Amazon Tips and Tricks

Welcome to Saving Money with Andrew!

I’ve written about Amazon many times since starting this newsletter, including:

• Saving Money on Amazon - this is my magnum opus on Amazon savings, including discussion of maximizing credit card rewards on Amazon, donating to charity (for free!) through the incredible Amazon Smile program (please, please, please start using Amazon Smile it if you don’t already), and more.

• Is It Right To Shop At Amazon? (and reader responses) - self-explanatory. Let’s just say my family has an uneasy relationship with Amazon. But amidst the pandemic, we went from 7.5% of all our spending at Amazon in 2019 to 12.2% in 2020. While we might have qualms with Amazon’s dominance, we (like most Americans) have continued shifting more and more of our spending there.

• Saving Money on Baby Stuff - encouraging private label products over more expensive brands, and giving Amazon some credit for aggressively moving toward more affordable private label baby products.

Two new tips:

• Amazon used to regularly offer us No-Rush Delivery as a shipping option, offering a $1 digital credit in exchange for a slower delivery. Recently, they have started offering “Amazon Day Delivery” in our area in which we choose a single day each week, and have the option of having each order delivered on that day, sometimes with a credit, sometimes without. Notably, I’ve found that after placing an order or two for Amazon Day Delivery in a given week, Amazon typically starts offering me small credits ($1-2) in exchange for choosing to have orders delivered on that day, which can really add up. And the environment benefits (a little bit) from fewer trips to our address.

• Did you know that Amazon now offers extremely cheap COVID PCR testing by mail? I have only used a mail-in test once, at the height of the pandemic last year, and it cost $150 and took days to receive a result. Kudos to Amazon for doing this.[1]

And now…Andrew’s pick(s) of the week:

Have you ever sent (or received) a real estate “love letter”? This article is an interesting take on how this practice is increasingly coming under fire, encouraging sellers to implicitly choose buyers on the basis of impermissible criteria such as race or family status, possibly perpetuating existing biases in homeownership.

Why are we still taking our shoes off at the airport? This article discusses the exclusive club of countries that still requires most travelers to remove their shoes before going through security. Current members: Russia, the Philippines, Belize, Sri Lanka, and…the United States.[2]

I hope this has been helpful. If you liked it, please share it on social media! Also, please send me your feedback, requests, and success stories.

[1] If you’re looking for rapid tests, I’ve found Walmart to be the most reliable source for the Abbott rapid test. They’re often out of stock, but restock several times each day so you just need to keep checking back.

[2] Yes, yes, TSA PreCheck lets you avoid this, but the vast majority of Americans are not members. And the idea that you must pay $85 and submit to an interview for the right to keep your shoes on at the airport is a bit galling.