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Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last decade or so you’ve probably heard of a little company called Amazon.  But many people don’t know that Amazon offers a subscription service at an even deeper discount than their already low prices.

Subscribe & Save is available to all Amazon shoppers, no membership purchase required!  I repeat, you do not need to be an Amazon Prime member to take advantage of this program.

How does it work?

By subscribing to an Amazon item you are signing up to have that item automatically shipped to you every 1-6 months (your choice).  You can edit, skip, or change your delivery at any time.

Subscribe & Save items are discounted an additional 5% automatically.  However, if you have more than 5 different items delivered in one order, your discount goes up to 15%!

And there’s no need to be nervous about forgetting and receiving a delivery you don’t need (remember those CD of the month clubs?).  Amazon sends you an e-mail before your order ships so you can change or cancel it if needed.

Subscribe & Save items are shipped together and delivered by the same day each month.  This is how Amazon saves money, and passes those savings on to you.  If you need more of an item before your subscription date you can select “Need more right away” and your order will be shipped immediately (discounts don’t apply).

All Subscribe & Save orders are shipped free!  No Prime or Amazon Mom membership required.  Learn more here.

How to get the most out of Subscribe & Save.

Make a list.  What are things you buy a lot of on a regular basis?  For us, the item that got us started with Subscribe & Save was canned dog food.  Once we tried and liked the service I started looking for other things we used regularly.

Compare prices.  Not everything on Amazon is a bargain.  I found several items that were far more expensive online than they were at Target or my local grocery store.  Keep an eye on the prices, too, because they can change.

Plan your deliveries.  You have to have 5 subscriptions delivered in a month to get the full discount of 15%.  Plan out your deliveries to ensure you will always have 5 items, stocking up on some if necessary.  If you find that you have extras of everything, you can simply skip a month of deliveries without penalty.

Here’s our list of items, and how much we save:

excel file

Yep.  We save $513.67 a year to have items we need delivered to us.  That doesn’t include gas money or the money we save by avoiding a trip to Target, with its mesmerizing eye.

I’m a big fan of Subscribe & Save and highly recommend it.  But if you’re a frequent online shopper, you can’t do any better than Amazon Prime.  Right now Amazon is offering a 30-day free trial of Prime, including Prime Video Streaming.  You can learn more or sign up by clicking below.

Learn more about Amazon Prime with Instant Streaming Video.

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