Who doesn’t love Amazon? With the convenience, selection, and even price, you really can’t beat them. In fact, there are probably ways to save money on Amazon that you haven’t even heard of before. Amazon is always coming up with new programs and promotions to make sure that they can give you the best deal and service around.
UPDATE: You can get $5 off your first purchase through the Amazon app right now! Just click through this link from your phone or tablet and $5 will be yours for your first Amazon app purchase!
Here are 11 ways to save money on Amazon, going from most well-known to the least common. I’d love to hear your Amazon savings secrets in the comments too!
Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime has been around for a while and has helped people get over the issue of paying for shipping when shopping online. For a flat annual fee, you get unlimited, fast shipping on everything under the sun! Over the years, Amazon Prime has expanded to include much more than just free shipping. Amazon Prime benefits include:
- Unlimited FREE 2-day shipping with no minimum order size
- Borrowing books from Kindle Owners’ Lending Library for FREE
- Video streaming of over 40,000 movies and TV shows
I’ve had a Prime membership for years, thanks to my dad. It comes in really handy, especially since we live so far away from stores. An Amazon Prime membership costs $99/year, which comes out to $8.25/month. If you order twice in a month, your membership pays for itself just with the free 2-day shipping benefits of Amazon Prime. In addition to the free shipping, you can also drop cable or Netflix and get your video from Amazon. Plus you can borrow kindle books! If you haven’t tried out Amazon Prime, you can start your 30-day free trial now!
Amazon Student
Amazon Student is a version of Amazon Prime for College students. Instead of a 30-day trial, Amazon Student has a 6-month trial! What college student wouldn’t love free 2-day shipping! After the trial period, Amazon Student costs 50% of what the normal Amazon Prime rate is. Music, movie, and TV benefits of Amazon Prime don’t start until after the free trial.
- Free 2-day shipping
- 6-month trial
- 50% off the regular Amazon Prime price
- Other benefits of Prime (music, movies, TV) start after the free trial
Amazon Mom
Amazon Mom is an Amazon Prime membership program aimed at moms (and other caregivers). In addition to the normal Prime benefit of FREE 2-day shipping, Amazon Mom members get:
- 20% off diaper subscriptions- When you use “Subscribe and Save” you’ll get 20% off of your favorite diapers (normally subscribe and save just gets 5% off). You can set your subscription to send your diapers at whatever interval you choose (and you can always change it later).
- 15% Baby Registry Completion Discount– When you create a baby registry on Amazon, you can purchase the things you didn’t receive with a 15% discount. There is a specific window of time before and after the baby is born that you can choose to use this benefit.
- Amazon Mom exclusive deals– You’ll be in the know about the latest savings and promotions!
If you’re already an Amazon Prime Member, you can join Amazon Mom for FREE!
If you don’t have Amazon Prime, you can get a 30-day Free Trial of both Amazon Prime and Amazon Mom benefits. After that it’s $99/year.
Amazon Baby Registry
If you are expecting, then I totally recommend signing up for Amazon’s Baby Registry
- Completion Discount of 10% off— Get 10% off what you didn’t receive from your registry. If you join Amazon Mom any time up to actually using your discount, your completion discount goes up to 15%! There is a window of time to use this one-time discount that includes time before and after the baby’s due date. You can use your completion discount on up to $5,000 of eligible merchandise (maximum discount of $500).
- Universal Registry Capability— You can add items from any website to your registry!
Amazon Wedding Registry
If you’ve got a wedding in your future (or know someone who does), you won’t want to miss out on the benefits of Amazon Wedding Registry.
- Universal Registry Capability— You can add items from any website to your registry!
- 10% Completion Gift— After your wedding date, you will receive a one-time 10% off code to use on up to $1,000 of merchandise on your registry (saving up to $100).
- Bonus Gifts— Brands give certain gifts to you for putting their items on your list. Amazon has a list of these exclusive offers.
Free Shipping
Even without Prime, you can still score free shipping on Amazon pretty easily. If you have an order of $35 or more, it will ship for free with ship for free!
Free Kindle Reading App
No Kindle? No problem! You don’t have to have a Kindle to read Amazon Kindle books. You can download the FREE Kindle Reading App on most devices. I took advantage of this years ago since I didn’t have a Kindle. I would read Kindle books on my desktop computer. Now that I have a smartphone, I’m loving the Kindle reading app even more!
Free Kindle Books
Kindle authors can promote their ebooks by offering them for free for a limited time. You may have seen bloggers share free ebooks during their promotional period. Have you wondered how you can find all the free Kindle books that are currently available? Any given day there are hundreds of titles available. You can find them by going here
For future reference, the secret is to search in the Kindle Store by “Price: Low to High.” You can narrow down the category first, then see what’s free (then you don’t have to sift through so much). For example, if you choose “non-fiction” then “self help” and sort by “Price: Low to High” this is what you’ll get
Warehouse Deals
Have you ever heard of Amazon’s Warehouse Deals? They offer “deep discounts on open-box and used products.” The inventory is always changing and the quantity is limited, but you can find some great deals! In fact, I should warn you to not browse unless you are looking to buy something in particular, especially if you have weakness for the clearance rack at Target. We’re trying to save money, not spend it. Remember?
Amazon Coupons
Amazon has coupons for everything from household goods to electronics. “Clipping” them electronically is simple. The trick is knowing that they even exist and how to find them. You’ll find them right here
then click on “coupons.”
Free Audible Trial- 2 Free Audiobooks
Audible is an Amazon company that specializes in audiobooks. They have the world’s largest selection of audiobooks. When you sign up for their free 30-day trial, you get 2 free audiobooks! You can cancel at anytime and keep the books that you’ve already downloaded. If you choose to continue with a membership after the trial, the price is $14.95 per month which includes 1 audiobook download and 30% off additional audiobook purchases.
How About you?
- What secrets do you have for saving money on Amazon?
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I love all you showed us all the ways Amazon can save money.
The free kindle e-books are a great way to save. I’ve gotten many good reads through there that have been extremely helpful for self improvement and personal finance.
Points!! I have an Amazon credit card and a Discovercard, both of which give me points that I can use toward purchases on Amazon. (Don’t worry, I pay my cc’s in full each month so no interest).
I love Amazon Warehouse Deals! I’ve only used them a couple times but I’ve always received my items in perfect working condition (though the package had damage… not that I care!)
I love Amazon! I wish it was as awesome north of the border as it is in the States, but it’s still my favourite online shopping store.
I buy a ton of books from Amazon and finally decided to check out their used book section. There are many vendors and almost every book sold through Amazon can be purchased through one of them. Many times you can get a hardback book for pennies. The sellers do this to try and get you as a repeat customer, plus they want good satisfaction reviews. The book’s condition is described anywhere from excellent to acceptable and if you buy one listed as excellent or very good quality, you get a book that is usually better than the library. I buy most books this way now and have been able to purchase 5-10 at a time for extremely little money. You do pay shipping but for the tiny book cost, it is worth it.