Knowing This Helps Prevent You From Overspending with Amazon

Amazon

Amazon: It’s an addiction. Seriously, it’s an addiction. If I need something but I don’t need it right this second, I just log into Amazon and make the purchase. I feel that paying for Prime makes it totally worth it to me to do this. For example, I use Frederic Fekkai shampoo and conditioner. I once ordered it for many years from Sephora, but then I realized I can get it for less and in only two days if I order it from Amazon. I do this every month. My kids needed some new sippy cups recently – they’re 2 – and I ordered them from Amazon. Our older girls use a Wet Brush for their hair since it’s actually amazing, and we recently decided they needed to have their own individual brushes and I wanted one for myself. That was yesterday; Amazon will have them shipped to me tomorrow.

Like I said, it’s easy to become obsessed with Amazon. However, it’s also easy to find yourself spending more and more money with the company that you did not know you were even spending. I know you think that you’re only getting what you need, but read on. I almost guarantee that you will find yourself shocked to see precisely how much money you are actually spending at Amazon that you did not intend to spend.

Prime

I know, I know; I’m a Prime member and that has suckered me in. But really, though; I paid $99 to join so I’m going to order my diapers and my sippy cups and my shampoo and things from the site. I want to get my money’s worth. I did, and I certainly do; but now Amazon gets about a million percent of my business because I’m always going, “Or I could just get it from Amazon and it will be here in two days,” without even thinking. I just ordered a new pair of Nikes for the gym from Amazon that I saw online at Nordstrom and thought, “I can have them here in two days if I can find the same pair on Amazon.”

Free Shipping

All right, people; anyone who orders regularly from Amazon and is not a Prime Member is just silly. First of all, I’ve paid for my membership a million times over with Prime and all the orders I place. However, there are still people in the world who are not Prime Members, and they want that free shipping. You know what you’re doing? You’re spending more money so that you can have that free shipping, and it is an actual waste.

Let’s say you want to get a new sippy cup for your kids. You decide three new ones is good. It’s around $20. Then you think about the fact that you’re paying for shipping, so you might as well see what else you need and get that order up to $49 so you can have the free shipping. You actually just spent $30 more than you intended to spend so that you could get free $7 shipping. I mean, honestly.

The Dash Button

We are not there yet. We aren’t; but I am this close. My husband keeps telling me no, that one day our kids will find the buttons and we will open the front door to find 690 rolls of paper towels and thousands of dollars in charges to our bank account with these buttons. But…what’s he going to do when they just show up here? Oh, he’s going to become an addict and he’s going to love it. I know that man better than he knows himself. However, I imagine this a great way for Amazon to get even more money from you; you can click a button and things just SHOW UP. How is that not genius? I need one for things like a babysitter, booze and a naps.

Amazon Tells You To

Nordstrom is so bad about doing this to me, and it seems that the internet itself has this stuff called cookies (not the delicious kind, either) that track your habits on the internet. I mean, I can look up a few dresses online at Nordstrom on my app on my cell phone and the next time I’m on my laptop those dresses are right there off to the right of my screen as I’m doing research for my posts. Amazon does the same thing. Suddenly you’re just logging into your utility company’s website to pay the bill for the month and you see that thing you’ve been eyeing for a while and you click on it to buy it.

Amazon knows you better than you think, and the site basically stalks you with items you want until you break down and buy them. It’s a dangerous, dangerous world in which we live, friends.

Photo by Getty Images

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