The Money Mustache Community
General Discussion => Share Your Badassity => Topic started by: jnw on March 01, 2023, 05:48:17 PM
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I know there is already a long thread about this here on the forum. In that thread I said there was no way I was going to give up prime, the benefits were too good etc.. i.e. fast shipping, amazon prime video & 5% cash back on Amazon Prime Credit card.
But I cancelled as of the end of 2022. Saving $139.99. It's been 2 months and ya know what? I don't miss it at all. I just make sure to get $25 worth of stuff in the cart before placing an order, to avoid a shipping fee. It comes soon enough. If its less than $25 I just leave it in the cart until I need a second item then buy it. Or I might combine a regular purchase I get each month with the order: e.g. liquid stevia and my multivitamin.
I haven't really missed the videos. There's already too much free content elsewhere keeping me busy. But once the next season of Marvelous Mrs. Maisel finishes, I'll probably subscribe to it briefly.
I am constantly being offered to try Prime for one week for $1.99. I will use this offer if there is something I need shipped to me really fast and then binge watch the new season of Mrs. Maisel that same week, cancelling before they charge me the $14.99.
I don't use kindle unlimited, photo storage or amazon music so I am not tied to the platform. I use google drive for the images.
I'm still getting 3% cashback on my Amazon Prime purchases from Chase. I am finding I don't buy as much from Amazon now that I don't have a subscription which is a bonus. Finding a lot of their stuff is priced too high anyways.
Here's the link to the $1.99 special for prime for a week:
https://www.amazon.com/amazonprime
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Good for you! I've never had Amazon prime, so this reinforces my decision to go without it.
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Cancelled mine last year as well. Good riddance to another subscription fee!
The only ones still clinging to me are Netflix, which I just halved to $10 monthly, Peacock for $1, and Spotify for music for $12.99. Seems like nothing but still almost $3k over 10 years!! It's crazy to think how much those who have no control over their spending, are spending on subscriptions. It's the new way not so new way for corporations to bleed people dry without them realizing it.
Some are spending:
Cell phones: $300+/month
Cable/Internet: $200
Streaming of all kinds: $100....in addition to cable
Meal subscriptions, monthly nails, hair, eyelash, etc(sorry ladies, but its true for so many)
Just the first three come to over $70k in ten years.....for literally *nothing*.
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I want to do this too. (also love Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) Honestly the shipping benefits aren't that good anymore. Everything I order is delayed.
What I'm not sure what to do about is my music play lists I've created with Amazon. Can you just subscribe to Amazon Music?
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Welcome to the resistance, OP! I've never had Amazon Prime myself but I see the appeal and respect someone who announces they've changed their mind about something upon further consideration. If you have any interest in further reducing or eliminating your spending at Amazon, this blog post spoke to me: https://www.bitchesgetriches.com/stop-feeding-amazon/ (https://www.bitchesgetriches.com/stop-feeding-amazon/). I'm also in the "it can wait 'til what I want in my cart is >$25" crowd of Amazon user, but try to stay away all together and was very pleased with a 2022 personal best (low) of about $75 in annual Amazon spending.
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Thanks for the replies. When I first signed up Amazon Prime was only $69 per year and you didn't have to pay sales tax on the items either.. and they arrived in 48 hours consistently. That's all changed now. They come way late, you get charged sales tax (which I agree is a good thing for the brick & mortar companies.. Amazon really destroyed them unfairly) and they got crazy and decided to go to $139 from $119.. That was the last straw.. stupid move if you ask me.. I bet they are losing a lot of subcribers perhaps.
Just not finding the deals like I used to on Amazon. Also I noticed today that Aldi is starting to not be such a great deal anymore either. I keep a price book and Walmart has them beat in pricing on many things now. I'll just have to keep going to both and keep eyes on prices at both places, and pick the best. I also do this with Sam's and Winco. E.g. eggs at Walmart are now $2.47 but Aldi wants $3.10. Frozen blueberries are a couple cents per oz more expensive at Aldi compared to Walmart.. Winco is the best by far on teh frozen blueberries.
I am not sure what to do about the music, I usually buy CD's for 50 cents to $1 at flea market and rip them on my computer and listen in Music app. Or watch a free music video on youtube. I've never used the music app on amazon nor with apple.
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Took advantage of it as a student for free, but never felt like I needed it.
I always opt for free shipping that I wait for, and often stuff comes ahead of schedule.
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I used a trial month early this year to use up a Christmas gift card from work but canceling was a no-brainer. I have a great public library for books & some streaming movies, free streaming for the rest, & rarely shop beyond groceries. Most of the time I can find products on other sites with free shipping for the same price & Amazon has terrible labor practices anyway so I regard them as a last resort.
It’s nice to see that cash flow improve, right?
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We have and love it only because we have a legacy free subscription.
I'd have a much harder time paying for it. I would have to see if it balanced out against the gas that we would spend on store trips for certain things: it might, or it might not, and I really don't have a strong sense of which it would be.
Instead, we're thankful for our free prime and hoping that it lasts as long as possible.
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I used a trial month early this year to use up a Christmas gift card from work but canceling was a no-brainer. I have a great public library for books & some streaming movies, free streaming for the rest, & rarely shop beyond groceries. Most of the time I can find products on other sites with free shipping for the same price & Amazon has terrible labor practices anyway so I regard them as a last resort.
It’s nice to see that cash flow improve, right?
I've never seen a trial month, just a trial week for $1.99 or the student prime offer -- not a student here. I guess the reason I don't see the trial month offer is that I haven't been unsubscribed long enough? I imagine they think I'll come crawling back on my own... bwahaha.. NOT!
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I used a trial month early this year to use up a Christmas gift card from work but canceling was a no-brainer. I have a great public library for books & some streaming movies, free streaming for the rest, & rarely shop beyond groceries. Most of the time I can find products on other sites with free shipping for the same price & Amazon has terrible labor practices anyway so I regard them as a last resort.
It’s nice to see that cash flow improve, right?
I've never seen a trial month, just a trial week for $1.99 or the student prime offer -- not a student here. I guess the reason I don't see the trial month offer is that I haven't been unsubscribed long enough? I imagine they think I'll come crawling back on my own... bwahaha.. NOT!
You can typically get a trial month once or twice per year. Between my spouse and I we usually end up with free Amazon Prime at least two months out of the year. I'll occasionally pay for a week for $1.99 if I need something quick that I can't get locally and I'm in the middle of a project. You can set a reminder in your phone or wherever to check once per month for a free trial.
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You can typically get a trial month once or twice per year. Between my spouse and I we usually end up with free Amazon Prime at least two months out of the year. I'll occasionally pay for a week for $1.99 if I need something quick that I can't get locally and I'm in the middle of a project. You can set a reminder in your phone or wherever to check once per month for a free trial.
Thanks, where do you check for the free trial month? In the same URL I gave above which offers me the $1.99 one week deal?
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You can typically get a trial month once or twice per year. Between my spouse and I we usually end up with free Amazon Prime at least two months out of the year. I'll occasionally pay for a week for $1.99 if I need something quick that I can't get locally and I'm in the middle of a project. You can set a reminder in your phone or wherever to check once per month for a free trial.
Thanks, where do you check for the free trial month? In the same URL I gave above which offers me the $1.99 one week deal?
I typically just Google "Amazon Prime Free 30 Day Trial" I think it's the first or second link. Probably a dedicated link but I'm just lazy about it. Ha!
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Thanks for this thread.
I totally forgot that since I'm a student I could get prime for free for 6 months.
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We quit during the pandemic. Deliveries were slow, Target was the same price/cheaper. Lots of junk/knock offs. We never used the video portion either. (certainly I understand if you do use prime video instead of Netflix it's not a bad option/maybe cheaper after the Netflix price hikes?)
What absolutely fascinated me was the number of people who would defend amazon and tell us we need to stick with prime. I started casually mentioning canceling prime to anyone I could to get more reactions. Almost everyone defends Amazon and says you *should* have prime. Amazon is not a big faceless company that people sort of don't like, it's a big faceless evil company that people love.
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... What absolutely fascinated me was the number of people who would defend amazon and tell us we need to stick with prime. I started casually mentioning canceling prime to anyone I could to get more reactions. Almost everyone defends Amazon and says you *should* have prime. Amazon is not a big faceless company that people sort of don't like, it's a big faceless evil company that people love.
I wonder if the reason for this is BECAUSE it’s increasingly known as an evil company. If people object to any of the ways it’s harmful but want to keep using it themselves, they need to believe “everyone” does, for diffusion of responsibility. Not dissimilar to the irrational anger at others when they say they don’t want to spend money, drink alcohol, eat junk - it puts the lie to the idea that you “can’t get by” without doing so.
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We dropped our Prime membership as part of our new year financial housekeeping after 10+ years. I think we got it when they first offered it, and it was worth it then.
What we discovered was that somehow we had both ended up with separate memberships. No idea how it happened, or how long it had been going on. Amazon certainly never brought it to our attention.
We haven't missed it a bit, and we're saving more than the membership fee because we're not tempted to order something for $5.99 pronto. The neighborhood doesn't need one more delivery van.
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I'd really like to drop Prime, but I think I probably should keep it. In Hawaii it's one of the very few free shipping options, and also Amazon is a place where we can reliably source things that can be really hard to find anywhere else for us. Hardly anyone else ships free to Hawaii, and for many items (especially home furnishings), the shipping can cost almost as much as the product.
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And it is fairly fast shipping to Hawaii too. Or at least it can be. I just ordered a light fixture which will take a week, but I've ordered other items that only took a couple of days.
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Ooooh I don't post much, but I am eager to add my STRONG FEELINGS about Amazon Prime. I had Prime for years, then cancelled in ~2017.
I pause/unpause my Prime membership a couple times a year, for Prime Day sales, Christmas shopping, or one TV show. Overall, I'm not impressed by the catalog of shows/movies available on Prime.
Like @JenniferW and @draco44, I also add items until my cart reaches $25. My purchases are rarely urgent. Once or twice a year, I may pay for shipping fees if I need something urgent, and it's still cheaper than paying for Prime. One of my biggest pet peeve is when people referred to the "free" shipping. IT'S NOT FREE!!! You paid $12/mo.
Shortly after I cancelled (paused, technically) Prime, I was texting with my friend. BFF was telling me about how her younger sister, a grad student, was feeling broke. I excitedly told her how the sister could save $100+/yr by cancelling Prime. My BFF's hilarious response: "she's poor not a savage", haha. But yeah, most people in my life pay $139/yr very matter-of-factly - you know, like paying the water bill, heating bill, Prime bill. (insert eye-roll here)
In a previous job at a big tech company, I worked in the payments org. A coworker was presenting on best practices re: subscriptions, and asked the audience to guess which companies have the highest renewal rates. IIRC, Amazon Prime had the highest renewal rates by far, like 95%+. Even Verizon, Xfinity, and other service-based subscriptions had renewal rates that were much lower.
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Oh wow, I was saying I haven't run across a 30 day free prime trial but I just got one, just now. Only 2 months after quitting, lol. Good timing because I need a new computer mouse which costs $13.99 and don't want to have to wait :) I wonder if I can cancel immediately after subscribing and not lose the subscription, or if I should setup a calendar event a few days before the 30 days are up.
EDIT: I wonder if Amazon is somehow tracking what I say on forums about Amazon prime and me wondering when I am going to get the 30 day offer. Wouldn't surprise me lol. Maybe that' swhy I got the offer that is.
(http://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1vJZFXAGUvrfpiSYP7YNtU3ZxV8vrxUvt)
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Oh wow, after subscribing to prime wit this free 30 day trial, the price of the mouse dropped from $13.99 to $11.99 hrm.. interesting. I didn't know they lower the price if you have prime membership. But getting for $11.99 and 5% cash back on that instead of 3%.. all for free.. truly free. for 29 more days that is.
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Oh wow, after subscribing to prime wit this free 30 day trial, the price of the mouse dropped from $13.99 to $11.99 hrm.. interesting. I didn't know they lower the price if you have prime membership. But getting for $11.99 and 5% cash back on that instead of 3%.. all for free.. truly free. for 29 more days that is.
That's awesome!!! We are rocking the Amazon Basics wired mouse and have been for several years. It was dirt cheap.
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Oh wow, after subscribing to prime wit this free 30 day trial, the price of the mouse dropped from $13.99 to $11.99 hrm.. interesting. I didn't know they lower the price if you have prime membership. But getting for $11.99 and 5% cash back on that instead of 3%.. all for free.. truly free. for 29 more days that is.
Amazon does a lot of dynamic pricing. I seem to recall getting one price at home (cookies in the browser?) and on mobile/different IP getting different prices. If you are out, ask friends to go on amazon and tell you the price. It will be different. They adjust to get you to buy or their sense of your desperation to buy.
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Thanks for this thread.
I totally forgot that since I'm a student I could get prime for free for 6 months.
And discounted for a few years after that.
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Oh wow, after subscribing to prime wit this free 30 day trial, the price of the mouse dropped from $13.99 to $11.99 hrm.. interesting. I didn't know they lower the price if you have prime membership. But getting for $11.99 and 5% cash back on that instead of 3%.. all for free.. truly free. for 29 more days that is.
Amazon does a lot of dynamic pricing. I seem to recall getting one price at home (cookies in the browser?) and on mobile/different IP getting different prices. If you are out, ask friends to go on amazon and tell you the price. It will be different. They adjust to get you to buy or their sense of your desperation to buy.
Just go on camelcamelcamel. It will show you the history of the price of any item on Amazon. If the item is priced too high, put it on your wishlist and wait for it to drop.
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Oh wow, after subscribing to prime wit this free 30 day trial, the price of the mouse dropped from $13.99 to $11.99 hrm.. interesting. I didn't know they lower the price if you have prime membership. But getting for $11.99 and 5% cash back on that instead of 3%.. all for free.. truly free. for 29 more days that is.
Amazon does a lot of dynamic pricing. I seem to recall getting one price at home (cookies in the browser?) and on mobile/different IP getting different prices. If you are out, ask friends to go on amazon and tell you the price. It will be different. They adjust to get you to buy or their sense of your desperation to buy.
Jerks , how annoying, lol. I think I’ll have to check camelcamelcamel (as suggested here) for each and every purchase. Amazons gonna learn fast I’m not desperate.
