I revisit my perennial request for you to cancel your Amazon Prime membership wondering if there are hidden costs that might cost you more.
I want you to cancel your Amazon Prime membership. In most cases, this is the best idea from a financial standpoint, and from an intentionality standpoint, which is of course another way of saying the same thing.
I’ve long railed against a subscription service with a store that encourages you to spend more money at that store, and stating the “convenience” of it doesn’t actually make it a good idea. Making it easier to spend money isn’t particularly on my Bingo card of financial wellness.
And yes, I know that pretty much everyone has an Amazon Prime account, and they love being able to buy a stick of lip balm, and have it delivered in a box 600 times its size only six hours later. I get it, it’s cool. But I’m just saying that this doesn’t help you with your financial goals.
However, what if the opposite is true? What if not having Amazon Prime is the thing that costs you more money? Is that possible?
Perhaps. Let’s see.
Table of Contents
Prime metrics
At current prices, an Amazon Prime membership is $139 per year.
Since the majority of what people use Prime for is its fast (questionably ethical) shipping practices, the calculus is that at the very least, you have to spend less than $139 in shipping charges than you pay in Amazon Prime. Otherwise you might as well pay for Amazon Prime.
How to save on shipping
Amazon in most cases will offer you free shipping if your order is greater than $35. So the way to win at this scenario is to save your order until you are buying more than $35 worth of stuff, or add things into your cart to put you over the threshold.
Note that this is purely in opposition to the way that Amazon wants you to shop. They want you to click the order button the second you have a thought that leads to a purchase. They want to make it simple.
But simple means unthinking, and I don’t want you to be unthinking with your purchases. I want you to be aware of what you’re buying, but at best, I want you to savor your purchases. (That’s why I’m such a big fan of the idea of a Slow Shipping Movement, to revel in the anticipation the way that we revel in good, home-cooked food.)
Adding more to your order
For me, I almost never need anything fast. And when I do, I pay for expedited shipping.
For me, ordering from Amazon is a kind of game, which I call “how can I never pay shipping charges?” I figure, if I can lop the cost off my order for the price of a little patience, it seems worth it.
But sometimes, just sometimes, I want to buy something quickly, and I don’t have $35 worth of items in my cart. I don’t “need” it, so I can’t really justify the shipping charge, but I’d like it to get here sooner rather than later.
When this happens, sometimes I’ll look at my saved items to see if there’s anything I’ve been sleeping on that I can add to my cart.
But other times, I go looking for anything else I could buy.
And therein lies the potential issue: If you’re adding items to your purchase for any reason other than you’re wanting to purchase them, you’re letting Amazon win, and you’re letting your financial situation lose.
After all, that’s the whole thing we’re trying to avoid. We’re not trying to spend less, we’re trying to spend intentionally. (The two are not the same thing.)
Be your own Amazon Prime
Amazon wins when you spend money unintentionally and without thought (on Amazon). And Amazon Prime makes you spend more money with Amazon than with other sellers, because you instinctively want to “get your money’s worth”.
Not having Prime runs a similar risk too, because you risk wanting to “get your money’s worth” by spending enough that you won’t have to pay shipping charges, thus causing spending you wouldn’t have done in the first place.
Does this undercut my own argument against Amazon Prime? Would you save money with Amazon Prime? Only you can answer that question for yourself.
For me, not having Amazon Prime keeps me honest. And even if I want to add unnecessary things to my cart, I can notice myself doing it and hold off, against the day that I can justify what it is that I want to purchase.
And also, I check Target, Walmart, and AliExpress, since I’m not beholden to Amazon in any way. Spoiler alert: those places are sometimes cheaper, or provide a better product. But you wouldn’t know that if you only shop Amazon.
Image source: Reddit
