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Amazon puts things on sale every day. Read on to see why this writer tries not to get tempted.
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The $139 a year I pay for my Amazon Prime membership is more than worth the money. I frequently take advantage of free two-day shipping and other perks, like the option to try on clothing before having my credit card charged.
Also, I tend to take advantage of Prime Instant Video. And that saves me money because it’s allowed me to ditch other streaming services I used to pay for.
Now, I’ll admit that I sometimes shop on Amazon for convenience rather than freeing up money for my savings account. If there’s an item I can find on Amazon for $10 that I know Target has for $9, I’ll sometimes just buy it on Amazon regardless of the higher price. When there’s a small difference in cost, it’s sometimes worth it to me to pay extra for the time savings. Plus, then I don’t have to spend money on gas.
But often, Amazon has the cheapest price for the things I’m looking for. In addition to its regularly low prices, you’ll often find deeper limited-time discounts on Amazon by checking its daily deals page.
That’s something I used to do regularly, but I’ve since stopped that practice. Here’s why.
When you don’t want to be tempted to spend
When you go to Amazon and click on “Today’s Deals” at the top of the page, you’ll get a list of the many items the site has discounted temporarily. And if you get lucky, you might find a discounted item that happens to be something you need or want.
But I try not to check that page for one big reason — in the past, it’s prompted me to purchase items I hadn’t intended to buy. I’m sure I’m not the only person who’s fallen into the trap of buying something because it’s on sale. But it’s something I don’t want to keep doing repeatedly. So these days, I stay off the daily deals page and I think I’m a lot better off for it.
A better way to save money on Amazon
You could potentially make the argument that if you don’t check out Amazon’s daily deals, you might lose out on the opportunity to score a lower price on something that’s actually a need or want of yours. But I have a better system (at least for me) for saving money on Amazon.
I load my cart with the items I’m looking to buy in the near term, but don’t necessarily need right away. I’ll then save those items for later and keep track of price changes by glancing at my cart every few days.
If I see that a saved item of mine is suddenly available at a lower price, I’ll usually jump and buy it. But that way, I’m not buying something simply because it’s on sale. Rather, I’m buying something I already wanted when it’s on sale.
If you don’t want to load up your Amazon cart with items and save them for later, another option is to create a wishlist. That, too, will allow you to track prices specifically for the items you want.
You may be tempted to check out Amazon’s daily deals page out of sheer curiosity. But know that doing so could lead to impulse purchases that hinder your financial goals. As such, you may want to do what I do and just stay away.
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The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Maurie Backman has positions in Amazon.com. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon.com. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