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I wonder if I can cancel immediately after subscribing and not lose the subscription, or if I should setup a calendar event a few days before the 30 days are up.
My experience has been that you can cancel now and still use the subscription for the full 30 days. They are very clear about the fact that you've canceled; I think they send you an email confirmation. They may not do a good job elsewhere in their business, but the Amazon cancellation experience is really good.
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Oh goodie, it looks like they are paying ME for this 30 day free sub :)
(http://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1DKmLOFUcN-khs0QfZitMvAcdkHZG_NYO)
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We not huge online shoppers but the Prime video is worth it for us. The shopping perks, including Whole Foods, are just a bonus. I tend to use my prime day for shipping to keep deliveries as infrequent as possible and to minimize waste. I let orders pile up in my cart for a while before placing orders.
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So I bought another item from Amazon to take advantage of that $5 off coupon. A smart light switch, so it automatically turns off / on lights depending on time of day. This will pay for itself in a few months. It was like $15. But I saw no way to redeem the $5 credit .. they said I could do it after the item ships, but there was no way. So I contacted support and he issued the $5 credit to my account manually.
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So I bought another item from Amazon to take advantage of that $5 off coupon. A smart light switch, so it automatically turns off / on lights depending on time of day. This will pay for itself in a few months. It was like $15. But I saw no way to redeem the $5 credit .. they said I could do it after the item ships, but there was no way. So I contacted support and he issued the $5 credit to my account manually.
Just curious, how does the math work for the switch to pay itself off? I'm assuming you have LED lights? Don't they cost only a few dollars to run 24/7 for an entire year?
Even an incandescent bulb, according to Google, only costs about 20c/day to run 24/7.
So how many lights are you leaving on when you don't need them that this will pay itself off in a few months??
Am I missing something? Genuine question, not being facetious, I just can't figure out how this would work.
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If you leave a 13 watt LED bulb on 24/7 it costs $13 per year to run if I recall correctly. I have 5 bulbs on the circuit ( 3 in the dining room and 2 out on the back patio -- all on same circuit). $5 x 13 = $65. If they run half the time it's $32.50. They don't need to be running during the day. So I can setup Alexa to automatically turn them on/off on sunset/sunrise, with this light switch.
I like the dining room lights on at night as well as the porch light.. for our protection, to light up the back yard, to let people know we are here. I also leave the front porch led bulb on at night.
I used to have the Phillips smart bulbs and had a schedule to where they would turn on and off but over the years they broke down and I'll never buy those hue bulbs again. So it's been over a year where I use regular bulbs and well with this $15 automated light switch I won't have to manually turn them on/off every day.. I often forget and well I don't to have to make it a routine; I just want it to be automated. The switch will definitely pay for itself in a year.
(I know a lot of people would freak out about leaving 3 bulbs on in the dining room even 12 hours a day, but I don't care. I like them on at night for safety and so I don't accidentally trip on things; to me it's worth it to spend the extra $15 or so per year just to have them on instead of constantly fiddling with them every time I go from one room to the other. At least I have a motion sensor for the 5 bulbs in the kitchen.. which turn off after 5 mins of no motion.. but the dining room joins the living room and is part of the overall light in the main area here, and a motion sensor wouldn't work for the dining room.)
EDIT: When you get to be over 50, things seem to get darker and need the light in the house. Even the 3 x 60 watt equivalent bulbs in the dining room seem a bit dim these days. I am also often up to 1 or 2 AM, our in the living room, so the dining room lights need to be on then anyways. If I go to bed at 3AM, then I'd have to set an alarm at 7AM to wake myself up to turn off the dining room lights etc.. So I've just been leaving them all the time 24/7 because it's a hassle .. it was all automated before and I want that again.
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Okay, those numbers are much higher than I found online, and I get wanting the lights off during certain times, but were you not turning them off before? How does the timer save you money? I can see it saving you hassle of turning off lights, but how often were you just leaving lights on that it would make that much of a difference to your bill?
$15 is very little to pay for a daily convenience, I'm not casting any judgement on your purchase, and there's really no point in my nitpicking your numbers. I just can't help myself when things don't make sense to me. It make me feel like I'm missing something, like I just don't understand for some reason.
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Okay, those numbers are much higher than I found online, and I get wanting the lights off during certain times, but were you not turning them off before? How does the timer save you money? I can see it saving you hassle of turning off lights, but how often were you just leaving lights on that it would make that much of a difference to your bill?
$15 is very little to pay for a daily convenience, I'm not casting any judgement on your purchase, and there's really no point in my nitpicking your numbers. I just can't help myself when things don't make sense to me. It make me feel like I'm missing something, like I just don't understand for some reason.
13 watt bulb = 13 * 24 = .312kwh per day. 0.312kwh * 365 = 113.9 kwh per year. At 12 cents per kwh it comes to $13.68 per year. So around $13 per bulb per year if on 24/7.
Yes I've been leaving on 24/7 not turning them off, ever since my hue bulbs broke just over a year ago. I want them off 12 hours of the day and the way I am going to accomplish that is with this smart switch I bought for $15. The switch will be paid for within 6 months, with the savings in electricity. And from then on I'll be back to saving $32.50 per year for the five bulbs, like I was when the hue bulbs were working.
The $15 figure I came up with is roughly half of the $32.50 for the bulbs being on 12 hours, assuming I could just keep them on only 6 hours per day, with a bunch of manual turning on and off of light switch every day. But I want the lights on all the time at night for the various reasons I mentioned and to me that's worth $15 per year.
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So you just were never turning any lights off? I wasn't expecting that answer...
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So you just were never turning any lights off? I wasn't expecting that answer...
Yeah, very unexpected. I go around the house turning off lights like it is my side hustle. It's important to me since we start every Quarterly Council of Dads meeting with a report about how many unused lights you turned off last quarter. I work very hard to stay on the top of the leaderboard. =D
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So you just were never turning any lights off? I wasn't expecting that answer...
I guess you read it wrong, I was having it automated up until a year ago; until my Phillip Hue Smart Bulbs died. It turned them off 12 hours per day automatically.
And like I said, I like them on al night long for the reasons I mentioned. Others can disagree but I really don't care. To me $15 annually is worth it to protect us from intruders, to avoid tripping on things in the middle of the night etc.. I value my life more than $15 per year.
I can't believe we are having an argument for $15 a year especially when it's for safety. I will not sacrifice my comfort or safety when it comes to frugality. I will use toilet paper, I will leave certain lights on, I will keep the house 70-73F all year round, I will use my clothes dryer. I just save thousands upon thousands other ways. Doesn't make sense to save $200 per year on electricity and risk having a heat stroke; I'm here all day. Doesn't make sense to me saving $50 per year for uncomfortable starchy clothing. etc.. I realize it makes sense to others and I respect that but I dont ridicule them if they don't do things I do to save money; how many people deglaze the fond from fried hamburgers and save for soup stock reducing cost of boullion by $28 per year? That's just one example of things I do. I switched from coffee, cream & liquid stevia to black tea & powdered stevia and saving $1000 / year that way. I switched from finish tabs to powder and saving around $35 per year; etc.. I save thousands per year by eating out at most a couple times per year. I don't expect others to do that and respect them.. but for me it seems like a waste of money.
Antoher silly thing people do for some reason, is unplug surge strips every day for things they aren't using. They dont realize they are probalby just only saving $2 per year. Seriously not worth $2 for doing that 365 x 2 times. They will spend more than that replacing the surge strip from turning it off and on so many times.
I always calculate things out and consider how much is saved, how much time it takes along with comfort and safety issues.
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So you just were never turning any lights off? I wasn't expecting that answer...
I guess you read it wrong, I was having it automated up until a year ago; until my Phillip Hue Smart Bulbs died. It turned them off 12 hours per day automatically.
And like I said, I like them on al night long for the reasons I mentioned. Others can disagree but I really don't care. To me $15 annually is worth it to protect us from intruders, to avoid tripping on things in the middle of the night etc.. I value my life more than $15 per year.
I can't believe we are having an argument for $15 a year especially when it's for safety. I will not sacrifice my comfort or safety when it comes to frugality. I will use toilet paper, I will leave certain lights on, I will keep the house 70-73F all year round, I will use my clothes dryer. I just save thousands upon thousands other ways. Doesn't make sense to save $200 per year on electricity and risk having a heat stroke; I'm here all day. Doesn't make sense to me saving $50 per year for uncomfortable starchy clothing. etc.. I realize it makes sense to others and I respect that but I dont ridicule them if they don't do things I do to save money; how many people deglaze the fond from fried hamburgers and save for soup stock reducing cost of boullion by $28 per year? That's just one example of things I do. I switched from coffee, cream & liquid stevia to black tea & powdered stevia and saving $1000 / year that way. I switched from finish tabs to powder and saving around $35 per year; etc..
Antoher silly thing people do for some reason, is unplug surge strips every day for things they aren't using. They dont realize they are probalby just only saving $2 per year. Seriously not worth $2 for doing that 365 x 2 times. They will spend more than that replacing the surge strip from turning it off and on so many times. I always calculate things out and consider how much is saved, how much time it takes along with comfort and safety issues.
I guess you read wrong the part where I said I wasn't judging you and totally understood spending $15 on convenience.
I couldn't make sense of your numbers, that's all, no need to get your back up, I'm not arguing with you. In fact I don't think I have ever argued with anyone here about their spending. Contrary to popular opinion, we don't actually do that much here. Not unless people specifically ask for it, like in case studies.
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Sorry it was just starting to feel like I was getting ganged up on over the lights. :)
I admit I was wasteful for a year. I should of gotten that automated light switch a year ago. I waisted $32.50 of electricity :( Just because I was used to having it do it automatically for me.
Btw, I got the switch today; they actually sent me a pair of them in a single box, was only expecting one.. so I got two for $15 .. $7.50 each :) The other will go in the bathroom.. that way if I forget to turn off bathroom light I can yell at alexa to turn it off :)
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Sorry it was just starting to feel like I was getting ganged up on over the lights. :)
I admit I was wasteful for a year. I should of gotten that automated light switch a year ago. I waisted $32.50 of electricity :( Just because I was used to having it do it automatically for me.
Btw, I got the switch today; they actually sent me a pair of them in a single box, was only expecting one.. so I got two for $15 .. $7.50 each :) The other will go in the bathroom.. that way if I forget to turn off bathroom light I can yell at alexa to turn it off :)
I feel like you think folks here will judge your spending choices a lot more than we actually do. For the most part, people here are pretty hands off about people's lifestyle spending unless as I said, they ask for feedback, or they are spending something fucking outrageous and making insane excuses for it.
We nitpick details because that's what we do. We'll analyze your math to death, but no one here would ever gang up on anyone over a $15 light switch unless that person was spewing some serious bullshit about it.
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For the Whole Food shoppers, has anyone been tempted to stay with Amazon Prime because of the Whole Foods Prime sale prices? (Yes, Whole Paycheck is often a ripoff.)
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For the Whole Food shoppers, has anyone been tempted to stay with Amazon Prime because of the Whole Foods Prime sale prices? (Yes, Whole Paycheck is often a ripoff.)
So I do not have prime as a regular thing and I historically have not been a regular whole foods shopper, but I was on a 30-day trial earlier this year AND it just so happens that my kid has music classes across the street from Whole Foods AND it just so happens that with inflation blah blah blah Whole Foods now has some of the cheapest eggs in our town, and also pretty cheap tofu. So I am suddenly popping into Whole Foods weekly for eggs and tofu and of course looking around at other stuff to see if there are other items that might be of interest. Anyway, although the extra prime discounts on sale items are a nice perk, they just aren't consistently on things I would buy, so I'm not convinced that I would wind up saving $12/mo (the cost per month of an annual membership). They did have a good sale on baguettes one week, so I saved a couple dollars then. I'm sure this is highly individual though--in my area I do have access to grocery stores that are much more affordable for most of my regular purchase items (e.g. Aldi), aside from this recent eggs and tofu development.
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Starting to not be a fan of the whole "pay money to save money" membership paradigm. Thankfully my BF's mom has us on her membership for Sam's card. So we are free from this for the time being.
My brother thinks he's getting a great deal at Sam's and does the majority of his shopping there. He gladly pays the gold membership fees (or whatever it is called) and gets his 5% cash back or whatever using a membership credit card etc.. But the thing is, he's being fooled, he's not saving money.. most of the stuff at Sam's is priced higher than other stores in town. I do the whole Amy Dycyczion (sp) thing and make a price book and buy in bulk from multiple stores, in a single circular route.
EDIT: perhaps it is a psychological thing. "Hey I got this membership here I am paying for so I better just buy everything here to get my money's worth."
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My brother thinks he's getting a great deal at Sam's and does the majority of his shopping there. He gladly pays the gold membership fees (or whatever it is called) and gets his 5% cash back or whatever using a membership credit card etc.. But the thing is, he's being fooled, he's not saving money.. most of the stuff at Sam's is priced higher than other stores in town. I do the whole Amy Dycyczion (sp) thing and make a price book and buy in bulk from multiple stores, in a single circular route.
EDIT: perhaps it is a psychological thing. "Hey I got this membership here I am paying for so I better just buy everything here to get my money's worth."
Does he buy gas at Sam's? I'm single, living alone, and I haven't been inside a Sam's Club in a long time, so I know nothing about prices. But I noticed that my local Sam's had gas a full $0.50/gal cheaper than all the local gas stations recently. I thought about doing the math to see if a membership might make sense just for gas, but decided against it since I'll be out of town (not near a Sam's) for 6 months soon.
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Does he buy gas at Sam's? I'm single, living alone, and I haven't been inside a Sam's Club in a long time, so I know nothing about prices. But I noticed that my local Sam's had gas a full $0.50/gal cheaper than all the local gas stations recently. I thought about doing the math to see if a membership might make sense just for gas, but decided against it since I'll be out of town (not near a Sam's) for 6 months soon.
That's interesting, quite a difference in price. However where we live the prices are about the same as other gas stations. But gas is relatively inexpensive here in Oklahoma compared to other states.
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You can get 50% off Prime membership if you are on Medicaid, national school lunch program, and other government programs. I submitted my child's Medicaid card years ago and it has been discounted ever since.
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I like the dining room lights on at night as well as the porch light.. for our protection, to light up the back yard, to let people know we are here. I also leave the front porch led bulb on at night.
