In about three months it will be Amazon Prime Day. They have good deals then, if you can wait. My Fire HD8 was $49, I think it was, on last year's Prime Day. I paid a bit more because I bought a case and screen protector with it, but IIRC the Fire itself was $49 if bought separately. The Fire is not the perfect tablet, but it is the perfect tablet for $49! Especially when you install the Google Play app store on it and thus aren't limited to the much inferior Fire app store.
And on those Echo Dots ... I bought two for my Mom last Christmas when they were on sale for $29 each. I figured she could check the weather and the time (never expected her to do much more with them). She's in a senior living independent retirement community. I was pretty impressed with the little buggers when I set them up for her, and ended up buying four more for my house! This, despite me being extremely privacy and security conscious. But I broke my privacy ideals and bought myself probably the most un-private thing you can buy. Oh well. These Dots are great for setting reminders. And great for timers, especially when cooking. One serves as my alarm clock in the bedroom. Note: a device that has no battery and depends on the internet is not the best alarm clock if you have an electrical/internet outage - I set a backup alarm clock for the really important early morning appointments (which are thankfully quite rare for me).
This video is perfectly shows the elderly with an Echo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvT_gqs5ETk