Shopping at Amazon can help you save money

I am sure you have noticed the Amazon widget and aStore link on the side bar. Shameless advertising? Perhaps. But in all honesty, I am a huge fan of Amazon. All of the things listed in the widget are things I have personally purchased through Amazon myself. There are also a few things in my favorites list that I have purchased, including a PS3 console. That was probably the largest item I have purchased via Amazon ever.

My husband is a huge fan of Senseo. He has a machine at home and at work, and uses both frequently. We found, however, that the Senseo coffee pods could be purchased via Amazon more cheaply than we could buy them, even at Wal-Mart. These pods even ship free on Super Saver shipping if you place an order of $25 or more. Amazon often offers promotions that include Senseo pods, so we stock order a case every few months to keep hubby happily caffeinated.

Moving back to the PS3 console. This was actually cheaper for us to buy through Amazon as well. Purchasing through Amazon had an excellent benefit of avoiding sales tax in our state, and it shipped free (signature required). It came with a bundle that was quite comparable with other offers at the time and the price was comparable as well. Hubby had been dying for one of these, so I converted my $250 Debit card to an Amazon code*, applied the code to my account (banked it) and then paid the difference with my credit card. Since the $250 card was from a prize win, that left me only owing $150 for a PS3, a great deal. Buying the PS3 online saved us $20 in sales tax.

I must confess I did an large amount of Christmas shopping on Amazon as well. For me, I could buy something there at a price comparable to a regular store, and skip the shipping. Since none of my family lives in this State and most of my gifts needed shipped, shopping through Amazon meant I could save myself the stress of standing in line to ship gifts. I just ordered presents, zipped a quick email to the recipient saying that I ordered their gift from Amazon (and no peeking!) and saved myself a bunch of time and money.

Of course, we have Amazon Prime, which though it is $80 a year, we'd have a hard time living without. Two day shipping on most items was very helpful at Christmas time (did I mention I was a last minute shopper?) and throughout the rest of the year, we can just order what we need or want, disregarding the $25 necessity of super saver shipping. The ability to just order what we need, provided it is able to be shipped via Amazon Prime, does let us get some great bargains. Just the other day, I ordered a Play-doh set on clearance for $10. If I had needed to spend the $25 to get super saver shipping, I would have spent an hour looking for something just to fill the gap. When a deal is hot, you don't want to spend an hour looking for something else to hit that magic number. I did that once with a deal on sheets and by the time I found something else to get me eligible for super saver shipping, the item was sold out (even though it was in my cart!)

I encourage everyone to check out Amazon. While not everything is a great deal, some things are definitely cheaper and you can't beat the convenience of shopping in your pink fuzzy robe.


(*note here: if you have a pre-paid debit card you want to convert to Amazon, your card must either be registered to you via the online site you got it from, or it must have your name on it. "Gift recipient" generally does not go through and the next important thing to know is that Amazon will ping your card for $1 to make sure it is valid. Therefore, you need to purchase an Amazon code for $1 less than the value of your card. I learned this quite the hard way. But the $1 will be refunded in a week or 10 days, and you are left with a prepaid card with just a buck on it.)