I much prefer having outdoor security lights on a motion sensor. Makes it very obvious if someone shows up in the yard. I don't believe the "lights on all the time" approach increases security at all.
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I like the dining room lights on at night as well as the porch light.. for our protection, to light up the back yard, to let people know we are here. I also leave the front porch led bulb on at night.
I much prefer having outdoor security lights on a motion sensor. Makes it very obvious if someone shows up in the yard. I don't believe the "lights on all the time" approach increases security at all.
Well we don't have to agree, that's fine. I like being able to peek out into my backyard from the blinds in the dining room without having to go outside to trigger the motion sensor.. I think it provides extra security having them on all the time.
Anyways, this thread is about quitting Amazon Prime, so let's just quit talking about the lights? I don't want to people reading this thread to be distracted with arguments about lighting preferences.
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I like the dining room lights on at night as well as the porch light.. for our protection, to light up the back yard, to let people know we are here. I also leave the front porch led bulb on at night.
I much prefer having outdoor security lights on a motion sensor. Makes it very obvious if someone shows up in the yard. I don't believe the "lights on all the time" approach increases security at all.
Well we don't have to agree, that's fine. I like being able to peek out into my backyard from the blinds in the dining room without having to go outside to trigger the motion sensor.. I think it provides extra security having them on all the time.
Ah. For mine, the lights come on for about a minute anytime the switch goes from "off" to "on" - making it super easy to turn the light on for a peek outside.
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I leave my blinds open sometimes looking out into the backyard from my recliner in the living room, to watch the dog etc.. or if I am bbq'ing somethign etc. I like the lights on all the time at night.
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If you really wanted to end the lighting discussion, you wouldn't keep trying to get in the last word on it.
I respect getting back on topic - so if you follow your own advice, I will as well.
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I do the whole Amy Dycyczion (sp) thing and make a price book and buy in bulk from multiple stores, in a single circular route.
Yay Amy Dacyczyn! I feel like whenever a forum member mentions her name, the universe smiles and "It's a Wonderful Life" angel style, someone somewhere maxes out a retirement account.
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I do the whole Amy Dycyczion (sp) thing and make a price book and buy in bulk from multiple stores, in a single circular route.
Yay Amy Dacyczyn! I feel like whenever a forum member mentions her name, the universe smiles and "It's a Wonderful Life" angel style, someone somewhere maxes out a retirement account.
LOL.
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If you really wanted to end the lighting discussion, you wouldn't keep trying to get in the last word on it.
I respect getting back on topic - so if you follow your own advice, I will as well.
Okies..
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But yeah, most people in my life pay $139/yr very matter-of-factly - you know, like paying the water bill, heating bill, Prime bill. (insert eye-roll here)
What does a Sam's Club or Costco membership cost these days?
We use Amazon b/c it saves us money living in a semi-rural setting. Also, don't have time nor desire to run all over town hunting for some elusive thing I can buy online somewhere. Especially when the specialty suppliers here close at 5PM.
Recently bought a tool that I could source from perhaps three different shops here in town for x3 or x4 more money b/c my local options were all name brands. I bought a generic import tool that is good enough for my DIY project.
We can probably cut off Prime b/c we also load a cart and seldom buy anything for less than $25 - except we still use Prime Video (no cable, no sat).
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But yeah, most people in my life pay $139/yr very matter-of-factly - you know, like paying the water bill, heating bill, Prime bill. (insert eye-roll here)
What does a Sam's Club or Costco membership cost these days?
We use Amazon b/c it saves us money living in a semi-rural setting. Also, don't have time nor desire to run all over town hunting for some elusive thing I can buy online somewhere. Especially when the specialty suppliers here close at 5PM.
Recently bought a tool that I could source from perhaps three different shops here in town for x3 or x4 more money b/c my local options were all name brands. I bought a generic import tool that is good enough for my DIY project.
We can probably cut off Prime b/c we also load a cart and seldom buy anything for less than $25 - except we still use Prime Video (no cable, no sat).
Also with the membership, if you have Amazon Prime credit card, you get 5% cash back instead of 3%. So an extra 2%.
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But yeah, most people in my life pay $139/yr very matter-of-factly - you know, like paying the water bill, heating bill, Prime bill. (insert eye-roll here)
What does a Sam's Club or Costco membership cost these days?
We use Amazon b/c it saves us money living in a semi-rural setting. Also, don't have time nor desire to run all over town hunting for some elusive thing I can buy online somewhere. Especially when the specialty suppliers here close at 5PM.
Recently bought a tool that I could source from perhaps three different shops here in town for x3 or x4 more money b/c my local options were all name brands. I bought a generic import tool that is good enough for my DIY project.
We can probably cut off Prime b/c we also load a cart and seldom buy anything for less than $25 - except we still use Prime Video (no cable, no sat).
Also with the membership, if you have Amazon Prime credit card, you get 5% cash back instead of 3%. So an extra 2%.
Sure, I don't dispute that in some cases, Amazon Prime makes sense for some folks - people using Prime as primary cable option or people who benefit with the extra 2% cash back (i.e; > $7K/yr in Amazon purchases).
I shop at Amazon a lot too (convenient and often cheaper that other retailers), but without Prime membership. But I notice that a lot of people don't do the math to confirm Prime benefits are actually worth it, and instead, continue to renew membership without thinking about it. Hence Prime's extremely high renewal rates.
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Also they often offer $1.99 for Prime for a week. When you enable it you get 5% cash back on Chase Amazon Prime card instead of 3%. So say you are buying an $800 item. 2% of 800 is $16. It only cost you $1.99 for the prime member ship. $16-2 = $14 profit. And you can say binge watch an entire season of Marvelous Ms. Maisel in that week before canceling it :)
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I do the whole Amy Dycyczion (sp) thing and make a price book and buy in bulk from multiple stores, in a single circular route.
Yay Amy Dacyczyn! I feel like whenever a forum member mentions her name, the universe smiles and "It's a Wonderful Life" angel style, someone somewhere maxes out a retirement account.
LOL.
Very clever!
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I do the whole Amy Dycyczion (sp) thing and make a price book and buy in bulk from multiple stores, in a single circular route.
Yay Amy Dacyczyn! I feel like whenever a forum member mentions her name, the universe smiles and "It's a Wonderful Life" angel style, someone somewhere maxes out a retirement account.
LOL.
Very clever!
I had no idea who Amy Dacyczyn was so I looked it up and for anyone else interested:
Amy Dacyczyn is the former editor of The Tightwad Gazette, a newsletter that ran in the 1990s and promoted a lifestyle of frugality. Her work on the newsletter is collected in several Tightwad Gazette volumes and can be found in full in The Complete Tightwad Gazette
So is the book good? And is it still relevant?
As for Amazon, Ima try to delete it out of my life. Never went as far as signing up for prime
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So is the book good? And is it still relevant?
I am reading it now. Actually just skimming over the stuff that isn't applicable. Actually for me most of it isn't applicable because I don't eat carbohydrates and I don't have children. Anything interesting I circle it and bookmark it. I've learned a few useful things from the book I wouldn't of thought of otherwise. I think it's worth it to flip through it and read those articles which are applicable. I see used copies of it for around $10 with shipping from both Amazon and Abebooks. Local library might have it.
It will take a little time to go through it all since it's around 1000 pages. But not too bad since I don't read most of it.
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So is the book good? And is it still relevant?
I am reading it now. Actually just skimming over the stuff that isn't applicable. Actually for me most of it isn't applicable because I don't eat carbohydrates and I don't have children. Anything interesting I circle it and bookmark it. I've learned a few useful things from the book I wouldn't of thought of otherwise. I think it's worth it to flip through it and read those articles which are applicable. I see used copies of it for around $10 with shipping from both Amazon and Abebooks. Local library might have it.
It will take a little time to go through it all since it's around 1000 pages. But not too bad since I don't read most of it.
Thanks for this review. I'll keep an eye out for a used copy.
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Okay so my free 30 day subscription with Amazon ended yesterday. And so I don't have prime now. I just went to https://amazon.com/prime and they are already again offering me Prime for a week for $1.99! Seems like they always offer this at a minimum or sometimes a free month.
This is such a good option for when you buy large ticket items -- by getting 5% cashback (compared to only 3% cash back) on the Chase Amazon Prime card, that will more than pay for the $1.99 one week membership. For example a $1000 item will save you an extra $20 by having the $1.99 membership. Just immediately cancel Prime and enjoy the free week of Amazon Prime video -- e.g. Marvelous Mrs. Maisel :)
EDIT: I just calculated that you break even with the $1.99 one week membership if you buy a cart of items from Amazon totaling $99.50 using the Chase Amazon Prime card: 2% * x = $1.99 -> x = $1.99/2% -> x = $99.50. Anything above $99.50 is pure profit :). [Difference of Chase Amazon Prime w/ active membership (5%) and the same without membership (3%) is 2%.] Just subscribe for the week and immediately cancel the membership and it will automatically cancel in 7 days. There are often times I get carts with total > $99.50, so I'll probably grab this often if they keep offering it. EDIT #2: This is assuming that they will honor the 5% cashback at the time of purchase with active membership, and not try and say it's only 3% because a week had passed before the reward was given.
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Saw the post. Thought about it. Followed suit. Thanks for the inspiration!
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Great, let me know how it goes for you later on.
Btw, I am starting to check Walmart.com every time I am about to order something from Amazon. It seems like Walmart.com is getting more and more stuff and at better prices.
I've bought the following multivitamin for a few years from Amazon but I noticed they upped the price by a couple dollars. At like $22 per bottle now.
https://www.amazon.com/NATURELO-One-Daily-Multivitamin-Women/dp/B01FYD6U06/
Then I found it at Walmart.com for $20 instead:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/NATURELO-One-Daily-Multivitamin-Vitamin-E-for-Women-60-Capsules-Female/107454237
So I ordered two bottles from Walmart.com -- since it's over $35 I got free shipping. I also got it in two days -- seems like Amazon takes longer these days. [I also got 11% cash back because I used a sams gift card I bought with a new Discover It Cashback card (10% cash back the first year in rotating categories), and got an additional 1% cash back since I visited the walmart.com via rakuten.com.]
So yeah, walmart is definitely looking good and I will constantly double check Amazon.com prices with Walmart -- in addition to all my other checks like: 1) can I get this for free? 2) Can I buy it used for really cheap on FB Marketplace? 3) Do I really need it, does it add value to my life? 4) Can I get it for free couponing? (This is new for me and loving it.. just started couponing hobby this month -- and basically made $70 so far picking up $500 worth of sundries for free.) 5) etc..
EDIT: I've also been checking out sams.com and been getting some good shipped deals as well.
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bonus trick: delete all payment information from amazon, makes it much more bothersome to purchase, so you buy less
@jnw unless under special circumstances (pregnancy) multivitamins are not worth spending money on - no health benefits. better to spend the $$$ on quality produce like from Aldi
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bonus trick: delete all payment information from amazon, makes it much more bothersome to purchase, so you buy less
@jnw unless under special circumstances (pregnancy) multivitamins are not worth spending money on - no health benefits. better to spend the $$$ on quality produce like from Aldi
Umm there are several reasons I get this particular multivitamin. One of them is that this multi I get has iodine in it in the form of kelp. I cook with kosher salt and cook everything from scratch not processed. So I get no added iodine. I don't eat much seafood either. It also has several other vitamins in it, in natural forms, other multivitamins don't have. It has folate in the form of methylfolate. It has K2 in it etc.. I did a lot of research in picking this multi. It's the only supplement I buy; I agree with you most supplements are just money makers for the corporations, but I don't feel this way about this one.
I do buy a lot of produce from Aldi as well. We eat a lot of vegetables here and cook everything from scratch.
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We live in Mexico in a small village, and the closest supermarket or Walmart is a good hour by car, so all our shopping is done at the local "tiendas" where we get everything from tortillas to rice, chicken, fish, and seafood. Even locally-grown coffee beans, milk, and fresh cheese. But once in a while, we crave things from back home that we can't find here or that are overpriced like natural peanut butter, olive oil, raw almonds, that block of parmesan I've been dreaming of, dark chocolate (go figure, cocoa is grown locally all around our village but we can't find good dark chocolate except overpriced stuff at the trendy hippie village next door...), good quality towels and bed sheets and kitchen/home stuff, etc. So far, we've managed without these things and we are still more than satisfied with local offerings, and except for food, we rarely if ever shop for stuff, but the temptation to subscribe to Amazon Prime is real and I am just one click away from the Checkout button to get that dozen or so things I slowly added to my cart over the past year...
If I do break down, I'll just go with the 30-day free trial and cancel a day before paying for the renewal. The struggle is real...
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We live in Mexico in a small village, and the closest supermarket or Walmart is a good hour by car, so all our shopping is done at the local "tiendas" where we get everything from tortillas to rice, chicken, fish, and seafood. Even locally-grown coffee beans, milk, and fresh cheese. But once in a while, we crave things from back home that we can't find here or that are overpriced like natural peanut butter, olive oil, raw almonds, that block of parmesan I've been dreaming of, dark chocolate (go figure, cocoa is grown locally all around our village but we can't find good dark chocolate except overpriced stuff at the trendy hippie village next door...), good quality towels and bed sheets and kitchen/home stuff, etc. So far, we've managed without these things and we are still more than satisfied with local offerings, and except for food, we rarely if ever shop for stuff, but the temptation to subscribe to Amazon Prime is real and I am just one click away from the Checkout button to get that dozen or so things I slowly added to my cart over the past year...
If I do break down, I'll just go with the 30-day free trial and cancel a day before paying for the renewal. The struggle is real...
Amazon Prime seems worth it in your case, being so far away. I can hit every kind of store imagineable in one 23 mile round trip.
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Glad I came across this thread - reminded me to cancel my Prime subscription that I've been getting near to no use out of for the last several months.
I think my favorite thing about Prime is how easy it is to cancel :D I find more and more these days that when I go to cancel a service, I have to jump through all sorts of hoops to actually do it. In a couple instances I've actually had to email businesses to get them to cancel my subscription. Great way to ensure you never get my business again!
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I finally cancelled our Prime membership 2 months ago. I was finding that amazon was actually MORE expensive than the local stores. And the knock offs - last year about 20% of the items I bought turned out to be knock offs. I am happy that I am no longer feeding the union busting, OSHA violator anymore.
