Jessica's Friday Five: Send this word game to your friends or fam, what I bought this month on Amazon, & AARP

Hi Reader,

I'm still out of the office on vacation with my family, but before heading out on the trip the chance to write a few Friday Fives in advance was a treat for me. Writing this email each week is my favorite task - I often use it as a "carrot" to get me to do less-desired tasks ("Jess, you can write Friday Five after you finish up Project X".) So hello from Jess of Last Week - I hope your week has been going well. Let's get to your Friday Five, shall we?

1. What I bought & liked this month: Here's what I bought and liked this month on Amazon. This page generates charitable donations when you use it. You'll be able to see clearly that 1) we have been getting ready to travel and 2) I like to organize things around my home, haha.
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2. Fun Word Game: One of my friends (hi Rachel!) shared this tip with me at dinner. If you're a fan of the NYT Connections word game (my son and I play every morning), there's a free archive of the game you can play here. AND you can create your own personal Connections game, which I think would be so fun to make and then share with your family or friends full of inside jokes, or for a celebration like a birthday or life-event shower of some sort. I just made one for my immediate family and we had a lot of fun each solving it.​
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3. Books to Understand Diverse American Experiences: If you're in the US like me, you might be preparing for Independence Day next week. America - she is complex. Every day of her history has included beautiful acts of bravery and humanity, and every day of her history has also included brutal acts of dehumanization and cruelty. These are 7 of the books that have given me a window into the diverse experiences of my fellow Americans who walk or have walked in different shoes than my own.
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4. Sam's free budget calculator: I mentioned this last week, too, but today's the last day to get Sam’s budgeting spreadsheet, which will help you organize and manage your finances (I made a similar one from scratch a few years ago and would have preferred a ready-made tool like this), so I wanted to mention it again. It's linked at the top of the page here.
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5. Huge summer savings: I mentioned this a while back, but I'm now a proud member of AARP despite being far from retirement age. Did you know you can join as long as you're 18 years old? And the discounts are amazing? And it's super cheap to join, plus you get a nice gift. I just saved $100 on buying a few excursions for a cruise I'm taking my daughter on later this year to celebrate her birthday. You save on basically every travel thing (including gas!) and other monthly expenses, too, like your cell phone (AT&T offers members $10 off a line, every single month!). If you go out to eat one time at one of the restaurants on AARP's savings list, the membership will pay for itself. It includes Carrabba's, Bonefish, McAlisters, Bubba Gump, Jamba Juice, Papa Johns, Jets Pizza, and dozens more. It's $12 to join and you get a free trunk organizer or day bag. This is an amazing deal.

P.S. Amazon Prime Days are coming up in mid-July. I am likely to send an email or two with particularly good deals for things we use and like, so click here and I'll add you to the Prime Day Email List for those.

There may be affiliate links in this email which means I may receive a commission if you purchase something through a link. However, please be assured that I only recommend products I have personally used and love!