I love my Amazon Prime Membership because it saves me time and money BUT I know it is not financially practical for everyone! Here are some questions to ask yourself if you are considering one.
Do you live far away from family or have small children? If you do, Prime membership gives you free 2-day shipping, and not just to your address. You can have it shipped wherever for gifts at birthdays, Christmas, mother’s day, etc. so you would save money there. I buy stuff for my family all the time after comparing prices at Walmart, Home Depot, etc. I know it will show up in 2 business days and that I don’t have to go to a handful of stores with my kids to get a few things. This TOTALLY ROCKS when it comes to getting my own kids their gifts. I don’t have to lose out on spending time with my husband so I can go gift shopping while he watches the kiddos. I don’t have to hire a babysitter to go shopping!
Is it difficult to get out and go clothes shopping? People who say yes may be like me with small kids-can you picture me trying on clothes while my toddlers are crawling under the stall door?! Or maybe people say yes to this question because of a health problem. I recently discovered that Amazon has awesome clothing with not only free shipping whey you buy but FREE RETURNS on a lot of sizes and styles. This means if you try it on and it doesn’t fit right, isn’t the color you expected, or you plain just don’t like it, you can ship it back for FREE as long as you just tried it on, it hasn’t been washed, and it still has the tags on. I have loved ordering jewelry, scarves, leggings, boots, dresses, shirts, pants, EVERYTHING-knowing it’s free to me to return and I can try it on at home. To return an Amazon item, go into your orders online, choose the item you want to return, and they will email you a free shipping label. I print out the label and use the same package the item was sent in to return it. If you can drop it off at a UPS store free AWESOME. If you want someone to pick it up at your house they charge 1.00-3.00 for that option.
Do you wish you had access to more educational television? It’s irritating when my kids waste their screen time on entertaining shows that teach nothing or worse, teach that violence or calling names is a normal way to handle situations. Amazon Prime Members get access to Prime shows that our kids LOVE including Fireman Sam (teaches about safety), Daniel Tiger (teaches about how to handle feelings and different situations), Super Why (teaches about letters and reading), and Tumbleleaf and Stinky and Dirty both teach about figuring out ideas and answers. There are also many, many shows for adults. I love this bonus to our family with Prime and I feel like it saves us money on rentals and movie purchases.
Do you love to read new material? This for me personally is one I answer no to, at least on Amazon. Right now I don’t really have time for luxury reading as my day is full of necessary articles I look up on different aspects of raising my kids, nutrition stuff that is interesting to me to research and write about, etc. BUT my mother and sister-in law ABSOLUTELY LOVE this part of Amazon Prime, that gives them access to probably thousands of books on their kindle for FREE.
Do you love listening to music or having pre-selected stations that fit your style? Music is one of my biggest loves in life. I love to dance to it, sing to it, and drive with the radio on. Amazon has put together free playlists, commercial free, for every genre or type of music you could want. I like listening to country and high-beat, dance and exercise music.
The one thing I love most about Amazon is FREE TO EVERYONE, and that is……the reviews! From experience, I never purchase a product if it’s review on Amazon is less than 4-stars. I love reviewing the products I have purchased on Amazon to help others as well.
Would you like to be notified when a product drops in price? This is yet another free-bee to anyone, not just Prime Members. Amazon items are constantly changing prices, and they have a great system where you can “save for later” the items in your cart you think are too expensive at the moment or you just can’t afford yet. I must have a hundred things in my “save for later” cart. Whenever I log in I can go to my cart and click the alert box telling me prices have changed to view.
Do you like AMAZING customer service? Also free! Amazon has a 30-day return policy on most things, and I’ve had to call customer service twice in the last 4 years with stellar people waiting to help meet my needs and make me happy again! For example, one time I purchased a cell phone case for my husband to protect his phone at work (screen kept cracking) but the phone was NOT there in the given amount of time. I called customer service who apologized profusely, refunded my money for the phone case even though it showed it had already shipped, and put a ten dollar CREDIT to my account as well so I could get on and get a different case for free. The first case never did show up and the lady on the phone said that they were taking the seller of the case off of Amazon because of the complaints they had.
So let’s go over the financial decision of getting that Prime Membership. Free two-day shipping to ANY address in the United States, Free Prime Shows, Free Music, Free Prime Books, and free returns for Prime members on thousands of clothing items. Maybe you have family around, time to go clothes shopping by yourself, you use Pandora for free music, and you get books off of ebay or thrift stores. Maybe even if you do live far from family you could bring them gifts when you go visit, cutting the need for shipping at all! To be honest, Amazon Prime is worth it to me even now that we have moved back into town where family is. I love getting packages at my door so I can try on clothes, and I love purchasing gifts for my kids with it. You decide whether it would save you money and time or if it would be worth it to you!