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I let my membership expire at Christmas. I still occasionally use Amazon because I earn bonuses at work and through various apps in Amazon gift cards. The prices are not what they were, I agree.
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I finally cancelled our Prime membership 2 months ago. I was finding that amazon was actually MORE expensive than the local stores. And the knock offs - last year about 20% of the items I bought turned out to be knock offs. I am happy that I am no longer feeding the union busting, OSHA violator anymore.
As someone who has spent most of my adult life working in factories and warehouses, I'm always mildly amused by all the public outrage by white collar workers over Amazon's business practices.
Of the 5 companies I've worked for, I could count on 0 hands the number that went to great lengths to abide by all OSHA standards. OSHA compliance is a joke. Nobody takes it seriously, they just do the bare minimum to stay off their radar and avoid audits. One of the five companies I worked for did have a union, and the only thing it managed to do was make the place worse.
Amazon gets so much attention because of their size and because of Jeff Bezos' net worth, but they are absolutely not worse than industry standard as an employer. Lots of people who work in warehousing wish they could get into Amazon's warehouses, because they are by comparison better than most alternatives.
I get it, big corporation bad, but the broader picture is that 95% of warehouses are as bad or worse than Amazon.
There's a saying you might be familiar with: "There is no such thing as ethical consumption under capitalism." It's true. No matter where you buy your products, it's all but certain that crappy labor practices helped make them, and get them to you.
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Five days ago I joined Amazon Prime for a week for $1.99. I immediately cancelled it so it doesn't renew. I will be able to use the Amazon Prime benefits for two more days. I did as I said I'd do in this thread: I went ahead and binge watched the final season of Marvelous Mrs. Maisel with that one week membership. (Sad to see the show end to be honest.)
Anyways I bought the $1.99 membership because I needed a pill organizer which would of cost me $7.99 without shipping. I didn't have anything else to order to make it at least $25 for the free shipping. But then I noticed in the item description If I joined prime the product would be $5.99 instead of $7.99. So the $1.99 membership didn't really cost me anything. Got my product in 2 days and watched my show :) I'm happy.
Long live abstaining from annual prime memberships :) It's been over 6 months that I've quit it and don't miss it at all. $25 orders come soon enough.. maybe 4 days instead of 2.. works for me. (Though I now know to check for any discount in the product's price if I join prime.)
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I've done an Amazon free trial before, but I absolutely will not pay for it. I'm pretty loyal to Target and Costco for my purchases. I can understand it more for folks who live in rural or isolated areas. I live in a condo building in an area with high density housing and Amazon Prime delivery trucks clog our streets daily while they idle in the no parking zone. And this is often for the delivery of small packages.
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We got rid of it a year ago. We have not missed it.
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When our A/C went out, twice this summer, we got the part to fix it the next day, courtesy of Amazon Prime. When the problem proved to be a hidden loose wire, Amazon took both parts back with no hassle. We only use the A/C during heat waves, so of course, we wanted the parts asap. Based on this experience, we will probably pony up for at least one more year, as it's earned its keep. Happily, DH is our repairperson, so no other money was spent solving the problem.
Another shoutout for Amy D. She wasn't just the editor, TTWG was her brainchild and she was the chief writer and illustrator for most of its run. She started with a newsletter, then it became a book, then three. The only copy to buy, IMO, is the fourth book, which is a compilation of the first three, plus bonus material. Unlike the others, it has a blue cover. Some of it is laughably outdated, but much of it is still inspirational. I try to read it once a year.
Fun fact, if you follow The Frugal Girl Blog, there's a copy of TTWG clearly visible in her living room photos. Makes me smile every time I see it.
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When our A/C went out, twice this summer, we got the part to fix it the next day, courtesy of Amazon Prime. When the problem proved to be a hidden loose wire, Amazon took both parts back with no hassle. We only use the A/C during heat waves, so of course, we wanted the parts asap. Based on this experience, we will probably pony up for at least one more year, as it's earned its keep. Happily, DH is our repairperson, so no other money was spent solving the problem.
What part of this experience was specific to Amazon Prime, and not just Amazon?
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When our A/C went out, twice this summer, we got the part to fix it the next day, courtesy of Amazon Prime. When the problem proved to be a hidden loose wire, Amazon took both parts back with no hassle. We only use the A/C during heat waves, so of course, we wanted the parts asap. Based on this experience, we will probably pony up for at least one more year, as it's earned its keep. Happily, DH is our repairperson, so no other money was spent solving the problem.
What part of this experience was specific to Amazon Prime, and not just Amazon?
Free next day shipping, when the temperatures in our normally cool without A/C house were into the mid-eighties and climbing.
Off topic, but did I mention the A/C is in the attic? Poor DH.
When the interior of a house hits 90, bad things start happening, says the person who owns multiple houses in the in-the-path-of-Hilary desert.
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When our A/C went out, twice this summer, we got the part to fix it the next day, courtesy of Amazon Prime. When the problem proved to be a hidden loose wire, Amazon took both parts back with no hassle. We only use the A/C during heat waves, so of course, we wanted the parts asap. Based on this experience, we will probably pony up for at least one more year, as it's earned its keep. Happily, DH is our repairperson, so no other money was spent solving the problem.
What part of this experience was specific to Amazon Prime, and not just Amazon?
Free next day shipping, when the temperatures in our normally cool without A/C house were into the mid-eighties and climbing.
Off topic, but did I mention the A/C is in the attic? Poor DH.
When the interior of a house hits 90, bad things start happening, says the person who owns multiple houses in the in-the-path-of-Hilary desert.
Is the cost of the overnight shipping cost prohibitive without the prime? If you have infrequent orders, it might be better just to pay for the shipping.
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When our A/C went out, twice this summer, we got the part to fix it the next day, courtesy of Amazon Prime. When the problem proved to be a hidden loose wire, Amazon took both parts back with no hassle. We only use the A/C during heat waves, so of course, we wanted the parts asap. Based on this experience, we will probably pony up for at least one more year, as it's earned its keep. Happily, DH is our repairperson, so no other money was spent solving the problem.
What part of this experience was specific to Amazon Prime, and not just Amazon?
Free next day shipping, when the temperatures in our normally cool without A/C house were into the mid-eighties and climbing.
Off topic, but did I mention the A/C is in the attic? Poor DH.
When the interior of a house hits 90, bad things start happening, says the person who owns multiple houses in the in-the-path-of-Hilary desert.
Is the cost of the overnight shipping cost prohibitive without the prime? If you have infrequent orders, it might be better just to pay for the shipping.
That was just one instance. DH fixes everything around here, so it pencils out in the long run. I seldom need anything in a rush, but I've discovered if I buy something via Amazon, any credit he has on the account gets applied to my order. Love that! (Possibly not specific to Prime either, but I don't use it often enough to know the ins & outs; it's just fun when it happens.)
FWIW, we don't purchase anything from Amazon if we can find it for less elsewhere, even if we have to pay for shipping.
Fun aside: We had a problem with our RV. The local dealers wanted $650 for the proprietary part. DH checked around and found it at a dealer in UTAH for $200 less. They charged $75 for expedited shipping, which we paid (we had a rush deadline). What killed us was that we had driven past that dealership (in another vehicle) just two days before DH finally figured out the RV's problem. Grrr!
One fun thing about being FIRE is that we don't have to optimize every penny. Amazon Prime has proved its worth to us. This expense stays as a line item. For now.
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...When the interior of a house hits 90, bad things start happening, says the person who owns multiple houses in the in-the-path-of-Hilary desert.
Aside from the discomfort of living beings & any refrigerating units working harder, what problems could it introduce? Asking for a friend* who keeps the thermostat in an interior part of the house around 86° (meaning several areas almost certainly reach 90°+ regularly.)
*me
(Hi!! Glad all is well with you two)
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...When the interior of a house hits 90, bad things start happening, says the person who owns multiple houses in the in-the-path-of-Hilary desert.
Aside from the discomfort of living beings & any refrigerating units working harder, what problems could it introduce? Asking for a friend* who keeps the thermostat in an interior part of the house around 86° (meaning several areas almost certainly reach 90°+ regularly.)
*me
(Hi!! Glad all is well with you two)
We keep the thermostat at 88 when we're not there. Bad things: Cabinets can warp, crack or split, p-traps dry out, which lets critters in. Wax rings can dry out and fail.* Everything plastic discolors and gets brittle. The list is long, but those are a few highlights.
I don't worry about it at home, but the Desert is so much dryer that it does more damage. Before we leave, we always cover the drains, add extra water to the toilet, cover it with plastic wrap, and place a three gallon bucket full of water in the shower.
One of our properties had been vacant for a long time when we first toured it. The wax ring in the water closet failed. It caused the flooring to peel and half of the house smelled like sewage. We made a lowball offer, citing the sewage smell (which the out-of-state seller/heir didn't know). Our offer was accepted, and a new $5 wax ring solved the problem. We knew we were going to replace the flooring anyway.
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When our A/C went out, twice this summer, we got the part to fix it the next day, courtesy of Amazon Prime. When the problem proved to be a hidden loose wire, Amazon took both parts back with no hassle. We only use the A/C during heat waves, so of course, we wanted the parts asap. Based on this experience, we will probably pony up for at least one more year, as it's earned its keep. Happily, DH is our repairperson, so no other money was spent solving the problem.
This is understandable. However, if I personally needed a part for A/C next day I'd just subscribe for the month with Amazon Prime: $14.99. Then immediately cancel so it doesn't renew. Then binge watch all the Amazon Prime shows that month :)
[And if I'm lucky, they'll be offering a free month or 1 week for $1.99 :) -- again always subscribe and immediately cancel for me.]
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@Dicey I suppose I hadn’t considered the risks of dry air!! Now I feel a bit more fortunate at how humid it is here so much of the time. Thanks for sharing this!
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We use the Amex Platinum Card to give us Walmart+ for "free".. Don't need to pay Amazon. Walmart 2 day shipping plus in store pickup gets you pretty far.
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We use the Amex Platinum Card to give us Walmart+ for "free".. Don't need to pay Amazon. Walmart 2 day shipping plus in store pickup gets you pretty far.
The Amex Platinum has a steep price, so I would hope you have other benefits besides free Walmart+.
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They have made staying off Prime so convoluted! I earn a fair amount of money in Amazon gift cards through workplace incentive programs, so I am frequently buying from Amazon. But even when I have enough to qualify for free shipping, it will still tell me I can save $6.99 or whatever on shipping through Prime, and put the free shipping option in a non-obvious place. It's really irritating.
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Amazon does a lot of dynamic pricing.
On a slightly different subject, my friend was able to get a lower price on a hotel than me with Priceline for the simple reason that he had independently booked a flight on the site in the last month or so. He wasn't aware of any "deal" but nevertheless we saved about 10% using his account rather than mine.
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They have made staying off Prime so convoluted! I earn a fair amount of money in Amazon gift cards through workplace incentive programs, so I am frequently buying from Amazon. But even when I have enough to qualify for free shipping, it will still tell me I can save $6.99 or whatever on shipping through Prime, and put the free shipping option in a non-obvious place. It's really irritating.
Yeah I am used to it now. I always expect solicitation every single time and the wrong shipping option to be selected.
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Amazon is trying out raising shipping minimum from $25 to $35.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/28/business/amazon-raises-shipping-minimum/index.html
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Amazon is trying out raising shipping minimum from $25 to $35.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/28/business/amazon-raises-shipping-minimum/index.html
Interesting - they're onto me! Thanks for posting. One more reason to delay even longer before buying from them.
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Amazon is trying out raising shipping minimum from $25 to $35.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/28/business/amazon-raises-shipping-minimum/index.html
Whenever I add another item to my order so that I meet the free shipping threshold, it seems that item never qualifies. So regardless of whether it's $25 or $35, I think I will be using Amazon less and less
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I'm also gradually letting Amazon fade out of my life. Maybe I'm a more traditional person, I always find online shopping troublesome and risky for me - if the quality is not good I need to return the item and it wastes a lot of my time. I still prefer to buy offline, and sometimes the offline price is even cheaper than Amazon. I'm not afraid of the hassle when I can do things on my own.
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I'm also gradually letting Amazon fade out of my life. Maybe I'm a more traditional person, I always find online shopping troublesome and risky for me - if the quality is not good I need to return the item and it wastes a lot of my time. I still prefer to buy offline, and sometimes the offline price is even cheaper than Amazon. I'm not afraid of the hassle when I can do things on my own.
I hear ya '. There are a few items of lesser quality that I bought from Amazon and I just put up with it because I don't want to go through the hassle of returning them.
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I'm also gradually letting Amazon fade out of my life. Maybe I'm a more traditional person, I always find online shopping troublesome and risky for me - if the quality is not good I need to return the item and it wastes a lot of my time. I still prefer to buy offline, and sometimes the offline price is even cheaper than Amazon. I'm not afraid of the hassle when I can do things on my own.
I've found the opposite problem - I've spent 45 minutes going from store to store trying to find something, and eventually end up giving up and just ordering it on Amazon because I don't want to spend half a day looking for it. If the quality of an in-store purchase isn't up to par, I have to go back to the store to return it, wait in line etc -- for Amazon returns, I just drop it off at Whole Foods or a UPS Store and it's done.
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All the more reason to quit Amazon Prime:
Amazon is bringing ads to Prime Video and will charge you to avoid them
https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/22/media/amazon-prime-video-ads/index.html
(aka enshittification)
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I'm also gradually letting Amazon fade out of my life. Maybe I'm a more traditional person, I always find online shopping troublesome and risky for me - if the quality is not good I need to return the item and it wastes a lot of my time. I still prefer to buy offline, and sometimes the offline price is even cheaper than Amazon. I'm not afraid of the hassle when I can do things on my own.
I've found the opposite problem - I've spent 45 minutes going from store to store trying to find something, and eventually end up giving up and just ordering it on Amazon because I don't want to spend half a day looking for it. If the quality of an in-store purchase isn't up to par, I have to go back to the store to return it, wait in line etc -- for Amazon returns, I just drop it off at Whole Foods or a UPS Store and it's done.
