6 Amazing Ways to Save Big At Amazon
Love Amazon, but don’t always love the prices?
We know how you feel. The “everything at your fingertips” nature of Amazon can be addictive — I can buy food, furniture and clothes without leaving my couch? Yes, please!
But sometimes it’s simply cheaper to forgo the convenience factor and do a little old-fashioned physical shopping. It may be a pain lugging a value-pack of toilet paper from store to car and from car to house, but it’s not always economical to have the stuff shipped to you, especially if you can find a better deal in-store.
Hopefully, we can help you enjoy Amazon’s convenience a little more often. Start with these brilliant strategies from Debt Roundup, where Grayson Bell shared five little-known ways to save when shopping at Amazon.com. Tricks include “forcing a promotion,” keeping multiple browser tabs open and checking out Amazon Warehouse (did you know that’s a thing?).
Then, boost the savings factor even further with these additional hacks:
Snag Discounted Amazon Gift Cards
Take your pick of several sites that sell discounted gift cards. Gift Card Granny, at the time of writing, lists more than 2,000 Amazon gift cards for sale at discounts ranging from 0.2% to 1.5%. Buy a few discounted cards and use them in combination with some of the other hacks on this list to maximize your savings.
Use a Cash-Back Site
Get paid to shop! Cash-back site BeFrugal offers up to a 6% rebate on Amazon purchases in certain categories like shoes, furniture, handbags, etc. Check it out before you browse to see if your purchase will qualify.
Use Coupons
Much like any brick-and-mortar store, Amazon does have its own store coupons. Check out the Amazon Coupons site and sort the coupons by category to see if what you’re shopping has an available coupon. If you find an applicable coupon, just click “Clip Coupon” and the discount will automatically come off when you check out.
Get to Work
If you’re looking for a side gig that’s totally flexible, fast and can be done anywhere, anytime, check out Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Complete basic tasks in the time it takes for your favorite show to come back from a commercial break, and you could rack up a little extra spending money instead of checking your Facebook feed yet again.
Answer a few Questions
Another profitable way to kill some time? Sharing your opinion. Survey sites like Swagbucks reward you for answering questions about everything from grocery shopping to TV shows by giving you points, which you can redeem for Amazon gift cards.
Stack the Deals
So, which of these money-saving deals is best for you? Why not use all of them. Earn some extra cash from Mechanical Turk or SwagBucks, then use that cash to buy a discounted Amazon gift card. Log on to Amazon Coupons and clip the coupon you want to use. Then, swing back to BeFrugal and click the “Shop Now” button in the Amazon category that applies to your purchase. Now, just shop as normal and watch the savings stack up.
So go ahead. Have your toilet paper delivered to your front door. You’ll have earned it with smart shopping like this.
Kelly Gurnett is a freelance blogger, writer and editor who runs the blog Cordelia Calls It Quits, where she documents her attempts to rid her life of the things that don’t matter and focus more on the things that do. Follow her on Twitter @CordeliaCallsIt.
