I started Practical Travel Gear at the end of 2005 (see the archives here) to be an antidote to the splashy reviews I was seeing in magazines. I thought there needed to be a place where $5 items got more play than ones that were $5,000.

That hasn’t changed, so I present to you the $4.95 Screwpop. It’s simple, effective, multi-functional, and cheap. That may not get the folks at Outside magazine excited, but I think this is a great item for people who are average travelers and not cliff-scaling superheroes.

This ingenious little gadget gives you four things: a Phillips screwdriver, a regular screwdriver, a lug nut wrench, and then one thing for when you’re done using the others—a bottle opener. I haven’t had a need for the 1/4-inch hex nut part since the Screwpop people sent me this thingy a few weeks ago, but I have successfully used the other three items. I tightened a loose door handle with the Phillips #2 tip, put something together with the #2 screwdriver tip, and successfully opened six beers along the way.

The two screwdriver tips are on the same insert: you pull it out and flip it around to use the other. The part that surrounds it is the wrench. The bottle opener can also double as a keychain, though obviously you need a little more dexterity to open the bottles with a whole ring of keys on there. (If you can no longer get it to open a bottle, that may be a sign you’ve had too many, so think of it as a built-in tester too.)

Since there is no knife on here, even the most dim-witted TSA agent should let it through in your carry-on bag. It’s made of a chrome-plated zinc alloy, but is relatively light at less than an ounce and a half.

You can order these direct at Screwpop.com and they’ll ship five for the same shipping price as one. Or look for them at hardware and camping stores as the company ramps up their distribution.