That's been my perspective as well. All the driving, wear and tear on our car, gas money, parking lot damage, etc. It costs me $4 to drive to the hardware store and back in gasoline alone. (25 mpg, ~10 miles each way). I don't order Amazon every week but when I'm hunting for odd stuff - brass water fittings, specific electronic parts, etc. - online wins.
The commercials - that might get me. ;) Enshittification indeed.
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I regret to say that Amazon Prime saved my ass today. That is all. [Dicey runs and ducks for cover.]
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Cancelled Amazon Prime some time ago and found that.....we still basically have Amazon Prime service and benefits, we just don't pay an extra fee for them anymore.
Here is what I mean. With Amazon Prime, they advertise 1 or 2 day "free" delivery. Without Amazon Prime, you either pay for fast shipping, or accept longer delivery time in exchange for free shipping.
What we have found to be the truth is that we get things just as fast most of the time when we choose free shipping without Amazon Prime. I mean, does the warehouse really say...."here's an order without prime.....let's wait and spend more money to put it on a different truck". No. They just put it on the same truck that is being loaded/leaving anyways.
Amazon jumps through hoops to try to get you to accidentally select Prime once you cancel it. I suspect it's because there really is no difference most of the time in how things are shipped. I don't place a very high priority on wasting my life watching lots of TV all the time so Prime Video isn't a huge appeal for me either.
Having said all that, I wasted ~2 hours driving all over town looking for a *firm* mattress topper for our pull out sleeper sofa that we need to use for 2-3 weeks while we have relatives visiting from overseas. Turns out it isn't comfortable enough to sleep on for more than a night or two. After coming up empty handed locally and not willing to spend any more time/effort driving around, I bit the bullet and paid $1.99 for temporary prime benefits to *guarantee* fastest shipping. The extra 2% cash back made the item several $ cheaper even after the $2 fee.
So for expensive purchases, one can always turn on Prime temporarily for $2.
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I regret to say that Amazon Prime saved my ass today. That is all. [Dicey runs and ducks for cover.]
That's respectable. If it could save my ass upon occasion I'll just buy the subscription for one month, when needed. I've quit for nine months now and so far haven't had any emergencies to pay for a one month subscription yet. I have enjoyed a free 30 day subscription. I bought a $1.99 one week subscription once in the past 9 months -- binge watched the entire last season of Marvelous Mrs. Maisel with it.
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I regret to say that Amazon Prime saved my ass today. That is all. [Dicey runs and ducks for cover.]
Holy shit y'all!
Backstory: I had vascular surgery last April. I have been wearing full length, extra-strength, $#&@?% support hose every damn day since then. Yup, all California summer long. I realized today that my six-month post surgery date is fast approaching, at which point, I can graduate to slightly less hideously thick support hose. We're leaving for Moab in a couple of days, and I don't want to wear the heavy ones for one minute longer than necessary, hence the Amazon Prime order today. OMG, they were delivered tonight! They were also extremely reasonably priced. I got four pair for what a single pair would have cost at my local medical supply.
Wow!
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So $139 per year for membership plus $2.99 per month to turn off commercials -- I can't tolerate commercials myself. Comes to $139 + $35.88 = $175 per year subscription. INSANE! I remember when it was $69 per year. I could tolerate $99 per year. $119 was bad.. $139 caused me to quit.. I couldn't imagine paying $175 per year. What is it next year? $200?
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I wonder why American prime is so much more than Canadian prime??
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In USA prime is super expensive! I quit prime after divorce over a year ago, and don’t miss it one bit. 140 a year!
Amazon has raised prices so much on my basic stuff that it is worth it to track to whole foods once a month or 2 and stock up. Their 365 decaf coffee is 5 $ more online than in store, and the little things like flashlights or bike stuff I can always find cheaply around my local area, or online. I like that camel camel camel thing though, that’s an interesting tool!
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In USA prime is super expensive! I quit prime after divorce over a year ago, and don’t miss it one bit. 140 a year!
Amazon has raised prices so much on my basic stuff that it is worth it to track to whole foods once a month or 2 and stock up. Their 365 decaf coffee is 5 $ more online than in store, and the little things like flashlights or bike stuff I can always find cheaply around my local area, or online. I like that camel camel camel thing though, that’s an interesting tool!
Yeah https://camelcamelcamel.com is cool :) I have it email me when prices hit certain points :)
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I wonder why American prime is so much more than Canadian prime??
My first thought is the geoarbitrage is so extreme here that high subscription fees are still all but invisible to a large chunk of the population in wealthy coastal cities, & maximizing those incredibly dense markets at a high cost probably is cheaper than netting more subscribers with lower fees, but across huge delivery ranges for which they don’t actually want to have to serve too many one-day shipping orders.
Canada’s rural population is so scant, inequality is lower, (plus perhaps service expectations more modest?) I think the downside potential of cheaper fees is easier to chalk up to a rounding error.
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I wonder why American prime is so much more than Canadian prime??
My first thought is the geoarbitrage is so extreme here that high subscription fees are still all but invisible to a large chunk of the population in wealthy coastal cities, & maximizing those incredibly dense markets at a high cost probably is cheaper than netting more subscribers with lower fees, but across huge delivery ranges for which they don’t actually want to have to serve too many one-day shipping orders.
Canada’s rural population is so scant, inequality is lower, (plus perhaps service expectations more modest?) I think the downside potential of cheaper fees is easier to chalk up to a rounding error.
I was thinking that our much more condensed population was likely the reason. We're all pretty much on one road.
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Further aggressive enshittification:
Amazon No Longer Allows Paying For Third-Party Giftcards With Amazon Giftcard Balance
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/amazon-no-longer-allows-paying-for-third-party-giftcards-with-amazon-giftcard-balance/
Wow they are getting really bold in the past month aren't they?
1. $35 minimum order (vs $25)
2. $36 extra per year to avoid prime video commercials
3. No longer allowing use of gift card points to buy other gift cards.
What's next? LOL. They are on a roll! Maybe so they can get enough cash to pay for the antirust lawsuit they have now.
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Amazon Prime here is Italy is Euro 4.99 a month ie Euro 60 a year ie. USD$63 a year. How can US Amazon Prime by $139 per year?
My theory is that Amazon is relatively new here in Italy and Prime is probably a 'loss leader' currently for Amazon. Once they get enough people signing up here and everyone is used to ordering everything off Amazon then they'll hike up the prices.
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If you are primarily using Prime for the "free" shipping (it's not free, folks!) and not for the Amazon streaming services, has anyone jumped on the Temu bandwagon? On Temu, you get free shipping for orders over $10, vs. Amazon non-Prime free shipping for orders over $35.
My experience on Temu so far:
- Cheaper - sometimes I find the exact same item on Amazon for 50% more
- Shipping takes longer
- Variety and number of products is fewer. In additional, most of the stuff they sell are inexpensive items - no electronics, etc. Even if they sold expensive items, I would not trust buying expensive items on Temu (for now)
- Return process: I haven't tried to return anything on Temu yet. But it can't be as easy as Amazon, which offers Whole Foods and UPS dropoff points with no packing required.
In general, I'm an aspiring minimalist and try to buy quality BIFL stuff. But there are things where quality doesn't matter (for me), and don't need to get "the best" item or brand. Here's a list of things I've bought on Temu so far, and everything was fine:
- Storage bin for the car trunk
- Chess clock
- Travel mini makeup brush
- Tape
- Pencil box
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If you are primarily using Prime for the "free" shipping (it's not free, folks!) and not for the Amazon streaming services, has anyone jumped on the Temu bandwagon? On Temu, you get free shipping for orders over $10, vs. Amazon non-Prime free shipping for orders over $35.
My experience on Temu so far:
- Cheaper - sometimes I find the exact same item on Amazon for 50% more
- Shipping takes longer
- Variety and number of products is fewer. In additional, most of the stuff they sell are inexpensive items - no electronics, etc. Even if they sold expensive items, I would not trust buying expensive items on Temu (for now)
- Return process: I haven't tried to return anything on Temu yet. But it can't be as easy as Amazon, which offers Whole Foods and UPS dropoff points with no packing required.
In general, I'm an aspiring minimalist and try to buy quality BIFL stuff. But there are things where quality doesn't matter (for me), and don't need to get "the best" item or brand. Here's a list of things I've bought on Temu so far, and everything was fine:
- Storage bin for the car trunk
- Chess clock
- Travel mini makeup brush
- Tape
- Pencil box
I never heard of temu until now.
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If you are primarily using Prime for the "free" shipping (it's not free, folks!) and not for the Amazon streaming services, has anyone jumped on the Temu bandwagon? On Temu, you get free shipping for orders over $10, vs. Amazon non-Prime free shipping for orders over $35.
My experience on Temu so far:
- Cheaper - sometimes I find the exact same item on Amazon for 50% more
- Shipping takes longer
- Variety and number of products is fewer. In additional, most of the stuff they sell are inexpensive items - no electronics, etc. Even if they sold expensive items, I would not trust buying expensive items on Temu (for now)
- Return process: I haven't tried to return anything on Temu yet. But it can't be as easy as Amazon, which offers Whole Foods and UPS dropoff points with no packing required.
In general, I'm an aspiring minimalist and try to buy quality BIFL stuff. But there are things where quality doesn't matter (for me), and don't need to get "the best" item or brand. Here's a list of things I've bought on Temu so far, and everything was fine:
- Storage bin for the car trunk
- Chess clock
- Travel mini makeup brush
- Tape
- Pencil box
I never heard of temu until now.
Also, a lot of the items are so cheap (<$2) that even if they aren't perfect, I'm not really bothered by it. My travel mini makeup brush (https://www.temu.com/mini-makeup-brush-1pc-portable-blush-brush-soft-wool-trumpet-single-dustproof-travel-suit-with-cover-retractable-powder-painting-g-601099516460939.html) is $1.79, and it's great.
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Judging from the current responses, it sounds like Prime is going to go under imminently...lol.
I'm sure this will be an unpopular take, but we still find tremendous value with prime...especially shipping. The fact we can share Prime with our family members is a huge plus. However, the Amazon Prime Music debacle really turned me off and Prime Video is going the same direction. Not happy about that at all....and we were "sold" the hefty bump to $140 under the assumption that the additional "perks" would be included for no extra charge. Seems like a massive bait and switch on that front.
Given that, I would gladly take an alternative if one surfaces. I haven't found one yet. Walmart+ is pretty close in terms of shipping, and the fact grocery service is included is a huge plus ( we don't have grocery service with Amazon in our location ).
If the perks of Amazon Prime deteriorate further, we may think about dropping Prime and just go with their default free shipping, and get Walmart+ for the grocery service ( or not...we can just pick up the groceries for free ).
Oh...and as far as temu goes, for us it sucks. Not sure why anyone would put it anywhere the same category as Amazon/Walmart.
Edit : I feel strange saying this, but I really do think Amazon Prime started sinking after Bezos left. Anyone else feel that way as well?
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Judging from the current responses, it sounds like Prime is going to go under imminently...lol.
I'm sure this will be an unpopular take, but we still find tremendous value with prime...especially shipping. The fact we can share Prime with our family members is a huge plus. However, the Amazon Music debacle really turned me off and Prime Video is going the same direction. Not happy about that at all....and we were "sold" the hefty bump to $140 under the assumption that the additional "perks" would be included for no extra charge. Seems like a massive bait and switch on that front.
Given that, I would gladly take an alternative if one surfaces. I haven't found one yet. Walmart+ is pretty close in terms of shipping, and the fact grocery service is included is a huge plus ( we don't have grocery service with Amazon in our location ).
If the perks of Amazon Prime deteriorate further, we may think about dropping Prime and just go with their default free shipping, and get Walmart+ for the grocery service ( or not...we can just pick up the groceries for free ).
What was the Amazon Music debacle?
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Judging from the current responses, it sounds like Prime is going to go under imminently...lol.
I'm sure this will be an unpopular take, but we still find tremendous value with prime...especially shipping. The fact we can share Prime with our family members is a huge plus. However, the Amazon Prime Music debacle really turned me off and Prime Video is going the same direction. Not happy about that at all....and we were "sold" the hefty bump to $140 under the assumption that the additional "perks" would be included for no extra charge. Seems like a massive bait and switch on that front.
Given that, I would gladly take an alternative if one surfaces. I haven't found one yet. Walmart+ is pretty close in terms of shipping, and the fact grocery service is included is a huge plus ( we don't have grocery service with Amazon in our location ).
If the perks of Amazon Prime deteriorate further, we may think about dropping Prime and just go with their default free shipping, and get Walmart+ for the grocery service ( or not...we can just pick up the groceries for free ).
What was the Amazon Music debacle?
First, I should have said Amazon Prime Music ( I edited my post above ). They completely destroyed it. Previously, they had a smaller, but unlimited use, music library. They now tout a much larger library...BUT it isn't unlimited use. It is now playlist based with limited skips...you can't listen to the music you want to anymore. It is basically just a radio station. They also constantly try to upsell you to their paid "music unlimited" service. It pissed a bunch of people off, and was their first "experiment" at gutting Prime services.
BTW - Just remembered that I received an email from Amazon a couple days ago announcing a few "changes" to Prime Music. Apparently, Prime Music now allows you to construct a single playlist with unlimited skips. They must have had such huge pushback that they were forced to concede a bit on their crappy changes. However, I haven't looked at it....because we stopped using Prime Music for good quite a while ago.
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Oh...and as far as temu goes, for us it sucks. Not sure why anyone would put it anywhere the same category as Amazon/Walmart.
Apologies for any misunderstandings - to clarify, I wasn't implying that Temu is in same category as Amazon/Walmart. Amazon's range of products is 100x larger than Temu. My suggestion was that if you are not using the Amazon streaming services, and want to quit paying $139/yr for Amazon Prime for "free" shipping, then you can continue to shop on Amazon for orders >$35, and use Temu to help fill the gap for smaller, cheaper orders >$10. IMO, Temu is useful for smaller household and beauty items.
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Oh...and as far as temu goes, for us it sucks. Not sure why anyone would put it anywhere the same category as Amazon/Walmart.
Apologies for any misunderstandings - to clarify, I wasn't implying that Temu is in same category as Amazon/Walmart. My suggestion was that if you are not using the Amazon streaming services, and want to quit Amazon Prime, then you can continue to shop on Amazon for orders >$35, and use Temu to help fill the gap for smaller, cheaper orders >$10.
