How To Use Amazon Subscribe & Save to Beat Warehouse Club Prices
Amazon Subscribe & Save Program is a great way to get quality groceries, health/beauty, cleaning products and more delivered to your door for prices that beat warehouse club prices. All you need is knowledge of how the system works, the coupons available, and how to manage your subscriptions.
First, Amazon Subscribe & Save Program Details have changed recently.
Currently, if you are an Amazon Mom AND have five or more Subscribe & Save Orders in one month, you will receive a 15% discount on your entire Subscribe & Save order. You will also receive a 20% discount on diapers.
(Amazon Mom is FREE to join. However, after the trial period, you will then either need to become a paying Amazon Prime member, or forfeit your “Amazon Mom” status. An annual Amazon Prime membership is $100.00 and includes access to Amazon Instant Video, Kindle Lending Library, and FREE 2-Day Shipping.)
Also, the day you place your order for a Subscribe & Save item, that price is locked into place until your shipment. So even if the price goes up, you will pay the price you “locked” in when you ordered. NOTE: The price is only locked until shipment. After shipment, it then moves to auto-pay and you will pay the “current daily price” (minus any discounts) on subsequent subscriptions when they are shipped.
Subscribe & Save and Monthly Shipments
Amazon Subscribe and Save is an auto-renewal service.
This means when you sign up for a subscription to an item you will then begin receiving it on a regular basis (every one to six months). Unless it is an item you use often, the smartest thing to do is to choose a six month delivery. This allows plenty of time to decide if you would like another shipment or not. Remember, you can always change your scheduled delivery or cancel the subscription in “My Account” and click on “Manage Subscribe and Save” and click the cancel button next to the subscription to avoid future shipments. You can do this anytime after your first order arrives.
Also, Amazon ships your active subscriptions monthly. So one day every month, all of your subscriptions will ship from the Amazon Warehouse to your house. This day is important, because in order to manage your subscriptions (or cancel them) you need to know when the cut-off ordering date. You can change your delivery date in the settings under “My Account”.
Using Amazon Monthly Coupons
Amazon now has Amazon Monthly Coupons on certain items, many of which are Subscribe & Save items. These Amazon Coupons help lower the reduced Subscribe & Save rate even more. To figure out your price, take the item price minus your discount (5 – 20% for Subscribe & Save) and then the coupon amount. The coupons are only available for a limited period of time and many only have a limited number of prints. So check often.
Tracking Your Subscribe & Save Orders and Shipments
When you place a new order, Amazon will tell you how many subscription orders you need to get to the “magic” 15% level.
At that time, it might be wise to check out my Amazon Subscribe & Save Deals that are under $5.00. In many cases, these inexpensive items can help you get to the 15% discount for less than if you didn’t have the discount in place.
It is so important to track the prices of your current subscriptions. One of the mistakes people make with Amazon Subscribe & Save is they believe the “awesome” price they got the first time they subscribed will be the price they will always pay. That is not the case. Because subscribe and save is on auto-pay, you will pay the “price” that is current the day your item ships.
Knowing When To Keep A Subscription and When To Cancel
In most cases, if you placed a Subscribe and Save order only because it was a super low price and there was an Amazon Coupon, it is probably best to cancel the subscription after your shipment. There are many times that Amazon’s pricing is much higher than warehouse clubs, so it is important to have a price book and keep track of warehouse vs. Amazon pricing.
Also, if you manage your account, you can always re-up a subscription when there is an awesome price decrease or Amazon Coupon available.
How Does Amazon Subscribe & Save Beat Warehouse Club Pricing?
By managing your Amazon Subscribe & Save account, tracking the Amazon Coupons, and knowing your prices through a price book – I’ve been able to stock up on many paper, beauty, cleaning, grocery, and more products for significantly less than warehouse prices. It does take a little work, but the peace of not driving to a store, fighting crowds and shopping in my pajamas, is worth the few extra minutes every month.