Around 15 months ago, I finally bit the bullet and decided to pay for an Amazon Prime membership. I had tried it in the past when I signed up for a free 30 day trial and had liked it, but for some reason I was reluctant to actually pay the $79 annual fee. I was hopeful that it would pay for itself and I was absolutely right!
Free Two Day Shipping
First of all, you get free shipping on so many items – even small add-on products which would not ship alone otherwise. Since shipping can run anywhere from $5 to $10 (or even more), this is such an easy way to save money. I never have to wait more than 2 days for any items I order. It is great.
Recently, my daughter needed a new mouthpiece for Karate. I could not find one in the stores (all they kept having in stock were adult sizes). Rather than having to drive all the way to a specialty store, I was able to log into my account and find one that I ordered and it shipped for free. If I’d not had Amazon Prime, I would have paid another $5 just for shipping.
We actually save MORE than $79 a year on shipping costs now. I was passing on so many really good deals because I did not want to pay shipping. Now, I can pick up the things we need and even those great deals without any worry that shipping was far too expensive.
One other thing I loved was using this during the holidays. We were able to order a items and have them sent directly to our family members — for free! That meant I did not have to shop at the store, but I also did not have to pay for shipping to them either! LOVED that!
See – The Art & Act of Saving Money with Amazon Coupons
Instant 5% Savings on Subscribe & Save Products
When it comes to household products, you know you are going to have to order more. You will always need laundry detergent, dish soap, toilet papers, etc. There are many times when you can find clipless coupons which save you money. You also can instantly save 5% off of the list price when you sign up for Subscribe & Save.
If you happen to purchase 5 Subscribe & Save items in a single month, your savings will increase to an additional 20% off of your purchase! They will wait and ship all of your items at one time, which means you may need to plan ahead to get the things you need.
Free Kindle Lending Library
If you have a Kindle, or the Kindle app on any of your devices, you can actually get FREE books! Many titles may cost others to purchase, but you can actually borrow them for free through the Kindle Lending library. When you are done, it goes back to Amazon and you paid nothing – just like you would at a traditional library.
There are also times when Prime members can download books for free (to own) when others would need to pay for them. This is such an easy way to increase your reading library at no additional cost to you. Or, if you would rather look at it this way, the $79 fee could pay for a LOT of books over the course of a year.
Free Instant Streaming of Movies & TV Shows
You can download and watch many movies and or TV shows. For instance, they recently had Jurassic World Dominion for users. Others you can find right now include: Dora the Explorer, Sonic 2, Guy’s Grocery Games, Fixer to Fabulous, and more!
You can find a lot of older movies too (like Clue – which my daughter absolutely loved watching). However, you will also see newer movies coming up from time to time!
Additional Discounts for Amazon Family Members
If you have little ones (say in diapers for example), you can really save on your purchases if you belong to Amazon Family. When you sign up for Amazon Family and pay for Amazon Prime, you can save up to 20% on diapers and wipes!
As mentioned above, if you purchase 5 or more items using Subscribe & Save, your savings increases from 5% to 20%. What is great is that your diapers and wipes (which you would save 20% anyhow) will count towards this purchase!
For us, it just made sense to pay this annual membership fee. It has paid for itself (and then some). We were able to justify the cost when we first purchased and have actually witnessed the savings first hand. You can try Amazon Prime for free for 30 days so you can see what you think before you opt in and pay the $79 annual fee. You might find like us that it was well worth the cost. Sign up for a free 30 day trial of Amazon Prime.
Find some great Amazon deals right now!
Do you have Amazon Prime? What do you think?