Ahh ok, that makes more sense! Sorry I misunderstood you.
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Oh...and as far as temu goes, for us it sucks. Not sure why anyone would put it anywhere the same category as Amazon/Walmart.
Apologies for any misunderstandings - to clarify, I wasn't implying that Temu is in same category as Amazon/Walmart. Amazon's range of products is 100x larger than Temu. My suggestion was that if you are not using the Amazon streaming services, and want to quit paying $139/yr for Amazon Prime for "free" shipping, then you can continue to shop on Amazon for orders >$35, and use Temu to help fill the gap for smaller, cheaper orders >$10. IMO, Temu is useful for smaller household and beauty items.
Would you buy batteries, electronics cables, thumb drives, etc. from Temu? They have some really nice prices on those, but am worried about quality since they are electronics. Don't want issues. Like I see a thumb drive 128gb for $3.98 from Temu -- no name brand. Similar size one on Amazon is like $11.99.
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Oh...and as far as temu goes, for us it sucks. Not sure why anyone would put it anywhere the same category as Amazon/Walmart.
Apologies for any misunderstandings - to clarify, I wasn't implying that Temu is in same category as Amazon/Walmart. Amazon's range of products is 100x larger than Temu. My suggestion was that if you are not using the Amazon streaming services, and want to quit paying $139/yr for Amazon Prime for "free" shipping, then you can continue to shop on Amazon for orders >$35, and use Temu to help fill the gap for smaller, cheaper orders >$10. IMO, Temu is useful for smaller household and beauty items.
Would you buy batteries, electronics cables, thumb drives, etc. from Temu? They have some really nice prices on those, but am worried about quality since they are electronics. Don't want issues. Like I see a thumb drive 128gb for $3.98 from Temu -- no name brand. Similar size one on Amazon is like $11.99.
Funny you ask, I had the same mental debate. Can a $10 power cord on Temu fry my $2K Mac? I decided not to find out. :-) I bought an Anker Surge Protector Power Strip, on sale for $26 on Amazon last week. (I like Anker products.) I had a few other items I needed on Amazon, so I easily met the $35 Amazon free shipping limit.
I wouldn't mind buying batteries on Temu, but Costco is probably still the cheapest option for us.
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I'm not particularly attached to AmazonPrime, but my husband is. He buys a lot of parts to fix things and he shops carefully, so it's no big deal to me. He also has an Amazon CC, which I never see, but I charge all my Amazon purchases to, hee.
Last Tuesday evening, just as I was finishing the Moab Meetup Nametags, I got a request for two more. In the middle of printing them, I got a death message that the printer could not be used until a part was replaced. WTF? DH hopped onto Amazon, found two of the item in question (Ink Bus??) for $7.99. He asked me what else I needed, so I added something I buy regularly, bringing the order to $25. The order was scheduled to arrive between 7-11am the very next day. It arrived before 10am, and DH had the printer fixed in ten minutes. This was important because we were leaving for Moab later that day. We're en route now, last two nametags in hand, whew!
I wonder how many people would just have bought a new printer?
He can keep Amazon Prime forever as far as I'm concerned.
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Edit : I feel strange saying this, but I really do think Amazon Prime started sinking after Bezos left. Anyone else feel that way as well?
There's no question. Bezos' success Andy Jassy is all about pumping revenues. That's why Amazon pages are now filled with ads at the top instead of a few ads at the bottom.
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Edit : I feel strange saying this, but I really do think Amazon Prime started sinking after Bezos left. Anyone else feel that way as well?
There's no question. Bezos' success Andy Jassy is all about pumping revenues. That's why Amazon pages are now filled with ads at the top instead of a few ads at the bottom.
Yeah..for all the hate Bezos gets, he was an excellent CEO. And strangely enough, is one of the least "strange" billionaires out there ( at least in public ).
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Edit : I feel strange saying this, but I really do think Amazon Prime started sinking after Bezos left. Anyone else feel that way as well?
There's no question. Bezos' success Andy Jassy is all about pumping revenues. That's why Amazon pages are now filled with ads at the top instead of a few ads at the bottom.
Yeah..for all the hate Bezos gets, he was an excellent CEO. And strangely enough, is one of the least "strange" billionaires out there ( at least in public ).
Yeah, even Warren Buffett has praised Bezos as a genius and what he did with Amazon a "miracle".
I do think Amazon.com is kind of a mess these days -- their search engine is terrible and you get bombarded with sponsored products. I don't think that Jassy will have nearly as much success taking over for Bezos as Tim Cook has had with Apple taking over for Steve Jobs.
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I don't think that Jassy will have nearly as much success taking over for Bezos as Tim Cook has had with Apple taking over for Steve Jobs.
I miss Steve Jobs. Just think of all the new inventions we'd be using now if he was still alive. I haven't seen apple really innovate that much in the past 12 years. Just improvements to existing products.
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Trying out TEMU for the first time. We'll see! Says I'll have within a couple weeks.
(I used Paypal to pay for it since I don't trust them with my credit card information.)
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My mom has been pushing everyone to download Temu. She would get credits for free things just for having people download it, even if they didn't purchase anything. The prices seemed too good to be true and it felt super scammy to me. I did some research and saw that Temu loses an average of $30 on each order/shipment it sends out. Plus, paying people just for downloading the app definitely alerted my spidey senses. The company has to make money and they don't make anything via sales.
It turns out there is a class action lawsuit against Temu because the app is full of malware and they make their money by selling the data they steal off your phone. I would rather pay a little more for products and give my money to a more reputable company. https://www.classaction.org/news/data-breach-class-action-claims-temus-in-app-web-browser-secretly-tracks-users
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My mom has been pushing everyone to download Temu. She would get credits for free things just for having people download it, even if they didn't purchase anything. The prices seemed too good to be true and it felt super scammy to me. I did some research and saw that Temu loses an average of $30 on each order/shipment it sends out. Plus, paying people just for downloading the app definitely alerted my spidey senses. The company has to make money and they don't make anything via sales.
It turns out there is a class action lawsuit against Temu because the app is full of malware and they make their money by selling the data they steal off your phone. I would rather pay a little more for products and give my money to a more reputable company. https://www.classaction.org/news/data-breach-class-action-claims-temus-in-app-web-browser-secretly-tracks-users
Oh wow. So, if this is true, what do I do on my Mac and iPhone then? I can uninstall the Temu app from phone, but how do I remove any lingering malware/spyware from my Mac or iPhone?
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My mom has been pushing everyone to download Temu. She would get credits for free things just for having people download it, even if they didn't purchase anything. The prices seemed too good to be true and it felt super scammy to me. I did some research and saw that Temu loses an average of $30 on each order/shipment it sends out. Plus, paying people just for downloading the app definitely alerted my spidey senses. The company has to make money and they don't make anything via sales.
It turns out there is a class action lawsuit against Temu because the app is full of malware and they make their money by selling the data they steal off your phone. I would rather pay a little more for products and give my money to a more reputable company. https://www.classaction.org/news/data-breach-class-action-claims-temus-in-app-web-browser-secretly-tracks-users
Oh wow. So, if this is true, what do I do on my Mac and iPhone then? I can uninstall the Temu app from phone, but how do I remove any lingering malware/spyware from my Mac or iPhone?
I have no idea. I’m not a techy person.
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Temu set off all my alarms - below-cost pricing to a strong degree of too good to be true, aggressive marketing begging recruitment. Then there’s the general ick - ecological considerations of persuading people to consume vastly more than they ordinarily would because everything was so cheap, no way the products are meant to last, there’s no way they’re paying even normal sweatshop rates to workers to make the products. I was a little confused why they’d be endorsed in a thread about dropping Amazon, they’re like everything wrong with Amazon turned up to eleven.
The idea that the shoppers are the product makes a lot of sense, the money here just goes a lot further & there are well-funded buyers for data on wealthy, trend-hopping customers. If you aren’t paying enough to turn a profit, either the public business model is bait to lure in the real merchandise, or a front at best for something else nasty.
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Well if I do continue to use Temu, it will be in a virtual machine via VPN. When done I'll roll back the VM. Or just use Tails linux off a thumb drive. Or perhaps Tails in a VM which I roll back after each use -- using ZFS snapshots in Proxmox cluster. And only use Paypal to pay, never giving them my credit card number. I don't care if they have my name and address; that's been breached dozens of times already at various web sites / financial institutions.
All the stuff sold on Amazon is stuff bought from these Chinese companies anyways, Temu just bypass the middle man; I don't buy useless stuff; like you I don't like harming the environment.
I agree the site looks so scammy lol, with the spinning wheel, saying you get $200 coupons.. just doesn't make any sense to me and I just ignored that part.
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If a service is "free" (or too inexpensive to be reasonable) then YOU are the product.
These superlow cost sites (Temu, Shein, etc) are selling cheap products and getting access to your data at the same time they are filling up the landfills.
Buy it for life. Pay for quality.
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If a service is "free" (or too inexpensive to be reasonable) then YOU are the product.
These superlow cost sites (Temu, Shein, etc) are selling cheap products and getting access to your data at the same time they are filling up the landfills.
Buy it for life. Pay for quality.
Amen, especially if you can get it lightly used.
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Ideally I buy things used at below fair market value, with little chance of further depreciation.
E.g. these Emeco Navy chairs I bought for $50 each. They were heavily used at an Arby's restaurant for 20 years and still look brand new. There is a 150 year warranty on them as well. I'll have them for the rest of my life, never having to buy a kitchen chair again. $200 for a set of these four chairs which currently retail for about $3000.
(https://www.connox.com/m/100031/144428/media/Emeco/Navy-Chair/navy-chair-brushed.jpg)
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Ideally I buy things used at below fair market value, with little chance of further depreciation.
E.g. these Emeco Navy chairs I bought for $50 each. They were heavily used at an Arby's restaurant for 20 years and still look brand new. There is a 150 year warranty on them as well. I'll have them for the rest of my life, never having to buy a kitchen chair again. $200 for a set of these four chairs which currently retail for about $3000.
(https://www.connox.com/m/100031/144428/media/Emeco/Navy-Chair/navy-chair-brushed.jpg)
Where did you buy these from?
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Where did you buy these from?
I got them from a local woman on FB Marketplace. Her and her husband bought like 100 of the chairs from an Arby's auction if I recall. She got them really cheap. But she had so many she was having a hard time offloading them quickly. So she was selling them for $50 each on FB Marketplace. I just checked and don't see her ad now. I'll PM you the city and state.. I think I might have her phone number in my phone as well.
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So $139 per year for membership plus $2.99 per month to turn off commercials -- I can't tolerate commercials myself. Comes to $139 + $35.88 = $175 per year subscription. INSANE! I remember when it was $69 per year. I could tolerate $99 per year. $119 was bad.. $139 caused me to quit.. I couldn't imagine paying $175 per year. What is it next year? $200?
I did not know about the new $2.99 monthly fee to turn off commercials until I read this today. That’s not good. I hate commercials. I would quit Amazon prime as I don’t use it enough to buy stuff. But I watch enough movies/shows (though their UI is progressively getting worse) and my credit card reimburses Prime membership. I guess I’ll have to see if $36 a year is worth it for the ad-free experience next year.
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.. and my credit card reimburses Prime membership.
Which card is that? I know Amex Business Gold card I currently have now -- 150k MR sign up bonus -- reimburses Walmart+ monthly fee.
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.. and my credit card reimburses Prime membership.
Which card is that? I know Amex Business Gold card I currently have now -- 150k MR sign up bonus -- reimburses Walmart+ monthly fee.
It’s a Navy Fed Flagship Visa card.
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.. and my credit card reimburses Prime membership.
Which card is that? I know Amex Business Gold card I currently have now -- 150k MR sign up bonus -- reimburses Walmart+ monthly fee.
It’s a Navy Fed Flagship Visa card.
Thanks for sharing. I spoke to a couple acquaintances regarding this card and they said that some of these card members have reported getting free Amazon Prime subscription , year after year. Is that the case for you as well? If so, this is totally worthwhile card to have in arsenal! Problem is I don't have any living family members who are veterans. My dad fought in Vietnam but he's deceased now.
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.. and my credit card reimburses Prime membership.
Which card is that? I know Amex Business Gold card I currently have now -- 150k MR sign up bonus -- reimburses Walmart+ monthly fee.
It’s a Navy Fed Flagship Visa card.
Thanks for sharing. I spoke to a couple acquaintances regarding this card and they said that some of these card members have reported getting free Amazon Prime subscription , year after year. Is that the case for you as well? If so, this is totally worthwhile card to have in arsenal! Problem is I don't have any living family members who are veterans. My dad fought in Vietnam but he's deceased now.
That doesn't matter. They opened it up to family members a few years ago. I thought you were very proud of dumping Amazon Prime though? You're supposed to only get the free Amazon Prime the first year, it's not intended to be an annual benefit in their marketing of that card, so it's interesting that others continue to get it.
https://www.navyfederal.org/membership/eligibility.html?intcmp=nav|mbrspmenu|||eligibility|10/19/2017|||
If one of your immediate family members serves or has served in the military but is not a Navy Federal member, you may still be eligible for membership.
Immediate family members include:
Parents and grandparents
Children and grandchildren
Siblings and spouses
Once your family member joins Navy Federal, you'll be eligible as well. If they can't or don't want to become a member right now, you can still join. You may need one of the following documents from your family member:
Driver's License with Veteran's designation
State-issued Veteran ID Card
Military orders
Leave orders
Earning statement (LES)
Enlistment papers
Proof of direct deposit from DoD
Pension papers from DoD
DD 214
NGB 22
Give us a call at 1-888-842-6328 or visit a branch to finish signing up for membership.
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I wouldn't mind have a free amazon prime membership, year after year, by just holding onto a card. A card that also has a $300 sign up bonus :) EDIT: Oh I forgot about the $50 annual fee..oh well :) Maybe not :)
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I just subscribed for Walmart+ today for $12.95 per month, because I recently got the American Express Business Gold card; Amex reimburses the monthly membership fee, making it free. (I got the card for the 150K MR sign up bonus which for me is worth $1500 -- spend $10k in 90 days .. had a bunch of home repairs which needed to be done.)
