Save Money and Time With Amazon Subscribe and Save
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The Subscribe and Save Program can be a great way to save time and money if you know how to work the system well. Use these Amazon Subscribe and Save deals to maximize your savings on products you use every day!
I honestly have no idea what parents did before Amazon was a thing. Since becoming a mom, I have learned to utilize Amazon and it’s many services to their full potential and it has saved me tons of hours and lots of dollars, which I can then invest back into my kids (both the time and the dollars, because I hear college can be pricey).
I started using the Amazon Subscribe and Save program right after our oldest was born just as a way to make sure I never ran out of formula or diapers. It was a life saver and my husband is grateful that he never rarely had to run out to the grocery store at midnight on a diaper run.
Since those early days, I have added on other household items that we use on a routine basis and I feel like I have become somewhat of an Amazon Subscribe and Save pro.
DO YOU NEED AMAZON PRIME TO USE SUBSCRIBE AND SAVE?
No! While I love Amazon Prime and think it has many perks, you do not need a Prime Membership to utilize Subscribe and save. Unless a product says “PRIME ONLY”, you can add it to your subscribe and save plan without the additional cost of a Prime Membership.
Adding a product to your subscribe and save plan automatically makes the shipping free, which is one of the big benefits of Prime. And since your products some on a monthly schedule, you don’t really need the 2-day shipping feature that is so popular with Prime.
I still think there is a lot of benefit to Amazon Prime, so if you haven’t explored that service yet, you can click here to try Amazon Prime free for 30 days!
HOW AMAZON SUBSCRIBE AND SAVE WORKS
So here are the basics of the Subscribe and Save service:
You choose items that you would like to have automatically sent to your house on a monthly (or less frequent basis). Fill your cart with as many or as few items as you want. If you have 4 or fewer items, you get a 5% discount on the price of each product. If you choose 5 or more items, the discount increases to 15%. That 15% is really what you are shooting for!
Diapers and formula are 20% off if you order 5+ items and have Amazon Prime. That is a part of the Amazon Family program that you don’t have to complete any additional steps to sign up for. How great is that!
You lock in the price of an item when you add it to your subscribe and save cart. If that item is priced low when you add it to your purchase list, you get to benefit from that low price as long as you leave it in the rotation. This will help maximize your savings and beat the prices of larger bulk buy stores.
HOW TO DETERMINE FREQUENCY OF SUBSCRIBE AND SAVE PRODUCT DELIVERIES
Orders are shipped monthly (close to the end of the month), but you can customize the frequency based on your needs. This is the tricky part. Too infrequent, and you are scrambling to buy a small amount of a product that you may have already paid for. Too often and you end up with a linen closet full of paper towels.
You can skip a month of a product if you don’t need it. For example. I don’t need my deliveries of feminine products right now since I am pregnant, but I got them at a low price, so I don’t want to cancel the subscription. So I just keep bumping back my delivery of tampons each month before my shipment is scheduled to go out for delivery. Easy!
I try to check my deliveries in the middle of the month to be sure that I am not getting a product that I don’t need yet. Set a reoccurring reminder on your calendar for a week before your Subscribe and Save products are supposed to be shipped so you can make sure to put in your adjustments before it is too late!
ITEMS TO ADD TO YOUR SUBSCRIBE AND SAVE PLAN
When selecting which products you would most benefit from in Subscribe and Save, think about what items are a part of your daily routine. For us right now, that is Pull-Ups and lots of Kleenex. For my in-laws, that might be Caffeine Free Diet Coke. For you, it may also include coffee pods.
You can get all of those on Subscribe and Save and save up to 15% of things that you can’t live without!
Here are some items that I would recommend adding to your Subscribe and Save List. These will certainly help get you started so you always have 5 products in your cart and get that 15% savings!
Household:
- Toilet Paper
- Paper Towels
- Laundry Detergent – I waaay overestimated how much laundry I would actually be doing when I first set up Subscribe and Save and that led to an entire cabinet being full of Tide Pods. Good news is I can just keep delaying my next delivery of laundry detergent until I have depleted my stash.
- Air Filters – There are several new services that will send you your Air Filters so you don’t forget to change out those bad boys, but why spend the service fee when you already have Amazon that can do this for you? And for 15% off!
- Dishwasher Detergent
- Affresh – I am a huge fan of the entire Affresh line. At the start of the month, I run all of my appliances on self-clean mode with an Affresh tablet. This makes Subscribe and Save ordering easy because I know exactly how many Affresh tablets I need over a time period. I recommend these products:
- Pet Food – I do not miss lugging this bag around the grocery store. Thanks, Amazon!
- Garbage Bags
- Tissues – If you have kids, you may want to increase the quantity of tissue boxes you get monthly. We get 6 boxes every month and pretty much use them all. I never want to run out of tissues! You may also want to decrease the frequency in summer months, and increase it in winter months.
- K-Cup Coffee Pods
- Swiffer Sweeper and Mop Refills
Baby
There are so many brands to choose from on Subscribe and Save and remember that you get a 20% discount on diapers, formula and infant snacks if you have 5 products in your monthly shipment! Frequency will depend heavily on the baby, so keep track of what works for your family.
- Formula
- Diapers – It is really easy to change the size of the diapers as your child grows. Just make sure you update sizes before your monthly delivery ships!
- Pull-Ups – even pull-ups get a 20% discount on Subscribe and Save!
- Snacks – There are so many snack options that you can get on Subscribe and Save so add a few to your list and have them deliver on alternating months. That may help you move from 4 to 5 items one month and get that extra 10% savings on the rest of your products!
- Wipes
- Diaper Genie Bag Refills
Personal
- Mascara – You are already supposed to be switching out your mascara after 3 months, so it is great to get a reminder to do that when your new delivery comes in the mail!
- Razor Blade Refills
- Vitamins – So easy to calculate the shipment frequency on this because their vitamin count is on the packaging. 30 vitamins? Ship every month. 60 count? Ship every 2 months. I have my prenatal vitamins on subscribe and save and you can get kids vitamins as well.
- Feminine Products – My husband was thrilled when I figured out I could Subscribe and Save these and stop sending him out for urgent tampon runs.
- Collagen Powder
There are over 400 pages of items on Amazon that are eligible for Subscribe and Save. Odds are, most of the products you order on Amazon are able to come to you via Subscribe and Save.
What are you putting on your Subscribe and Save list?
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