When you’re juggling taking care of everything that breathes in your house and beyond, as well as your crazy job–finding time to drive to Target or the grocery store to load up on toilet paper, batteries, cereal, milk boxes, dish soap, tissues, coffee, cleaning supplies, bandages, and more isn’t as easy at it may seem. Your days of “popping into a store to pick up a few things” are over.
Hence, the beauty of Amazon’s Subscribe and Save program. Amazon’s program is super easy and straight forward. Simply go to their Subscribe & Save page and find thousands of everyday household items (health, child care, grocery, beauty, office, and pet products). Pick an item and sign up for free auto delivery every one to six months. You’ll save an additional 15% off Amazon’s already competitive prices.
You will always get email reminders from Amazon about an upcoming delivery so that you can change the delivery date to a later or earlier day. For instance, you can order an extra delivery of flu medicine if everyone in your house gets sick or hold off an another shipment of dish detergent when you still have a stockpile of four bottles. You can also cancel any Subscribe & Save item at any time so you’re not locked into unwanted purchases.
I’ve been using the Amazon Subscribe & Save program for about four years now, and the only things I would say to watch out for are: 1.) Going on vacation? Remember to check your upcoming delivery dates a couple of weeks before you plan on going out of town so that you can modify any package deliveries. 2.) If you have a lot of Subscribe & Save items (or canceled subscriptions) listed on your “Manage Your Subscribe & Save Items” page, be sure to look on page 2 of the item listing. Depending on how many active subscriptions and/or canceled subscriptions you have, there may be additional current subscriptions listed at the top of the second page. This is a weird formatting issue or savvy marketing strategy Amazon has used. 3.) Not all the prices are competitive. Bulky items like toilet paper may end up being a little cheaper at your local big box store, but weigh the price difference and decide whether it’s worth loading the kids in the car to save a dollar.
Note, if you have a child in diapers, be sure to join Amazon Mom. As a member of this free program, you get 30% off select diapers and wipes and shipping discounts (or free shipping). You also receive an occasional email with a specific discount on certain baby items like car seats or feeding accessories.
Now that you’ve saved all this time driving and shopping for staples at stores, maybe you can take a few minutes for yourself. Perhaps use the bathroom without your little one talking to you nonstop by the door? Well… maybe not.