I am not impressed with Walmart+ at all. I just attempted to do my first "free" delivery of groceries from a local store. You have to put $35 worth of stuff in the cart to get free shipping btw; I am fine with that. However, when it came time to check out they have an option to tip the driver and they auto-defaulted it to 10%. I am not happy about this at all. Amazon doesn't do this and it means Walmart is too cheap to pay the drivers a fair wage. I cancelled the order b/c I wouldn't not tip a driver. They have an option to not tip but that makes me feel really cheap and uncomfortable. I rather just pick up my own groceries like I've been doing for decades, rather then pay a monthly subscription to have them delivered for "free", only to have to pay again with a tip. Doesn't seem like a good deal. I think Walmart is going to fail with this.
The Paramount Plus subscription was pleasantly decent though with a lot of movies to watch along with shows. So far have been without commercials, but I don't know if that will last.
The rest of the services they offer with Walmart+, to me, don't really provide me with any real value.
So I might just cancel this even though it's free, on principle. I don't like their gig economy, tipping model, and charging a subscription for it on top of that. They need to pay the drivers a fair wage and remove the tipping thing.
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I believe Walmart+ comes with a free annual subscription the version of Paramount Plus that has commercials, not the ad free version.
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...So I might just cancel this even though it's free, on principle. I don't like their gig economy, tipping model, and charging a subscription for it on top of that. They need to pay the drivers a fair wage and remove the tipping thing.
Good principled choice but also probably a good economic one. This is pretty par for the course with Walmart. Depending on how you slice it they leverage billions (it was six billion a decade ago) in public subsidies because their wages are so low that a lot of their full-time employees still qualify for federal food & housing aid.
I am pretty positive I save more by avoiding the ad blitz of Amazon & Walmart's sites than I would recoup in discounted goods.
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I believe Walmart+ comes with a free annual subscription the version of Paramount Plus that has commercials, not the ad free version.
I haven’t seen any commercials yet. Been watching several things. The amount of content they have now is quite amazing. I’d say more than any other streaming service I’ve seen so far, but I’m no expert. One thing they have is all the old Twilight Zones.. doing a little Twilight Zone marathon today.. like they did on thanksgiving when we were kids :)
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I’m confused because a few of these posts seem to tie Prime membership with buying from Amazon.
Uh, anyone can buy from Amazon without paying for a Prime membership.
I have a Prime membership for access to its video catalog which is deep and rich. Also, I order regularly from Amazon, but I am indifferent to the “free” shipping. Sure, I suppose true shipping costs would add up but really they are just rolling those shipping costs into the price of the object.
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Temu set off all my alarms - below-cost pricing to a strong degree of too good to be true, aggressive marketing begging recruitment. Then there’s the general ick - ecological considerations of persuading people to consume vastly more than they ordinarily would because everything was so cheap, no way the products are meant to last, there’s no way they’re paying even normal sweatshop rates to workers to make the products. I was a little confused why they’d be endorsed in a thread about dropping Amazon, they’re like everything wrong with Amazon turned up to eleven.
This exactly. As much as I gripe about Amazon, I'll give Bezos a hug before giving my money to Temu. Aside from the general environmental destruction encouraged by selling a million tiny things at low prices and low product quality concerns, Temu's business model is inherently designed to take advantage of a loophole in the U.S. tax code to lower prices and reduce the likelihood that anything they sell will be inspected for compliance with labor or safety laws. China-based direct-to-consumer businesses like Temu ship small individual packages rather than bulk orders, and if a shipment from China to the US is valued at less than $800 there's a part of U.S. tax code (originally designed to allow tourists to ship souvenirs home to the States) that says you don't have to pay import taxes to the US (https://www.americanmanufacturing.org/blog/why-you-should-be-leery-of-shopping-app-temu/).
Temu's business model has also been flagged as enabling them to skirt the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, a law meant prevent the import to the US of cotton and other wares from Xinjiang Province, which grows about 85% of China's cotton and is also the main location of China's forced labor camps for Uyghur people. Chinese shipments to the US are supposed have documentation showing the goods in them weren't produced in Xinjiang. It's debatable how effective that requirement is but it's something at least and Temu isn't doing even that.
And while other companies may be trying similar tactics, the shear scale of what Temu is up to alarms me. A report from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party recently estimated that Temu and the similarly-structured Chinese-based hyper-fast fashion retailer Shein together accounted for more than 30% of all packages (valued under $800) that came into the U.S. in 2022. https://globalaffairs.org/bluemarble/how-shein-and-temu-get-around-us-labor-laws-ban-products-made-forced-labor
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I just subscribed for Walmart+ today for $12.95 per month, because I recently got the American Express Business Gold card; Amex reimburses the monthly membership fee, making it free. (I got the card for the 150K MR sign up bonus which for me is worth $1500 -- spend $10k in 90 days .. had a bunch of home repairs which needed to be done.)
I am not impressed with Walmart+ at all. I just attempted to do my first "free" delivery of groceries from a local store. You have to put $35 worth of stuff in the cart to get free shipping btw; I am fine with that. However, when it came time to check out they have an option to tip the driver and they auto-defaulted it to 10%. I am not happy about this at all. Amazon doesn't do this and it means Walmart is too cheap to pay the drivers a fair wage. I cancelled the order b/c I wouldn't not tip a driver. They have an option to not tip but that makes me feel really cheap and uncomfortable. I rather just pick up my own groceries like I've been doing for decades, rather then pay a monthly subscription to have them delivered for "free", only to have to pay again with a tip. Doesn't seem like a good deal. I think Walmart is going to fail with this.
The Paramount Plus subscription was pleasantly decent though with a lot of movies to watch along with shows. So far have been without commercials, but I don't know if that will last.
The rest of the services they offer with Walmart+, to me, don't really provide me with any real value.
So I might just cancel this even though it's free, on principle. I don't like their gig economy, tipping model, and charging a subscription for it on top of that. They need to pay the drivers a fair wage and remove the tipping thing.
We tried a trial run of Walmart+ and came to the conclusion it wasn't worth it. Like you said, they really push tipping the delivery drivers, etc...which I totally get. However, the tipping renders the subscription pointless to us. And the tipping is NOT advertised when you sign up for the service....pretty lame.
Instead, we order groceries from Walmart and pick them up...the store is close to us and we only order every couple weeks...so it really isn't a burden at all.
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We cut Prime this summer. We lost access to Prime Video but really haven't missed it, especially since we can still get access to FreeVee.
We do have an Amazon Prime card from when we were car-free and needed 40lb bags of dog food or ordering diapers, but our situation has changed. We rarely order from Amazon for anything anymore, so the shift from 5% cashback to 3% cashback is negligible. We haven't shopped at Whole Foods for anything in more than two years, so that perk means nothing to us. We still get the other cash back %s on that card whether we're Prime members or not.
DH was hesitant to make the shift (he kept complaining about losing Prime Video) and really dragging his feet, but we haven't missed it at all.
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DH was hesitant to make the shift (he kept complaining about losing Prime Video) and really dragging his feet, but we haven't missed it at all.
Good thing ya did, b/c now they are charging $36 more per year to avoid commercials on prime video. I liked prime when it was $69 or $99 with prime video with no commercials. Now they want $176 for the same thing, no thanks.
(That was one of my reasons for keeping prime membership in the past, was for prime video. When they got up to $119 I was so tempted to quit them; when they went to $139 shortly after I just had it with them.. now $176... my goodness, aren't they all high and mighty! lol.)
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Another shoutout for Amy D. She wasn't just the editor, TTWG was her brainchild
Shouldn't it be TTG? Or TTWGZ?
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Another shoutout for Amy D. She wasn't just the editor, TTWG was her brainchild
Shouldn't it be TTG? Or TTWGZ?
The Tightwad Gazette has been abbreviated as TTWG for ages. It might have started over at The Non-Consumer Advocate (NCA), because Katy's a huge Amy D. fan.
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We have a credit card which provides Walmart+. We find that much more affordable and beneficial for us.
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We cut Prime this summer. We lost access to Prime Video but really haven't missed it, especially since we can still get access to FreeVee.
We do have an Amazon Prime card from when we were car-free and needed 40lb bags of dog food or ordering diapers, but our situation has changed. We rarely order from Amazon for anything anymore, so the shift from 5% cashback to 3% cashback is negligible. We haven't shopped at Whole Foods for anything in more than two years, so that perk means nothing to us. We still get the other cash back %s on that card whether we're Prime members or not.
DH was hesitant to make the shift (he kept complaining about losing Prime Video) and really dragging his feet, but we haven't missed it at all.
Follow up: Amazon sent us a 30 day Prime trial in the hopes we'd renew our membership - so we signed up for the trial, got free shipping on a Christmas gift that was going to be cutting it close, shipping-wise, and we'll get to stream MOST of the new season of Reacher.
We also, of course, have a note in our calendar to cancel the free trial before it charges us for a new subscription.
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We cut Prime this summer. We lost access to Prime Video but really haven't missed it, especially since we can still get access to FreeVee.
We do have an Amazon Prime card from when we were car-free and needed 40lb bags of dog food or ordering diapers, but our situation has changed. We rarely order from Amazon for anything anymore, so the shift from 5% cashback to 3% cashback is negligible. We haven't shopped at Whole Foods for anything in more than two years, so that perk means nothing to us. We still get the other cash back %s on that card whether we're Prime members or not.
DH was hesitant to make the shift (he kept complaining about losing Prime Video) and really dragging his feet, but we haven't missed it at all.
Follow up: Amazon sent us a 30 day Prime trial in the hopes we'd renew our membership - so we signed up for the trial, got free shipping on a Christmas gift that was going to be cutting it close, shipping-wise, and we'll get to stream MOST of the new season of Reacher.
We also, of course, have a note in our calendar to cancel the free trial before it charges us for a new subscription.
I love calendar events with alerts :)
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Whelp, I just cancelled prime too. I've had an account for 15 years, but the "enshittification" is real. The cost has doubled in that time, the shipping is NEVER 2 days since the pandemic and the blatant cash grab with the "limited targetted ads" is the last straw.
I'm very curious to see if there is any data on how many prime memberships are being cancelled in relation to the ad thing. Reddit is ablaze over it, but not sure that's an accurate barometer.
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Whelp, I just cancelled prime too. I've had an account for 15 years, but the "enshittification" is real. The cost has doubled in that time, the shipping is NEVER 2 days since the pandemic and the blatant cash grab with the "limited targetted ads" is the last straw.
I'm very curious to see if there is any data on how many prime memberships are being cancelled in relation to the ad thing. Reddit is ablaze over it, but not sure that's an accurate barometer.
Personally, I don't know anyone who has prime primarily for watching Prime Video.
Everyone I know mostly got and uses prime for the shipping/retail options first, and video is an "oh well I guess I pay for it" thing.
We occasionally watch stuff on Prime Video. We just won't with ads. I'm not sure if we'll renew again though I don't think them charging more to avoid ads is going to impact that decision.
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Personally, I don't know anyone who has prime primarily for watching Prime Video.
Everyone I know mostly got and uses prime for the shipping/retail options first, and video is an "oh well I guess I pay for it" thing.
We occasionally watch stuff on Prime Video. We just won't with ads. I'm not sure if we'll renew again though I don't think them charging more to avoid ads is going to impact that decision.
When I first got Prime it was $69.99 per year and I specifically got it for the fast 2 day shipping and for orders under $25. The Prime Videos were a bonus. Then when it was $99.99 per year I started reasoning, "But the prime video is pretty good.. overall a decent deal". Then they went to $119.99 and that really upset me but I stuck with it, because I really liked the prime videos along with the more simple shipping. When they increased it to $139.99, it was the last straw, I could no longer justify it. And quit. And now they want another $36 per year to avoid commercials. $176 per year! Ridiculous!
There are some items I regularly get from Amazon and I leave them in the cart, to help fill out an order, to get it above $35 for free shipping. I don't care how it takes to get the item. If it is critical I get it as soon as possible, I'll pay for a month of prime, but I haven't had to do this yet, for an entire year now.
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Whelp, I just cancelled prime too. I've had an account for 15 years, but the "enshittification" is real. The cost has doubled in that time, the shipping is NEVER 2 days since the pandemic and the blatant cash grab with the "limited targetted ads" is the last straw.
I'm very curious to see if there is any data on how many prime memberships are being cancelled in relation to the ad thing. Reddit is ablaze over it, but not sure that's an accurate barometer.
I cancelled about a year ago due to the "enshittification". Haven't really missed it at all. I had several orders in a row that they messed up and customer service was terrible.
I still buy a few things on Amazon that I can't find elsewhere. Shipping isn't really an issue for the majority of items and usually comes earlier than what they say.
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I keep it because I buy enough business supplies to make it worthwhile; I write off a percentage of the yearly fee as a business expense.
I do a number of Swagbucks and MyPoints churns every year that are easily converted to Amazon gift card $. So if I buy business stuff on AMZ that I can charge to a client I'm actually getting cash for the SB/MP churn.
I rarely watch anything on Prime. I liked Bosch because I'd read all the books, but I can't think of another series I watched. Mainly I watch YouTube.
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Personally, I don't know anyone who has prime primarily for watching Prime Video.
Everyone I know mostly got and uses prime for the shipping/retail options first, and video is an "oh well I guess I pay for it" thing.
We occasionally watch stuff on Prime Video. We just won't with ads. I'm not sure if we'll renew again though I don't think them charging more to avoid ads is going to impact that decision.
When I first got Prime it was $69.99 per year and I specifically got it for the fast 2 day shipping and for orders under $25. The Prime Videos were a bonus. Then when it was $99.99 per year I started reasoning, "But the prime video is pretty good.. overall a decent deal". Then they went to $119.99 and that really upset me but I stuck with it, because I really liked the prime videos along with the more simple shipping. When they increased it to $139.99, it was the last straw, I could no longer justify it. And quit. And now they want another $36 per year to avoid commercials. $176 per year! Ridiculous!
There are some items I regularly get from Amazon and I leave them in the cart, to help fill out an order, to get it above $35 for free shipping. I don't care how it takes to get the item. If it is critical I get it as soon as possible, I'll pay for a month of prime, but I haven't had to do this yet, for an entire year now.
my experience was very similar to @jnw. I don't really think streaming was a thing when I started my Prime membership, then as the price went up, it was one of the services that had been added so I calculated it as part of the value (although we watch about 1-2 movies a month). Then with the latest ad shenanigans, I did a deeper dive on the real costs and figured out that of the past 10 movies we watched, only 3 were "free" on prime. Couldn't really figure out what I was getting for my 139 dollars.
