How to Save with Amazon's Subscribe & Save program

Tuesday, March 8, 2016


Our Pharaoh Hound Felix with some Amazon deliveries, including dog food and treats. 
This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through one of our links, Sample Sale Mom 
will receive a percentage of commission.

On my Facebook page and group, I write often about how to save money with Amazon's subscribe and save. It's kind of like Costco... but you don't have to buy in bulk (unless you want to) and you can have items shipped right to your door. Much easier than spending an hour of your time shopping and dragging home a 50 lb bag of dog food. And on the coupon-discounted items, prices tend to be around the same or better than Costco's.

Subscribe and save (S&S) is not the same thing as Amazon Pantry. Subscribe and save covers all sorts of stuff you use in your home - beauty items, art supplies, laundry stuff, snacks, pet supplies, and lots more. It doesn't cost anything extra if you already have Prime, and *saves you 15%* off every monthly-delivery product you order when you have at least 5 S&S items in the same monthly shipment. On top of that, you can apply lots of instant discounts to specific items, just by clicking on a "coupon" on the item listing. If you have Amazon Family, which is free with your Prime membership, and very quick to add to your account here, you get an extra 20% off subscribe and save diapers provided you have 5+ total items in your monthly shipment.

At first, I signed up for only dog food on S&S since it was much cheaper that way, (a giant bag of dog food on Amazon isn't much more than a little bag at the overpriced pet store.) I did not bother to do other items. I thought it was too big a pain, or there would be nothing I wanted/needed, or it would be hard to cancel something if I did not want it any more. But then I found out that it's really, really easy to switch items each month, and by buying whatever happens to be discounted, you end up saving a lot. "Discounted" items are not just weird, random stuff either - toilet paper, tissues, cereal, diapers, toothpaste, snack bars, drinks... lots of things you'd be buying anyway. 

Here are some of the questions people often have about Subscribe and Save....

Where do I find subscribe and save items that have an additional coupon discount on them? 
First, join our Facebook group, Sample Sale Mom as I post a few of the best deals there every day, so you don't have to go hunting. You can search the word "subscribe" in the group search bar to bring up lots more deals. You can also search on Amazon itself for items you might normally buy at Costco or the grocery store. 

Click here for the main coupon page, where Amazon lists discounted items. Typically, if an item has a 30% discount on it, and you also have 5 monthly subscribe and save items for the additional 15% off, you will save 45% off the original price - because both discounts come off the top (off the original price.)  
Here are all the current baby-stuff coupons.
Here are all the current beauty coupons.
Here are all the office and school supply coupons.
Here are all the grocery coupons.
Here are the health & personal care coupons.
Here are the toy coupons.
Here are the pet supply coupons.
Here are the clothing coupons.
You can filter for more categories with the left hand side menu on a computer. 

Where can I see my discounts? 
Once you have five monthly subscribe and save items, the 15% off will show up automatically on monthly subscribe and saves before you card them, right on the listing page. The coupon discounts won't show up until your "order summary", which is the last checkout screen before you click to order, right after you select payment method. Here is a picture of what your order summary should look like if you have a coupon item AND at least five total monthly subscribe and saves.


In this case, I used a 20% off coupon (I needed to click the coupon to apply it - it's normally in a green or grey box right under the item price) and got another 15% off for having 5 monthly subscribe and saves. So a total savings of 35% (since both discounts come off the top.)

When I use a coupon, do I get the discounted price every month?
No. Coupon discounts are only good on the first delivery of an order. However - often the same manufacturers run coupons over and over again. To take advantage of that, you can just cancel your subscription on that item and re-add it each time a coupon is re-issued (most coupons are one use only, once you use them they won't appear for you any more - so if you see the coupon show up on the item again, that usually means it has been re-issued.) 

What if the coupon deal ends before my monthly subscribe and save ships out? 
That doesn't matter - the price you pay in your "order summary" (shown in the pic above) is the price you'll pay at delivery time (unless you go above or drop below the 5-monthly-item threshold - in that case your price will be effected, as the 15% S&S discount will be added or taken away.) 

What if I don't need the item right away? Can I "skip" my first delivery? 
Although Amazon gives you the easy ability to "skip" deliveries, this is probably not a good idea when using a coupon discount. Group members have told me that the system gets confused when you skip the first delivery of a coupon item, and you don't end up getting your discount. You can straighten it out with an email to Amazon (or contacting them by "chat") - but this seems like an unnecessary hassle to me. If I don't need an item, I either wait to buy it, or buy it and store it. 

Where can I see my monthly subscribe and saves? 
Go to "Hello (your name) Your Account" on the upper right side of any Amazon page. Choose the option for "Your Subscribe and Save Items" (it brings you  here as shown in the screen shot below.) NOTE: Prices you'll see on the subscribe and save page do *not* reflect your coupon discounts!! They show whatever the current item price is (including the 15% discount if you meet the 5-items-monthly threshold.) I paid substantially less than what is shown for 6 of the 9 products here since they had coupons on them. To see what you actually paid for each item, you'll need to go into your "orders" and then to "order details". You can also see what you paid for each item on the confirmation email you got when you purchased. 



I only wanted to order this item once - how do I cancel it? 
To cancel a subscribe and save item, go to  your subscribe and save page as shown above. Hover over any item. You'll see a choice of "edit" or "skip" - Choose edit. Then you'll see a page like the one shown below - click "cancel item." You will be asked to choose a reason you are canceling, but you don't have to if you don't want to. Click "confirm cancellation." That's it! You have canceled your item. 


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