap, but I realize you will have to spend money to get decent stuff. I am ideally looking at something that will power a cell phone(s), some general lighting and possibly a few other small gadgets. Would be independently sustainable, hence solar. useful in power outages, post earthquake, and also for field projects where we might be camping.

I am pretty sure I already have some useful components, but I could see spending $100-$200 additional, maybe more if there are definite advantages, but I am always partial to the $2.98 special.

One thing that came out in our recent power outage is that Mrs. Hikermor and I have very different opinions about what constitutes adequate lighting.

One thing I have demonstrated over the years -when you swallow hard and spend what is necessary to get capable gear, you will be repaid many times over when the gear performs well. It's an investment, not an expenditure....