One of my I-didn’t-mean-to-make-it New Year’s Resolutions is to be more purposeful about reading. That’s why I started my 2013 Book List (<–have you seen it? are we reading any of the same books?). Well, the other day, I was looking through my Kindle trying to decide what book to read (and as most of them are freebies, I don’t always remember what they are about and/or not sure if they are actually good). So, I clicked over to the Amazon Prime Reading Library and noticed that some of my FAVORITE BOOKS IN THE WHOLE WORLD were free!
This got me so excited I almost got up (I was in the bed) to update it on Facebook because the world must know about this! Instead, I decided to write a whole post extolling my love for . (You think I’m joking. I’m not. I seriously love Amazon Prime with an everlasting love.)
{I’ve coined a new term: BK. It’s like a PK or Pastor’s Kid. Only it’s a Blogger’s Kid. When they are older they can commiserate on all the weird photos their moms made them pose for.}
So, let’s get to it:
THE TOP TEN REASONS EVERYONE SHOULD BE A MEMBER OF AMAZON PRIME
1. Lending Library
With Amazon Prime you can borrow a Kindle ebook for FREE every month. Now, it’s not any book on Amazon, of course. But there are tons to choose from.
For example, the aforementioned favorite books in the whole wide world, The Zion Chronicles, The Zion Covenant and the AD Chronicles by Brock and Bodie Thoene. That’s like 30 books–for free! If you haven’t read anything by the Thoenes…you need to. It will change the way you view Israel and the Bible.
{These books change all the time, so they might not be available as you’re reading this–but other great books will be!}
2. FREE Two Day Shipping
When you are an Amazon Prime member, you get 2 free day shipping on everything. (OK. there are some things that aren’t covered, but they are from those third-party sellers. I personally, have never wanted to buy something that wasn’t covered on Prime.) Can I just say this again? FREE TWO DAY SHIPPING.
3. Strange Things I Don’t Want To Go To The Store For
You know when you are at home and you say, “Ugh. I need a new printer cartridge. I need to stop by Office Max tomorrow.” Then you forget? And a week later when you’re printing off your kid’s school assignments and you can’t because you never stopped by Office Max? Yeah.
Well, instead, just sit down on Amazon, click the ridiculously expensive ink cartridge you need and it will be on your doorstep in two days.
Other weird things I’ve bought: a pencil sharpener, pan scrapers, white board markers, balloon pump, base ten blocks, a strainer and a geoboard.
4. Downton Abbey
With Amazon Prime you can watch thousands of shows and movies for FREE. If you haven’t jumped on the Downtown Abbey bandwagon, still haven’t seen Lost (*gasp*) or want to get into Dr Who, you can watch it all on Amazon Prime. We’ve discovered a ton of awesome TV series.
They also have lots of kids’ shows. Lydia and Asa’s fave is Little Bear.
We have Amazon Prime on our TV via our Playstation (which we don’t play games on, just as a BluRay player) so it’s just as easy (and cheaper) than cable. You can “order” shows online or straight from the TV. It’s the coolest.
5. One Day Surprises
Sometimes I order something and it comes in one day instead of two. It seems like magic. Or the Jetsons.
6. Did I mention the Lending Library?
Here’s a few other books I’ve read or are on my radar: The Last Operative, Yellow Crocus, All Different Kinds of Free and Hunger Games.
7. It’s cheap!
Amazon Prime is $99 for the year. That sounds like a lot of money. But it’s really only $8.25 a month. And I’m telling you, once you get in the groove of buying stuff online, you’ll use more than $8.25 in free shipping like *that*.
I feel like it’s worth $8.25 a month to not have to bundle my kids up, strap them in the car and go to the store just so I can buy new a new measuring cup because the one I bought at Target doesn’t have a measurement for 1/3. (SERIOUSLY.)
8. Save on diapers & wipes.
If you’re a mom, you can sign up for Amazon Mom and get more sweet discounts coupled with your Prime.
