How do you find second-quality items?!?
On Amazon: It's not available for everything, but look underneath the "Add to Cart" button on the right, look underneath it -- it'll also be a colored button, and it'll say either "Buy used" or "See all Buying Options" or something close to that. Click that button, and you'll see what other choices exist.
This option is often available with books. Amazon will link you to independent book sellers, and you can see that a guy in Kansas has your book in "acceptable condition" for 3.99, while another in Maryland is selling the same book in "like new" condition for 2.99. I think I've focused on that because of college textbooks.
Right now I want a certain stained glass light fixture (so beautiful), but I needed three, and they are selling for $180 each. Clicking into all the options, I see that two are available for $30 each used. So I'm trying to decide whether to buy two used and wait /hope ... or whether to buy two used and one at full price. But my point is, options are available.
In other areas of my life: It varies:
- We pass by a little hole-in-the-wall outlet as we drive up to the college our oldest attended: Factory Sock Outlet. We've stopped in there a couple times, and now we will not need to buy socks probably for a decade. Love that place.
- When my kids were little, I knew a local woman who sold second-quality disposable diapers by the case.
- I shop at a shop-and-dent store that sells food that should've gone to fast food places, but the packages were damaged. I heard about it through word of mouth.
- I have Fiestaware dishes. They're pretty pricey at full price, but the factory holds a tent sale a couple times a year, and they sell seconds. Again, I heard about it through word of mouth.
- Ebay is always a place to find such things.
I think your problem may not be Amazon, but might be that your family is not tracking your expenses directly. I don't have Mint, but it sounds like if you buy something, it does not hit Mint until after the charge is processed which is at least a business day after Amazon ships the item...in the meantime you guys are buying more (crap?) items.
This sounds like something we've all heard before: Credit cards are neither good nor bad. Used well, they are convenient and provide you with rewards. Used poorly, they allow you to spend beyond your means and get yourself into financial straits.