Soothe sore muscles with this mini massage gun for just $20

PLUS: 5 totally free alternatives to expensive Adobe software. ALSO: The $129 Apple Watch is back! AND: The healthy, affordable snack you've probably overlooked your whole life.

DISCLAIMER: Some of the links included herein are affiliate links (usually those in bold type), meaning if you make a purchase via one of them, I may get a small commission. I promise you, now and forever, that I won’t choose deals based on whether there’s an affiliate option available.

First order of business: A big thank-you to reader G Mesa, the first person to refer five readers to Deal Secrets. As a reminder, I’ll personally and publicly thank anyone who does likewise. And if you really get the referral machine cranking, there are other perks awaiting you as well:

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QUICK HITS

Sick of baby carrots? Munch on these instead. They’re cheap and delicious.

🥕 Problem: You know you need to eat more green vegetables, but a lot of them are inconvenient or don’t taste very good. Solution: Sugar snap peas, which, if you get a good bag, are sweet, crunchy, and delicious. Okay, but where’s the best bag? Not at Kroger, at least around these parts. For me, the winner is the Marketside brand at Walmart. Price: $2.88 for an 8-ounce pouch (YMMV depending on location), a pretty good deal for a tasty, healthy snack. Pro tip: Don’t confuse these with regular snap peas, which are flat and pretty flavorless. You want sugar snap peas.

☎️ Speaking of grocery stores, ever visit one while traveling and don’t have a club card to score discounts? No problem as long as you know a local area code: When you get to the checkout, just enter one of them followed by the phone number 867-5309. (Anyone over the age of 50 understands; everyone else, let me introduce you to Mr. Tommy Tutone.) Chances are good someone in the area registered using that number; you’ll get the discount, they’ll get whatever bonus points the store might be offering. Win-win! (Side note: I literally just tried this at a local store where I don’t normally shop. It worked!)

📃 Do you have a big task ahead of you and need help breaking it down into all the necessary steps? Let AI help. The free GoblinTools Magic ToDo generator takes any prompt — “Prep for the graduation party on Saturday,” for example, or “Plan everything for the beach vacation” — and builds out a complete to-do list for you. For any item on that generated list, you can create a sub-section of related tasks. Start by adding one item, then click/tap the magic wand next to it. There’s a slight learning curve here, but, wow, this is insanely useful.

⌚ In case you missed it last time around, Walmart once again has the 1st-gen Apple Watch SE (40mm, GPS+Cellular) for just $129. This is a genuinely stellar deal on a superb smartwatch/fitness-tracker for iPhone users, one that originally sold for $279. That said, there’s a learning curve here, and there are aspects of the interface I find unintuitive even after years of using it. Also, you’ll be glancing at your wrist a lot (because of notifications from your phone), which can be off-putting if you’re having a conversation with someone. Etiquette, people!

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5 free alternatives to expensive Adobe software

Open-source animation/rendering program Blender does a pretty impressive After Effects impression. For free.

I may well have covered this before, but because I was recently seeking a Photoshop alternative that was cheap/free and didn’t suck, it’s top of mind right now. Below are five surprisingly good alternatives to Adobe’s popular — and expensive — graphics and video tools.

Adobe product > Free alternative

• Photoshop > Photopea (browser)

• Illustrator > Inkscape (download)

• Premiere > DaVinci Resolve (download)

• InDesign > Scribus (download)

• After Effects > Blender (download)

Temu update: Rating my latest purchases

Earlier this month I told you about Temu, the online marketplace that’s home to some incredibly cheap goods. Ah, but cheap in quality or just in price? Mostly both, but remember that cheap doesn’t always mean bad.

Indeed, allow me to review a few of my recent purchases:

Mini robot LED lamp: I recently started collecting robots, and this one looked like an adorable addition to the display case — for a measly $3.98. Sure enough, it’s really cute, with bendable arms, magnetic feet (!), and a swivel head with a battery-powered LED. Verdict: Love it.

Men’s vintage leather bracelets (4pcs): I wasn’t sure I could pull off this look, but for $1.88 (!), I decided to find out. These turned out to be surprisingly well-made, and they make me look pretty badass — according to me. My friends and family have… different opinions. Verdict: Love it.

Battery-powered bubble gun (32-hole): Bought a couple of these for a recent family reunion, curious if a $4.98 toy could actually be any good. Yep, they’re good; the younger kids absolutely loved them. (So did I, tbh.) Same exact product sells at Amazon for $12, and lots of similar ones are priced at $20 and higher. Verdict: Love it.

Insulated shoulder picnic backpack: A cooler you can wear! Bought this for pickleball tournaments so I could pack plenty of drinks, energy bars, and whatnot, and carry it all easily. Price: a very reasonable $17. Verdict: Love it.

So, yeah, I’ve been pretty satisfied with most of what I’ve purchased from Temu. I certainly like the prices. If you’ve shopped this marketplace yourself, share your thoughts in the comments section:

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This mini massage gun is just $20 — but only for Prime subscribers

Mini massage guns are my preferred size, and this one is only $20 for Prime subscribers.

By some estimates, up to 70% of American adults have an Amazon Prime subscription. That is… stunning. But it makes me feel better about mentioning this Prime-only deal, because it means most of you are eligible to get it.

For a limited time, and while supplies last, the Merach 9Dmini Massage Gun drops to just $19.99 when you clip the on-page $20-off coupon. Again, that’s only if you’re a Prime subscriber; otherwise the price ends up at $39.99. Either way it’s a good deal: a lot of mini massagers sell for $50-$60.

With four available speeds and eight different head attachments, the 9Dmini can tackle just about any sore muscle (or muscle group) you have. It has a 9mm massage depth (aka amplitude), which is fairly typical for budget models; a Theragun Prime, for comparison, hits 16mm — but costs $299.

Very telling: The Merach massager scored a 4.7-star average rating from over 500 customers, and according to ReviewMeta, nearly all those ratings are real and truthful.

And, hey, 20 bucks! You even get a zippered carrying case. What’s not to like?

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