BTW, if you cancel, they refund you back a prorated portion of your membership fee. So, maybe I should crosspost this into "what small thing did you do to save money today"!
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This thread was the perfect reminder to me that I wanted to cancel my Prime, so thank you for that!
I think the service I tended to use the most was actually the KindleUnlimited, which is ~$12/month (apologies it's not exact, my prices are currently in Swedish Kroner while I'm mid-moving). BUT I think 2024 may be the year I finally lovingly-annoy the local library to get many more books available in English to make up the difference :)
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Well...we are still with Prime. However, the fact they are now going to charge $2.99 per month for "ad free" prime really might be the last straw.
Ridiculous move! However, I'm sure Amazon hired tons of MBAs and "did market research" to ensure $2.99 is a price most will bear.
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I'm trying to quickly re-watch Wheel of Time and Rings of Power before the ads start. I'm not paying $2.99 per month to remove them and DH keep talking about just canceling Prime altogether. In the past we would occasionally watch shows on it (mostly Downton Abbey and nice British reno shows) but we had Prime mostly for the ease of buying things and having them delivered, coupled with the 5% back on the amazon card. Two babies 15 months apart, one with special needs, and a blind husband who cant drive meant the "baby survival stage" necessitated doing a lot of Amazon shopping. Now that we are slowing down on our Amazon purchases Prime doesn't seem as important from that standpoint, but now they make two shows that we really like and want to watch! I think after our re-watch we will cancel Prime and then only sign up occasionally when the newest season of both shows is out.
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I used to be pretty good at not forgetting to cancel prime after binge-watching whatever show it was I had signed up for. But then for almost all of 2023, I just kept letting it tick on over. More a symptom of how my 2023 went than anything else (just about zero tracking of spending went on last year, obviously) because I was sure I had cancelled it and was surprised when I wanted to re-sign up for the second series of WoT that I was still subscribed.
Anyway, I cancelled it a couple of weeks ago because I wanted to resubscribe to Netflix. And just today got the email telling me about how from February it will be an additional €2.99 per month to have ad-free access. But "Live events, such as sports, live TV, and content offered through Amazon Freevee will continue to include advertising". Since they're only drip-feeding Reacher, I'll miss the last couple of episodes but I'm sure I'll catch up some time. And if not, that's hardly the end of the world.
Apart from some of their original series, I've always found the prime video offering to be subpar and it's annoying to search for something, find it and then realise they want you to buy it because it's not included.
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I used to be pretty good at not forgetting to cancel prime after binge-watching whatever show it was I had signed up for. But then for almost all of 2023, I just kept letting it tick on over. More a symptom of how my 2023 went than anything else (just about zero tracking of spending went on last year, obviously) because I was sure I had cancelled it and was surprised when I wanted to re-sign up for the second series of WoT that I was still subscribed.
Anyway, I cancelled it a couple of weeks ago because I wanted to resubscribe to Netflix. And just today got the email telling me about how from February it will be an additional €2.99 per month to have ad-free access. But "Live events, such as sports, live TV, and content offered through Amazon Freevee will continue to include advertising". Since they're only drip-feeding Reacher, I'll miss the last couple of episodes but I'm sure I'll catch up some time. And if not, that's hardly the end of the world.
Apart from some of their original series, I've always found the prime video offering to be subpar and it's annoying to search for something, find it and then realise they want you to buy it because it's not included.
I believe you can immediately cancel Prime after you subscribe to it? This is the same for many subscriptions. One thing I do is if I am going to let it ruin without immediately cancelling is setup a calendar even to alert me to cancel the service a couple days before due date.
I got to where I don't care about staying current with the latest episode each week. I don't care if I binge watch an entire season or two , one to two years later after everyone else has watched it. I don't find myself chatting about the latest tv episodes with friends or family.
Great to hear another person leaving Amazon Prime. Everyone needs to BOYCOTT them, they are getting crazy with their fee hikes! Bring back the $69.99 per year please then I might reconsider.. $176 is a complete joke.
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Totally get where you are coming from (OP). For me, it's a no-brainer to keep prime, because my visa flagship rewards card reimburses me for the entire cost of the $139 annual prime membership. To anyone on the fence, check if that benefit is available.
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Totally get where you are coming from (OP). For me, it's a no-brainer to keep prime, because my visa flagship rewards card reimburses me for the entire cost of the $139 annual prime membership. To anyone on the fence, check if that benefit is available.
If you get 3% on an Amazon Visa without Prime, and 5% with, then spending >= $6950 annually at Amazon.com will cover the $139 subscription.
Our household spent about $4400 in 2023, so that 2% bump would've covered $88 of the subscription. But we avoid having Prime - I'll occasionally take a free week/month or pay $1.99 for a trial period. (I did 4x of those in 2023 for $8.44 total after tax. And the 2% bonus is activated for those - so I tend to do those when I'm spending > $100 and it does pay for itself with the cashback.)
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Totally get where you are coming from (OP). For me, it's a no-brainer to keep prime, because my visa flagship rewards card reimburses me for the entire cost of the $139 annual prime membership. To anyone on the fence, check if that benefit is available.
I thought that was only for the first year
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Totally get where you are coming from (OP). For me, it's a no-brainer to keep prime, because my visa flagship rewards card reimburses me for the entire cost of the $139 annual prime membership. To anyone on the fence, check if that benefit is available.
I thought that was only for the first year
Ditto. I thought just the first year as well. I'd like the card if it gives it for free every year :) I like collecting useful credit cards and keeping them :)
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Totally get where you are coming from (OP). For me, it's a no-brainer to keep prime, because my visa flagship rewards card reimburses me for the entire cost of the $139 annual prime membership. To anyone on the fence, check if that benefit is available.
I thought that was only for the first year
Thought so too, but this is my third consecutive year receiving the credit. Seems they keep renewing or extending the "limited" offer.
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Given how often this thread turns into resubscribing or staying with Amazon Prime I’m beginning to think it should be retitled.
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It has been over a year now and I haven’t paid an annual subscription — and don’t miss it. I will take a free month from them from time to time or pay $1.99 for 1 week if prudent. I also don’t mind a free year if I can get it for free, although I really don’t need it. I also might pay for one month sub if I have an emergency or the item is pricey enough — $750 — that the extra 2% on the Chase Amazon Prime card covers the monthly fee — but in the past year I don’t recall ever having to do so.
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I think Prime is a fairly unique play with real value. We watch the channel, shop extensively on their store (obviously, like anywhere, you gotta check prices), and shop Whole Foods a few times each month. And we use their basic credit card on their stuff only.
After using the card, compared to what we could get through other cash-backs, I’m guessing we’re at least breaking even on the membership.
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I think Prime is a fairly unique play with real value. We watch the channel, shop extensively on their store (obviously, like anywhere, you gotta check prices), and shop Whole Foods a few times each month. And we use their basic credit card on their stuff only.
After using the card, compared to what we could get through other cash-backs, I’m guessing we’re at least breaking even on the membership.
Ha! We don't surf the channel, and don't shop at WF, but it's still worth it for us. DH buys equipment, refurbishes it (frequently with parts from Amazon, shipped via Prime), uses it to complete the desired task, then sells it for a profit, which pays for Prime many times over. I may have mentioned this upthread, but he's been doing it a lot recently. The few times I use Prime, it comes in handy. He has their CC, too. This means it autofills. Whenever I buy anything, it goes on his CC. Our assets are all joint, but I still feel like I'm getting away with something when it doesn't go on my card.
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Totally get where you are coming from (OP). For me, it's a no-brainer to keep prime, because my visa flagship rewards card reimburses me for the entire cost of the $139 annual prime membership. To anyone on the fence, check if that benefit is available.
Which "flagship rewards card" are you referring to?
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If you get 3% on an Amazon Visa without Prime, and 5% with, then spending >= $6950 annually at Amazon.com will cover the $139 subscription.
Our household spent about $4400 in 2023, so that 2% bump would've covered $88 of the subscription. But we avoid having Prime - I'll occasionally take a free week/month or pay $1.99 for a trial period. (I did 4x of those in 2023 for $8.44 total after tax. And the 2% bonus is activated for those - so I tend to do those when I'm spending > $100 and it does pay for itself with the cashback.)
We spent ~$2,600 at Amazon in 2023 because we moved and needed a lot of stuff. There's no way we'll ever spend $7k annually at Amazon.
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Totally get where you are coming from (OP). For me, it's a no-brainer to keep prime, because my visa flagship rewards card reimburses me for the entire cost of the $139 annual prime membership. To anyone on the fence, check if that benefit is available.
Which "flagship rewards card" are you referring to?
https://www.navyfederal.org/loans-cards/credit-cards/flagship-visa-signature.html
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My membership ended yesterday. Didn't renew.
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Mine ends tomorrow and I didn't renew.
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What I'm not sure of:
If I cancel my Prime do I still get the free Prime shipping if I was previously added on a family member's account?
I know being a Family member doesn't get access to other features like streaming video....
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We don't use Amazon enough to justify Prime, so we've never had it.
We collect a list of "nice-to-have" stuff that we don't expect to find locally, in person, so we always have something to add if we need it to get to the shipping limit when it comes time to make an order. There are sites that list "cart fillers," searchable by price, but we've never needed to add something arbitrarily to make up the difference.
The last time we ordered something, which might have been six months ago, we met the shipping limit handily but had to watch closely and hunt around on the checkout screens to turn off the automatic Prime trial sign-up...repeatedly. It was way more than just unchecking a box. I get why they do it, but it felt underhanded how persistent and sneaky it was.
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The Amazon store is a great business story.
When I was working, we closely tracked customers who would drop our products because of price. If we were not losing a small percentage of our customers due to price sensitivity, we were not charging enough.
Amazon’s stock analysts track lots of metrics. Two of the important ones are the number of subscribers and Amazon Day sales. Given the charts below it appears they have made steady progress toward maximizing revenue. This is both a blessing and a curse. They’ve enjoyed strong gains, but the stock price is discounted from the future, and they have a lot of work to do to grow further.
Im a fan of theirs and I believe they’re up to it.
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Count me into the quit bucket.
Paused membership earlier this month, have not renewed.
Between ads on Prime Video and Prime Music becoming nearly unusable, I'm out. We're in an area where they deliver through USPS, so delivery dates are more like loose suggestions to our local PO staff (laid back beach island)
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Count me into the quit bucket.
Paused membership earlier this month, have not renewed.
Between ads on Prime Video and Prime Music becoming nearly unusable, I'm out. We're in an area where they deliver through USPS, so delivery dates are more like loose suggestions to our local PO staff (laid back beach island)
Interesting! USPS has been replaced by Amazon branded vans most of the places that I've lived. I think USPS delivered when I was living in Hawaii - where 2 day shipping was most definitely not a thing.
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@tj We had amazon vans delivering in both Dallas and Charleston.
I think the Space Coast is serviced out of Orlando, some zip codes see the vans from Orlando, but they just dump items to the post office here. Our carrier has been okay lately, but we were previously on the end of the route and lucky to get mail 3x per week.
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I did once have a netflix and amazon prime subscription. I forget how many years ago I canceled but it's at least five. That's over $1000 not spent so far. I haven't missed it. I very rarely pay for shipping on amazon since most orders over $35 or whatever are free shipping. And I guess I don't watch movies or shows much. As of now I have zero digital subscriptions except for a couple of domain names at $12/year. I do pay for phone service and internet though... would love to eliminate that someday.
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I did once have a netflix and amazon prime subscription. I forget how many years ago I canceled but it's at least five. That's over $1000 not spent so far. I haven't missed it. I very rarely pay for shipping on amazon since most orders over $35 or whatever are free shipping. And I guess I don't watch movies or shows much. As of now I have zero digital subscriptions except for a couple of domain names at $12/year. I do pay for phone service and internet though... would love to eliminate that someday.
How would you spend $1000 on Amazon and Netflix? Arent they both st most like $100 per year?
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I did once have a netflix and amazon prime subscription. I forget how many years ago I canceled but it's at least five. That's over $1000 not spent so far. I haven't missed it. I very rarely pay for shipping on amazon since most orders over $35 or whatever are free shipping. And I guess I don't watch movies or shows much. As of now I have zero digital subscriptions except for a couple of domain names at $12/year. I do pay for phone service and internet though... would love to eliminate that someday.
How would you spend $1000 on Amazon and Netflix? Arent they both st most like $100 per year?
Amazon Prime is currently $15/month or $139 if paid annually. Netflix is $186/year unless you are grandfathered in to the old plan (or go with ads). $144/$84 per year (grandfathered plan / ads). So over five years that's at minimum $1,115 (current prices). Could even be over $2k combined if you're opting for the premium Netflix option ($23/month).
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I haven't had an Amazon Prime subscription for a while now, and again I don't miss it.
But I do miss the 5% cashback I got with my Amazon Prime card. Well I recently found a good alternative and that is to use the Pepper App on phone to buy Amazon gift cards. I can buy the exact size Amazon gift card I need as well, to the penny, so I don't have to carry an Amazon gift card balance.
I get the gift cards instantly from Pepper at 5% off. But I pay with a cashback credit card giving me 2% cashback. So this gives me 7% cashback instead. I've heard some people using the Amex Biz Gold card with pepper and getting 9% cashback (if you value MR at 1 cpp like I do).
Also they often run specials where they give 10% cashback on all gift cards, like they are now for me until June 30th. So that means 12%+ cashback. I did end up recently buying a $200 Amazon gift card just to capture the deal. Again the gift card number and bar code is produced instantly on the phone; I copied the code to the clipboard from the phone and pasted it in on my mac within the Amazon app to redeem it. It redeemed instantly for the full $200.
New subscribers get 10% back on everything at Pepper for the first 15 days. So 12%+ cashback there.
Some of the gift cards they offer which are useful to me are: Amazon, Walmart, Sam's, Autozone, etc.. 7%+ or 12%+ cashback at Amazon, Walmart and Sam's is pretty huge for me :) I also recently bought a $300 Sam's Club gift card for 12% off.
You can read more about at Doctor of Credit:
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/pepper-rewards-app-buy-top-gift-card-brands-get-5-back-plus-20-20-referral-bonus/