9. It’s for the shopping-impaired.
If you are not a shopper (like me) and don’t like wandering through stores and battling crowds, you need It will make you happy.
10. Uhm…
I can’t think of anything else. But just in case you forgot since #1 above: FREE Thoene ebooks. I’m reading #11 in the AD Chronicles and may have read half a chapter to my husband while he was watching the Braves game.
Do you do Amazon Prime? What’s your favorite perk? Or what’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever bought online?
affiliate links included
In January, we got an email from Amazon offering us 1 month of Prime for free. We figured, why not? So we signed up. Fast forward a week or so later. The alternator went on our Suburban. Of course, this happened on a Saturday. My husband called around to all the ports stores within a 100 mile radius of us. No one had one in stock and the EARLIEST they could get it to us would MAYBE be Tuesday, more than likely Wednesday. So, I started digging. Low and behold – Amazon has an automotive part to it! AND best yet! They had the alternator we needed IN STOCK, FREE PRIME SHIPPING and it was here to us by 11am EST on Tuesday morning. So, not only did Prime save us the hassle of trying to figure out a ride to a parts store late in the day on Tuesday or Wednesday, cost of gas, they also saved us about $30 on the part!!! So we decided to go with a full year of Prime and we’ve more than gotten our memberships worth out of it already !!
That is the best story EVER. I think we should be on an Amazon Prime commercial. 🙂
a
We love it. We ditched cable a few years ago and now we use Hulu, Netflix and now Prime. Just the shipping is worth it especially if you buy toilet paper and paper towels (awesome deals). But what’s even more awesome is that Pushing Daisies is now streaming 🙂 We started the Prime account because I couldn’t find Downton season 2 anywhere lol
GIRL. I need to edit my post to add Pushing Daisies. *sniff* I miss Chuck and Ned.
a
It’s been fun rewatching. I had forgotten so much about it. The chemistry between Ned and Chuck is crazy. I also used the lending library for the first time last month to read Faithfully Frugal (awesome).
We are Amazon Prime addicts at our house. Best thing ever.
ahhhh I love amazon prime! My hubby is a book addict and is ordering them all the time. I do the same…don’t feel like going all the way to the store with 4 kids just to pick one thing up…I totally go to amazon. I did ALL of my christmas shopping on it this year too! LOVE LOVE LOVE!
YES! Christmas shopping!!
a
Seriously, Amazon Prime is THE.BEST.EVER!!! We use it all the time, though sometimes I think we spend more there than I would in the store, but it’s just so convenient
Yeah, not having to stand in line and hand over your credit card does make it easier to buy stuff. But, I find I’m also more of a bargain shopper online. If I’m in Target, I can’t see how much it is at WalMart, so I just buy it. But on Amazon, I can click over to like 5 stores and see who’s is cheapest. You know?
a
We use the free 2 day shipping @ least once a week (no joke). I love that most things are even cheaper on amazon and for Christmas I got my daughter a doll house for almost 50% off!Plus you get 4guest accounts, so we shared it with our parents and best friend!
What?!! Guest accounts?!! How cool is that?
a
Ack! I saw your comment on Facebook, then Facebook wouldn’t let me get to it, then preggo-brain forgot all about it.
Here’s another benefit you may not be aware of that I’m LOVING:
If you’re an Amazon Mom with Amazon Prime member and you place 5 Subscribe& Save orders in a month, you’ll save 20%. TWENTY! We’ve started buying all of our household needs and health foods (laundry detergent, toilet paper, toothpaste, coconut sugar, WHATEVER) through Subscribe & Save because the prices are pretty unbelievable with that 20% discount!
Wow. Does Amazon Mom cost $$, too? I remember signing up for it along time ago but don’t feel like I’m an Amazon Mom…
a
Nope, no cost. I think you can sign up here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/mom/signup/info
On my way.
