Tonight at 9 PM EST 30 hours worth of deals begin for Amazon Prime Day. But will the deals on Amazon be worth it and how do you take the best advantage of them? I’m so glad you asked. Here’s my guide to Amazon Prime Day.
1. You Need Amazon Prime for the Deals
So don’t read me wrong. You don’t need Amazon Prime to survive. However, if you want to have access to the deals, you do need a Prime Membership. Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial
2. Is a Prime Membership Worth It?
This is certainly a household by household determination that depends heavily upon your expenses and budget. But, Amazon Prime has yearly increased the services offered to you. With Prime you can now:
- Take advantage of FREE 2 Day Shipping and sometimes even 1 day shipping.
- Amazon Prime Now: Free 2 hour delivery in specific geographic areas (includes Indianapolis)
- Access Prime Instant Video – a service similar to Netflix that grants access to thousands of movies and TV shows
- Listen to thousands of songs and albums for free through Prime Music, a streaming option similar to Pandora and Spotify.
- Store Your Photos for free. You can store an unlimited number of photos as a part of your membership.
- Borrow one of over 800,000 books for FREE per month thanks to the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. You don’t have to have a Kindle to access one, just any device with the FREE Kindle App. (FYI Slaying the Debt Dragon is is in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library).
- Amazon Family: 20% off diaper subscriptions and 15% off eligible baby registry items
Coming in at $99 per year, it really might be worth the cost for your family. For instance if you cancel cable and or Netflix, the expense works out to be roughly $8.25/month which is much more affordable than cable and around $0.26 more than the cheapest Netflix option at $7.99/month. Adding in the extra benefits, it just makes sense. The same goes for using Prime Music over Spotify ($10 per month) or Pandora ($4.99 per month). The unlimited photo storage is yet another one of those benefits most people don’t take advantage of and might be paying for through Dropbox or another Cloud storage program.
There are a few other smaller benefits to Prime, too (read about them here) but these five are the biggest money savers. In the end, I don’t think your household needs a Prime Membership to survive, but if you’re paying for these other services, you might want to see if you can streamline your expenses.
3. Is a FREE Trial Really Free?
I am the Queen of Free; however, I am ALWAYS skeptical of any sort of FREE trial. Oftentimes, you end up paying a pretty penny for something that wasn’t worth it after all. That being said, you may qualify for a 30 Day Free Trial of Amazon Prime. If you’re interested in shopping on Prime Day at all, you need to go ahead and sign up for that right now if you can. In 30 days, you don’t have to continue your membership; but you will need to manage your account so that it doesn’t automatically charge you when the trial period is over. You can even have it set a notification to send you an e-mail right before the membership is about to expire (that includes folks who pay for their membership because I just did that!) so you can alter the settings later.
Are you a college student or know one? You can get a free six month Amazon Student account to get the deals, too. Join Prime Student FREE Two-Day Shipping for College Students.
4. But Where Are the Deals?
You can already see some of the deals listed but not their specific prices yet. So if you’re in the market for specific products, you can browse through the Amazon Prime Day Page and mark deals you’d like to mark. Just be careful you don’t fall down the rabbit hole. In the past, Amazon has made the deepest discounts on their own products like Fire Tablets and Echo. We won’t see those specific prices until the day begins though. Speaking of Echo, those who have an Alexa enabled device like Amazon Echo or Amazon Dot get a two hour jump on the deals and special deals all of their own with Voice Shopping. Learn more here.
You’ll also want to follow Amazon on Facebook and Twitter for more deals. It wouldn’t hurt to check out the #PrimeDay hashtag either.
5. Use Amazon Assistant
Looking for deals on specific products? Consider downloading the Amazon Assistant tool bar. You’ll be able to set up shortcuts and monitor prices on your favorite items.
6. Download the Amazon App
You don’t have to stay planted at your desk all day to get great offers. Consider downloading the Amazon App to save money on the go. It will be one of the very best ways to monitor deals right from your own smart phone.
7. Don’t Forget Prime Now
Amazon’s Prime Now service will also be participating in all of the great fun. You can search for deals that will be delivered within an hour’s time.
If you’re already a Prime Member, you need to keep your eyes peeled on the deals. If you’re not a Prime Member and you qualify, you need to lock in your Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial. If you can’t get the trial, it’s up to you to decide if the $99/year expense is doable in your personal budget. Carefully weigh your needs with the benefits and of course, never borrow money to make any purchase happen!
My book is now available: Slaying the Debt Dragon: How One Family Conquered Their Money Monster and Found an Inspired Happily Ever After. You can also check out The Debt Free Devotional
This post contains an affiliate link. That means when you get a great deal or maybe even something for free, you also help our family pay off our mortgage early. And for that, we royally thank you!
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