Saving at Amazon

Amazon Prime costs $14.99/month. If you pay on an annual basis, you’ll only be charged $139. This is about $40 in savings per year overpaying on a monthly basis. 

If you’re a student, Amazon Prime costs $7.49/month or $69/year. Paying on an annual basis saves you $20.

Those who have an EBT card for government benefits can get Amazon Prime for $6.99/month. 

You might not need Amazon Prime for an entire year. Maybe you just need to use it for a couple of months to cash in on the free, 2-day shipping or watch a specific show on Amazon Prime Video. You optimize your costs by subscribing for a few months and then canceling your membership.

If you want to cancel your membership, you can do so at any time by clicking ‘Memberships & Subscriptions.’ From there, click on ‘Prime Membership Settings’ and then ‘Manage Membership.’ Canceling will be as easy as pressing a button.

Amazon Prime Day usually happens in mid-July. Since it’s a holiday Amazon made up, they’re not stuck to a strict schedule. The date changes a little bit from year-to-year. There are now also ‘Prime Day’ sales in October, which tend to bleed into Black Friday deals. Prime Day sales are only open to Prime members. 

If you don’t want to pay for a Prime membership, you can get a free, 30-day membership and then cancel before the trial period ends.

Amazon Prime is worth it for some people. You have to evaluate how much you’ll use each service, and how much money the service will save you. 

For example, a Prime membership gives you access to Amazon Family, which gives you 20% off diapers. So if you’re a new parent, your Prime membership may help you save money every month. It also gives you unlimited free photo storage, which can save you some money if you’re paying for a similar service somewhere else. 

And these are just two examples. There are a ton of Prime shopping perks that can help you save money every month. 

So, is Amazon Prime worth it? It all depends on how you use it.

There are tons of ways to get free stuff on Amazon. You can get access to free items whether or not you have a Prime membership, but obviously, the freebies get better when you’re also paying a subscription fee.

Some of the free items you can score include: 

• Free eBooks

• Free cloud storage

• Free Amazon credits

• Free music

• Free shipping

• Free streaming content

Nowadays you can buy Amazon gift cards almost anywhere, from your local grocery store to the pharmacy. But you can also purchase a gift card without ever leaving the house via Amazon itself.

First, you’ll pick the type of gift card you want: an eGift card, a physical gift card, or one that you print at home yourself. From there, you’ll pick the gift card’s design, amount, and where you’d like it sent. You have the option to include a message with your gift card. 

Then, it will be added to your card. To purchase, just check out using the payment method already associated with your Amazon account.

No, unfortunately, Amazon does not price match. But many other retailers, like Best Buy, will price match Amazon.

If you want to cancel your Prime membership or cancel an Amazon subscription, you can do so at any time by clicking on ‘Memberships & Subscriptions.'

From there, you’ll see options to cancel your Prime membership or manage your additional subscription services, like Subscribe & Save or add-on channels for Prime Video.

To make an Amazon wish list, use the drop-down box under ‘Hello, [your name]’. To the left, you’ll see your lists and be given the option to create a new one. 

You’ll be asked to name your list. From there, you can select specific items to add to your wish list and send your list to other people.

There are oh-so-many ways to make an Amazon return. You can: 

• Print out a return shipping label and drop your return off at a UPS location

• Make a return using Amazon lockers

• Return your item to your local Kohl’s

• Return your item to Whole Foods

Amazon Sidewalk is a service that uses a small amount of your home WiFi bandwidth to enable other Amazon devices within half a mile to connect to the cloud via Bluetooth, even if those devices belong to other people. According to Amazon, this is to improve device connectivity in the neighborhood. For instance, let’s say your dog runs away, but there’s an Amazon Tile on his collar. The device would lose connectivity once it got far enough away from your WiFi router. But if your neighbors all have Amazon devices, their Echos or Rings could help Amazon locate your dog. 

