I have had a couple people ask me recently about what Amazon Subscribe & Save actually is. I think sometimes I assume that everyone knows about and takes advantage of this absolutely fabulous, money-saving concept. I collected some questions that I thought would help explain what Subscribe & Save is and how to use it to your advantage!
Subscribe & Save is an automatic delivery service through Amazon where you receive a discount. The default is a 5% savings, but you can get up to 15% off each month depending on the quantity of items you buy (more on that later). When you look at an item on Amazon, you will see the “One Time Purchase” Price as well as the “Subscribe & Save price” if the item is eligible for S&S.
1)What items are available for Subscribe & Save?
Only certain items are available for Subscribe & Save, but there are tens of thousands of items available options. Here are some of the categories with S&S items:
Pet Supplies Grocery and Gourmet Foods
Baby Products Household items (Paper Towels, Toilet Paper, etc)
Kitchen & Dining Beauty & Personal Care
Batteries Office Products… and more.
2) Do I have to have Amazon Prime to order Subscribe & Save items?
Nope. Sure don’t. You can order Subscribe & Save whether you have Prime or not. The same discounts apply.
3) What if I want to cancel an item from my Subscribe & Save?
No problem. You can cancel your Subscribe & Save order at any time. You can cancel it before it ships the first time. You can cancel after the first shipment, after 3 shipments, after 100 shipments. There is no obligation for you to purchase the item before or after your shipment. And it takes 2 simple clicks to cancel.
4) When do my items ship?
You actually choose what day of the month you want to receive your items. It’s a quick, easy change, if you want to change it. All of your S&S items each month will ship just before that day (with the intent for you to receive it on the actual day you chose), usually in one single box.
5) What if a coupon comes up on a Subscribe & Save item that I have already subscribed to?
Simple. Cancel your current S&S order, clip the coupon, and set up the same Subscribe & Save again. I’ve done it a dozen times. Easy Peasy.
6) Will Amazon let me know if a coupon comes up for my item?
No, they will not. It’s up to you to review your items to see if there is a coupon for anything. MamaSavesALot often posts coupon updates on S&S items, but for your individual list, you would have to click on each item to check.
7) Will someone remind me that my order is going to ship again?
Yes. I get an email every month letting me know which items are going to ship and what their price is. I can review it quickly to make sure everything is good. Or, I can log in and make any changes I need to make. An example would be if I already have enough trash bags, I can log into Amazon and skip the next delivery with two clicks and it will move that item to the next month’s delivery.
8) What happens if Amazon jacks up the price on a S&S item on my list?
In the email review that Amazon sends you before your items ship, they actually include the price that you paid last time the item shipped. If you see something that looks shady, you can easily go in and change or cancel that subscription.
9) How often do I have to have an item delivered?
You can select a repeat delivery of 1-6 months for each individual item. You can change that option any time. If you need an item more frequently or less frequently, it can be done in a couple clicks.
10) What’s this “1 of 5 Subscribe & Save items” that I see on a lot of the MamaSavesALot posts?
Amazon has an incredible deal where, if you S&S to 5 items in a given month, you get an extra 10% discount (total of 15%). They don’t have to be the same items each month, there just has to be 5 of them total for that month. I’ll give an example:
Each month there are at least 5 items. You can set it up to rotate certain items on certain months. For example, Toilet Paper and Paper Towels are coming every 3 months starting January. Coffee is also coming every 3 months, but starting in February. You can certainly put all of you items in a single month, but splitting the cost over several months is more affordable for most people. Just make sure that there are 5 in each month to maximize the discount.
11) What is Amazon Family and how does it apply to Subscribe & Save?
Amazon Family (Formerly Amazon Mom) is a perk for Prime members. It gives you 20% off diapers for Subscribe & Save packs. If you are not a prime member, diapers are still eligible for Subscribe & Save. It will be 5% for 1-4 items and 15% off for 5 or more subscriptions that month. Most of the diaper deals I post are Amazon Family prices. Any diapers bought on non-Prime Subscribe & Save are 5% more.
12) What does Mama’s Subscribe & Save look like?
I’m so glad you asked 🙂 Here are my June subscriptions. Here’s a quick description:
- Ocean Spray Diet Cran-Cherry. I’m obsessed with this stuff. It’s my drink of choice. Half a glass of ice, fill with water, splash of Cran-Cherry. So good! I’m a simple woman.
- Shelf-Stable yogurt for the baby.
- I found this packing tape deal. I have this set to ship every 6 months. I might just delete the subscription after it ships, though.
- Diapers for the baby
- Tide refill pouches.
- Donut shop coffee (Yum)
- Overnight diapers
- Jumbo pack of Hefty zip bags
- Dishwasher detergent
- Toothpaste
- Razors
Obviously, June has a lot of stuff in it. The next month does not. But it still has at least 5 for the 15% discount. Here’s July:
- Select-A-Size paper towels. One of my favorite bulk items
- Air filters for our furnace
- Shower gel
- Kind bars (Yum)
- Wipes
- Toilet Paper. Another bulk item favorite as I am a brand snob when it comes to TP.
Hopefully this helped you see that Subscribe & Save is a good option for you and your family. Are there any other questions or hesitations you have about S&S? Let me know and I’d be happy to answer.
Click here for Subscribe & Save deals : Amazon Subscribe & Save
For related info, check my post about buying in bulk online vs in store:
http://www.mamasavesalot.com/3-reasons-buying-bulk-online-better-discount-stores/
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