I Looovvee Amazon Prime. Strangest thing was just this week: ordered a replacement safety net for our trampoline. Free shipping in 2 days. Ridonkulous!
Right?! You can buy stuff quickly that you don’t even know where to buy otherwise. LOVE.
Wow I can see we need to check into all of the great things Amazon offers!! Thanks! Soglad that I discovered your blog.
Ah – I am also a lover of Prime. Did you know they have a sub-group called Amazon Student where you get the benefits of a Prime membership (minus the videos) for FREE!? I am a grad student and loooove the savings and the free shipping. I haven’t missed the video watching YET, but I figure once I’m done with school I’ll bump up my membership status to a regular Prime member.
ALSO – no one mentioned the fact that I cannot walk into Target with 1 item on my list and not walk out with a cart full of things I never knew I always wanted. What is it with that place?! My brain just melts faster and faster the more aisles I traverse. I save a lot more money just ordering my stuff through Amazon.
*sigh* Yes, I’m bummed I’m not still a student. Maybe I could enroll at a community college for a photography class or something?! 😉
And I think you’re right about Target. You know, they say anytime you get a cart at a store (grocery or Target, etc.) the average amount of money spent is $60. Cuh-razy.
a
I’m just jumping in to say I LOVE your newly coined term – BK! Hilarious! I have a couple of BKs who also happen to be PKs. Poor kids! LOL!
Susan
Oh, I was a CPK: Children’s Pastor’s Kid. And I married a PK! 😉
a
Ok- I am already an amazon junkie, now you guys have almost sold me on prime. Question- for the lending library, do you have to use a kindle device or does it work with the Apple Kindle app?
Thanks!
To answer Amy’s question, you can ONLY get FREE books on an actual Kindle, not using a Kindle app on a different device. You can only download one free book at a time and only once every 30 days or once a month-so you can get 12 books a year. When you try to download a new book, Amazon will either prompt you to return the last book you borrowed or let you know it hasn’t been a month yet. Another thing to keep in mind, if you and your spouse both have Kindle devices but share the same Amazon account, only one of you can download a book at a time as I mentioned above. You would both have to pay Prime memberships with different accounts.
All that being said, I love Amazon Prime and the free book thing is an extra perk for me.
Yes to what Stephanie said! 🙂
a
Love the BK term. My kids are quite familiar with that and get comments all the time since they are also hs leaders kids – so a double whammy. Having grown up as a hs leaders kid I’m well aware of the interesting dynamics this presents. Thankfully, my oldest is a ham and loves having people come up and talk to him. It will be interesting to see how my two introverts handle it.
I tried Amazon Mom once, but haven’t tried Amazon prime. I hate shopping and gas is so expensive, I might have to look into this. Do you think it would stream into the x-box. That’s what we use for our DVD player. 🙂
I guess if the XBOX is online. Do you have “apps” on the Xbox? We can get Hulu, Amazon, Netflix, etc all on our Playstation. I’m not really sure how it works. I just know it does. *wink* I’m kinda low-tech when it comes to TV.
a
hahaha… me too. My hubby just shows me how to get a dvd to play and we’re good. I have seen that we could get netflix if we wanted too, so I guess Amazon would work too.
I truly LOVE my prime membership too! AND if you can believe it, mine ended up costing me only $9 after a promo code. Perhaps they were trying to get me reeled in for the long-haul and they succeeded! 🙂 Couldn’t do without it!
SWEET! $9 is a deal!
a
We also LOVE Amazon Prime and I tell people about it all the time. Like someone mentioned earlier, the subscribe & save option is awesome- especially when you need diapers! They show up automatically- we’re getting ready to have our second baby, and that saved me so many times with our first.
Oh, and how about the Amazon app on my iphone? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in a store looking at something, scan the barcode & see that Amazon has it cheaper, so I order it immediately and know it will be at my house the next day. Ah-mazing!
Yes! The scan-thingie is the best! I’m constantly scanning in Target and at bookstores!
a