Saving on Amazon: how to find the best deals

 Getting the best deals on Amazon

Anyone who knows me knows I'm a big amazon shopper. I even have a Facebook page and group dedicated to sharing the deals that I find. You can take the easy way out and like my page (HERE) and join my group (HERE) or you can learn how to find the best deals on Amazon as well. Read below if you didn't take the lazy way out.

For starters, you HAVE to have Prime. Just do it. You can sign up for a free trial and then it's $99 a year or if you're a student it's free for 6 months and then only $49 after that. 
Get it here: AMAZON PRIME

What do you get with your prime membership? Too much for me to even list but you can get all details on Amazon, I'm going to tell you what I use the most that make prime worth it to me.

- Free two day shipping: say no more. Anything that takes longer than two days now from other companies feels like it took a month.
- Prime Now: this isn't yet available in my area but you could be getting your purchases in one to two hours. I bet the two day shipping seems long to people with this coverage.
- Prime Video: comparable to Netflix. Download the app or use it on your smart tv. Lots of great programs for free and others to purchase. They now even offer channels like SHOWTIME and STARZ. You can even get a free trial:
- Photo Storage: UNLIMITED photo storage. My friends had been paying $50-$100 a year for photo storage websites with limited storage when they could have been getting unlimited storage PLUS all the other perks prime offers. 
- Amazon Family: 20% off diapers
- Early access for sales and deals
- Kindle books: Did you know you can choose one free Kindle book every month? Amazon will send you an email with a few book options and you can choose one for free. I save them up for beach reads. 
- Prime Music: lots of free songs, make your own playlists, etc.

Now you are convinced and you have amazon prime, so let's move on.

Find the deals:

First, check out the deals. Towards the top of Amazon's main page it says "Today's Deals." This is what we want. Here you will find lightening deals, coupons, sales, etc. You can search by category. Lightening deals means only a certain number of sales will be allowed at that price. If you see something you want grab it fast! 
Just because a deal or sale isn't listed here doesn't mean it doesn't exist; you'll just have to do some more searching for the item you want. I only buy things that are amazon prime. When you buy from a third party you are most likely buying a cheaper version from overseas. Sometimes third party sellers list an amazing deal, prices so low it makes no sense, but then they cancel all the orders and you are left to argue with them to get your money back. Amazon prime is legit.

Deals Pricing:

Amazon pricing is always changing. Amazon used to have a list price and a "sale" price however as many items were never at the list price Amazon is doing away with this and only showing one price. With prices changing all the time how do you know if this price you see is a deal? 
You check www.camelcamelcamel.com. 
On this website, just enter the item you are looking for and you can see the prices it has been on amazon: the highest to best price and when. It will tell you what price falls into a "good deal" category or "best deal." We want the best deal. If you see that the current price isn't a good enough deal for you, then you can set an alert. Once the price drops to your desired amount you will get an email to notify you and then you can make your purchase. Clearly, this isn't the approach you take for the birthday you have to go to next weekend, but you can start to set alerts for Christmas wish list items in October and wait things out. 

Subscribe and Save:

Have you gone into target recently for toilet paper and somehow spent $107 and have 7 bags full of who knows what? Been there, done that. Now I buy all household supplies (paper goods, cleaning, snacks,  diapers, etc) with subscribe and save. It's a monthly shipment but don't let that scare you. It's easy to cancel/change/update items each month and you always get a reminder email. Each item is an additional 5% off BUT if you have 5+ items that month all items are 15% off. Remember the today's deals page? I start there and search for coupons. If toilet paper is listed at a lower price, has a coupon, and I can get 15% off that's a good deal. Fill your subscribe and save up with those types of items for the best savings. Also I don't have to lug a 48 pack of toilet paper and other bulky items into the house. I also figure I'm saving money not buying an additional 25 unneeded items that I would have bought had I gone to Target - this is also what I tell my husband when he complains about breaking down all the boxes for recycling.

Pantry Box:

Not going to lie, I cannot figure this one out. I don't really see how it's worth it over subscribe and save. There are grocery and household items that are only available for a panty box. Each item takes up a certain percentage in your box until you fill it. I can't wrap my mind around this so let's stick with subscribe and save for now. 


What are your tips for finding great deals on Amazon? 

Trunk Club: How it Works & a Sneak Peek!

Trunk Club: My First Trunk!

Have you heard of trunk club? It's a service offered by Nordstrom where a stylist picks options and mails them to you. If you want to learn more, click TRUNK CLUB.

How it works:

My sister referred me to this service. My initial experience was really different than my sisters. I signed up with her stylist, answered some style and size questions, sent the stylist a message, and I was ready to go. Seemed odd...they didn't ask my price point, etc. My sister stated for her first box they talked on the phone about her price points, sizes, what she was looking for, and brands she liked. My sister did reach out to my stylist though and told her same style and price points as her so maybe that's part of it. My stylist messaged me back within an hour and had my trunk ready for me a few hours later.

I asked for a athletic wear trunk. I really just need to throw out all my work out clothes and start over. I got some Zella pieces from the Nordstrom sale and really liked them. That's also a pretty easy request for a stylist so I didn't give her much detail to go on. I find that with other similar services as well if you are open to a general category versus wanting specific pieces you will have a greater chance of being happy with your trunk.
Note: Trunk club will be starting to charge a $25 fee in October that can be put towards your purchase but I got my request in a week prior to this so no charge!

Initial Fix Options:

My fix included 12 items total. Shipping and returns are free. You may be asked to pay a $25 fee that will be put towards your purchase. Your stylist will send you pictures of what she has picked for you and then you have the option to remove. You can leave comments on all options. I only commented on the items that I removed to let her know why. There were three pairs of similar shoes; a white pair, a pleather pair, and a black quilted pair. I removed all but the quilted pair. It's almost winter and not white shoe weather and I have no idea what I would have worn the pleather pair with. When you remove an item you don't get a preview of the replacement, they just ship it out. My trunk shipped the next day.

The next step it to try it all on, keep what I like, and return what I don't. Stay tuned for my reveal in my next blog post!

Sneak Peek:

The items I will be receiving are below, along with two "mystery" items to replace the shoes.

What do you think of the options?

Stay tuned for my reveal post once I receive my trunk!

Want to see more reviews? Check out my sister's trunk reviews on her blog:

Why Won't Mom Clean the Basement.