However, there are privacy and ethical concerns. While Amazon has high privacy measures in place, allowing strangers to use your device to connect to Amazon's cloud without your knowledge can be unsettling. Moreover, Amazon is using your internet bill to pay for a private network they can profit from without owning it or paying any expenses, which raises ethical issues.

Although the amount of bandwidth used by Amazon Sidewalk is negligible for most people, those who live in rural areas or have a data usage cap may face overage charges. Amazon Sidewalk is enabled by default, even if you purchased your device before it was released. You will need to disable it manually if you do not want Amazon to use your home WiFi in this way.

There are a number of ways to earn money on Amazon. Here are just a few: 

• Amazon Mechanical Turk. Honestly, this one doesn’t pay enough money to be worth your time. But essentially, you’ll be doing tasks companies need a human to do because AI can’t, like describing what you see in an image, calling restaurants to verify listed hours with another human being, or transcribing a podcast. 

• Deliver for Amazon Flex. Deliver Amazon packages with Amazon Flex for $18-$25/hour. This is a much more lucrative side gig than turking.

• Sell your crafts on Amazon Homemade. It’s like Etsy. But for Amazon.

• Flip items for a profit. You can resell up to 40 items per month as an Amazon Individual Seller.

Amazon Prime Student costs $7.49/month. If you pay on an annual basis, you’ll only be charged $69/year.

Amazon Subscribe & Save is a Prime benefit. It allows you to set up regular orders of household staples, like garbage bags and pet food. You can schedule orders at increments of once per month all the way up to once every six months.

When you set up Subscribe & Save for less than 5 items, you’ll get a 5% discount off your order. If you have 5+ unique items on your Subscribe & Save order, you’ll save 15%.

There are a number of ways to earn Amazon Promotional Credit, including: 

• Share your receipts. You can join the Amazon Shopper Panel to get paid $10 in Amazon digital credit every month. All you have to do is share ten of your non-Amazon receipts. There is a waitlist to join the Amazon Shopper Panel, however. You can sign up for the waitlist through the app.

• Choose ‘no rush’ shipping. Certain items will give you the option for no-rush shipping with an Amazon credit of a dollar or two. This is luck of the draw depending on the item you purchase, so always keep an eye on your shipping options at checkout.

• Use Amazon Reload. Did you know you can keep cash on your Amazon balance rather than paying with a card at checkout? You can set this up using Amazon Reload, and you’ll get a $10 credit when you load $100 to your balance as a new Reload user.

Amazon Trade-In gives you Amazon credit when you mail in select electronic devices. First, tell Amazon about your item to get a trade-in quote. You’ll then be given a free, printable shipping label. You ship your item at your closest UPS store or UPS drop-off location. Once it’s received, you’ll be issued an Amazon gift card for the amount of your trade-in quote.

First, go to the Amazon homepage. Then, click on ‘Today’s Deals.’ Next, scroll down the sidebar until you see the ‘Deals’ heading. Right under there, you’ll see Amazon lightning deals. Click to find all the current lightning deals!

The Amazon Shopper Panel is invite-only. If you don’t get an invite from Amazon organically, you can download the Amazon Shopper Panel app, log in with your Amazon account, and ask to join the waitlist.

Finding Amazon Warehouse deals is as simple as visiting the Warehouse landing page. Amazon Warehouse is only for Prime members.

To get Amazon digital credits, you must be a Prime member. Once you’ve jumped that hurdle, there are tons of ways you can find free digital credits when you choose no-rush shipping on select items at checkout.

Yes, you can use EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer) on Amazon. In fact, if you have an EBT card, you get a discounted rate on Amazon Prime membership. You’ll only pay $6.99/month.

Amazon Wardrobe is now Try Before You Buy. This service allows you to shop select clothing items and accessories – up to 6 per order – to try before you’re charged for them. You can keep any items you like by completing the checkout process on your Amazon account page. 

Items you don’t want? Simply place them back in the box and stick the return shipping label on your package. You have seven days to return the box to your local UPS store.

Try Before You Buy is only available to Prime members.