18 Amazon Hacks & Secrets To Save You Some Serious Money
Whenever our family sits down to cut out unnecessary costs in our household budget our Amazon Prime membership always gets brought up and evaluated.
It’s so tempting to cancel our membership to save the $99 for the year.
However, every time we dive deeper into our costs vs. savings with Amazon, Amazon always wins.
Each and everytime we determine that our Prime membership is indeed worth every penny, as our savings always add up to much more than the membership cost. It’s just a no-brainer for us.
Here are some of the top (and yet little known) Amazon hacks and tricks to score big savings through Amazon.
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Table of Contents
1. Binge watch your favorite HBO shows for Free
You can get a free 14-day trial of premium channels. I love this! It allowed us to watch the latest season of Game of Thrones for free! Since we don’t have cable, getting HBO isn’t even an option for us through that route.
Now, it only works once for your account, but Amazon lets you sign up for premium channels without a contract. That means you can pick and choose the months you want to pay for.
It’s less expensive than renting an entire season and WAY less expensive than buying it. (Not really sure I can watch the whole season more than once.) So the next season of game of thrones will cost $15 bucks and will be worth every penny!
Check out their premium channels
2. Earn Free Amazon Gift Cards
If you have some downtime, you can earn free gift cards through Swagbucks. It’s free to sign up, and they give you points to do things like take surveys and watch videos. The videos are all pretty much ads.
I usually just open up the browser and let them run in the background while I do other things. Once you have enough points, you can get Amazon gift cards. Super easy.
Did you know you can share your Amazon account with your family? You can even have separate logins and payment info. They even have a special teen login you can let your teenagers have access.
They can put things into their own “cart” and then it sends you a text message with the details to see if you approve or not. This allows them to purchase music, apps or even real items while you get keep track of when and how.
Our teen loves shopping through Amazon. She gives us her hard-earned allowance and picks what she wants to get. She mostly uses it for her friends birthday & Christmas gifts, and it works out pretty well. Especially since we get to avoid the extra trip to Walmart.
4. Use the no-rush option and get perks
When you choose the no rush shipping, Amazon will give you credits for free pantry shipping or digital downloads. It’s small, but they add up pretty quickly if you shop through Amazon regularly. We have a nice little music collection built up.
5. Amazon Basics Brand
Amazon has their very own “store” brand. I personally LOVE store brands. They are always way more affordable, and often just as good as the pricey brands. Of course, always price compare, because sometimes you can find name brands for great prices too!
6. Always check out the “other colors”
Another amazon hack that a lot of people don’t know, the same item may have a lower price in a different color. Once I bought this awesome highchair from Amazon. They have a green option and a pink option. The green option was $20 dollars cheaper.
7. Amazon Coupons
Amazon often has coupons for certain products. I love digital coupons when there’s no actual “clipping.” It’s easy to just click the button and they get added to your cart automatically if you add the item too.
Check out all of Amazons Coupon Offers
8. Subscribe and save
The subscribe and save option is another Amazon hack that many people don’t utilize. You can subscribe to an item and save 5-15% really easily. The big bonus, there’s no commitment. So you can subscribe and save, then go to your subscription options and just cancel it if you change your mind.
9. Get a permanent 5% Amazon discount
If you get an Amazon Credit card you can get 5% cash back on all Amazon and Whole Foods purchases. (Amazon recently bought whole foods.) You get 2% back on select gas and grocery purchases, and 1% back on all other purchases.
This is only beneficial if you actually pay off your credit card in full each month, so use it like you would a debit card.
Otherwise, you’ll pay a high price in interest rates, and basically cancel out all of your savings.
10. Get 2 Free Audio Books
Audiobooks are great for those who have a long commute. My husband is an avid reader and he used to have an hour-long commute. He would often pop in an audiobook he got from the library.
Audiobooks are great for road trips too! They can add entertainment, a sense of adventure or even inspire you to better yourself during your travels!
You don’t even have to leave home to get 2 free audiobooks. Sign up for a 30-day free trial and two free books of your choice.
If you decide it’s not for you simply cancel after you get your two free books.
11. 20% off of diapers
The cheapest diapers I have found have been on Amazon. If you have prime you automatically have Amazon Family too. Amazon family allows you to get 20% off of diaper subscriptions.
They get shipped to your door automatically without ever having to worry about running out. When your little one changes sizes, you just go to your subscriptions and change your order.
I get Huggies diapers for 14 cents a piece for each of my little ones regularly. I haven’t found a deal for less than that anywhere else on a consistent basis.
Check out all of the Amazon Family Perks
12. Amazon Warehouse
Another huge money saving amazon hack is to shop in the Amazon Warehouse for big purchases. Their warehouse is usually full of open-box and refurbished items, which means substantial savings for you.
And no worries about something being damaged or not working properly, they’ll give you your money back if you purchase something with a problem.
My sister bought a refurbished MacBook for a few hundred less than a new one, and you would have never known it wasn’t brand new.
Check out the Amazon warehouse
13. The Amazon Outlet
A really fun Amazon secret area is their outlet. Unlike the warehouse, all the outlet items are clearance items that are new. They are trying to get rid of this inventory usually because they are discontinued items, and they are trying to make room for newer items. This means you can find lots of items at really steep price drops. They call them “flash sales” and usually only last a few hours.
Just be careful! There are so many fun items that pop up it can be tempting to purchase items you don’t really need.
Check out the fun items in the outlet
14. Free video subscription
If you have Amazon make sure you’re taking advantage of their free video subscription.
It’s like Netflix, but with a different selection of movies and shows. Between Amazon and Netflix, you won’t miss cable.
15. College students Get Prime for Free
At least for the first 6 months. After that students get a deep discount of 50% after the trial.
16. Amazon Prime at a discount
Did you know that some people qualify for a 50% discount on Amazon prime? If you have an EBT or Medicaid card you can get amazon prime for 1/2 half off.
17. Watch for Price Drops
If the price drops on an item you’ve recently purchased, you can simply email amazon and ask for the discount too!
The item has to be a fulfilled and shipped by Amazon item, which I usually recommend buying anyway.
But if you notice the price drop within 30 days, take advantage of their good business values, and request the discount.
18. Get Free Apps
Did you know that Amazon also offers free apps. This is a great way to save money.
Free apps can save your money on your grocery, or offer free entertainment for your kiddos. They even have some of the best free apps for toddlers.
