shop: The miracle that is Temu + Rakuten + Paypal 50% off

Well, I can’t quite believe it, but it feels like it is 1999. Temu has the most incredible triple-stacked deals, here is how it works:

First, you have to buy $20 of stuff from their lightning round, this unlocks a $15 off for $40 (the best deal!) or $20 for $60 deal.
When you go there, make sure to use cashbackmonitor.com, but at least this weekend, Rakuten has a 13% discount. If you link American Express to Rakuten, then you get it as Amex points so that’s actually more like 26% off.
Then if you use PayPal to pay with your Chase Freedom card, they give you 5x and if you have Sapphire Reserve, that’s 10% off

Net, net, just with the credit card stuff, you are 36% off and then you add another $20 off with the $20+$60 or 25% off, so that’s definitely not bad.

What can you get on Temu? Actually, the hit rate is not that much worse than buying random things on Amazon, so here are some recommendations. Well, I’ve actually found the Apple Watch bands are pretty good. They are about $2-5 vs $50-100 for Apple bands, so they don’t have to be great to be really nice. More reviews coming.

YAYUUU Sport Band is actually very nice and is just $2.23, so you can’t beat it, the nylon feels nice and it is snuck.
Huaqiang Alpine Strap is actually very nice, it feels nice and olive is a nice color, I don’t know if it will wear as well as the Apple strap, but at $1.60 each, you can literally buy 15 of them before you equal one Apple Strap
Watch Display box is quite nice for $24, you get space for six watches and glasses too.
Dream Garden Hose is also nice. It is 75 feet long and expandable and compact, but I will have to test to see if it lasts.
The Portable Watch Charger is very handy, it is tiny and has a USB C connector and it just fits into your laptop, which is great for $6

Then there are things I haven’t used yet, but will report back:

They have USB cables, I try to get the ones that are USB-IF certified, again, these are so cheap, I will report back if good, but they seem to be holding up.

Then there are things that I can’t really recommend or which are just plain bad:

They have various cable organizers and things and these also seem just OK. The Wire thing I wouldn’t recommend, it’s a simple plastic clip and gets lost.
Their KCNKON Twist ties use a magnet, but again, I’m not so sure about them because it is easy to connect them the wrong way and the magnet falls out.
Apple Ultra Watch TPU cover I wouldn’t recommend, the TPU makes the touchscreen basically unusable.