One of the biggest savings in my monthly grocery budget comes from Amazon’s Subscribe & Save program. Since I share many Subscribe & Save deals here on the blog, I wanted to provide you with an in-depth tutorial about how this great money-saving program works.
What is Subscribe & Save?
Subscribe and Save is Amazon’s subscription service, available for most grocery, personal care and household items. With Subscribe & Save, you can automate delivery of the products your family uses most often; you can choose to have them shipped to you every 1, 2, 3 or 6 months.
What are the benefits of signing up with Subscribe & Save?
If you regularly use certain products, Amazon lets you elect to get them delivered automatically at the interval at which you will need them. For example, we have our refrigerator filter on Subscribe & Save, delivered every 6 months, so I don’t have to worry about remembering when to replace it.
Aside from the convenience, there is also a huge financial benefit to using Subscribe & Save. Amazon offers a 5% discount on all subscribed items – or 15% on diapers & wipes when purchased with an Amazon Mom account.
Plus, you get FREE shipping on your Subscribe & Save order. And, even better, when you have five active subscriptions in one month, your savings will be bumped up to 15% off all subscriptions.
It’s free to sign up for a three-month trial of Amazon Mom, if you’re interested in the diapers & wipes subscriptions. And if you’re already a member of Amazon Prime, you can add Amazon Mom for free, for the life of your Prime membership.
Think you can’t get to five subscriptions? Every month I help you out by putting together a list of awesome subscriptions deals for under $3. If you’re just one or two items short, throw these into your order. You will save far more than the cost of the items – thanks to increasing your savings on the rest of your subscriptions from 5% to 15%.
How do I sign up for Subscribe & Save?
#1. Look for the Subscribe & Save option to the right of the product description. Click the Subscribe & Save circle, then pick your delivery frequency.
#2. Alternatively, if you search for something on Amazon – for example, toilet paper – you will notice that each entry tells you before you even click on it whether a Subscribe & Save option is available.
#3. If your credit card information isn’t already on file, you will need to enter it for all Subscribe & Save orders. Don’t worry, you can still pay with gift cards – in fact, Amazon will automatically deduct them first. Your credit card won’t be charged until your order ships, although the price will be locked in.
#4. You will have a chance to review your order – here is where you will see your discounts applied. Press the order button and that’s it – you will have placed your Subscribe & Save order!
How do I use coupons for Subscribe & Save orders?
Many times, you can sweeten your savings even more at Amazon by clicking on one of their exclusive coupons.
You can see all the current coupons HERE. Just click the ones you want and they’ll automatically be added to your account.
You can also scroll past the product description on an individual product to see if there’s a coupon available. Again, click the link to apply the coupon to your account.
How much do I pay for subsequent subscriptions?
To get the most out of Subscribe & Save, it’s important that you stay on top of your subscriptions. If you place an order when the price is low — and when there’s a coupon — that price is locked in for your first subscription only.
To confirm that your price is locked in for this subscription, follow these steps:
- Go to Your Account >> Your Subscriptions
- Sign In to your Amazon account
- If the Current Price is higher than the price you subscribed at, don’t panic. Click on the Order Details link. This will show you the price you are paying.
- For full details, click on Order number hyperlink to pull up your complete invoice.
Once your initial payment has shipped, the cost of subsequent subscriptions may go up (or even down).
Before your next order ships, I recommend checking the current price is to see if you still want to receive your order. Follow my instructions below if you choose to cancel your subsequent subscriptions.
How do you cancel your Subscribe & Save order?
Canceling your order is simple and there is no penalty. You can even “re-Subscribe & Save” when the price comes back down. I have over 20 canceled subscriptions – including two for the same Size 3 Luvs Diapers!
Here’s how to quickly cancel your subscriptions:
- Go to Your Account >> Your Subscriptions
- Sign In to your Amazon account
- Navigate to the subscription you want to cancel and click “Cancel This Subscription”
That’s it – you’ve now canceled your Subscription.
How do I change my delivery date?
When you place your first subscription ever on Amazon’s Subscribe & Save, they will automatically assign you a monthly delivery date. This is the date on which you can expect to receive your shipments. If you wish to change this, simply navigate to the Your Subscriptions page.
At the top is your delivery date and a Change hyperlink. Click that link and select a date that works better for you.
FYI, I’ve always gotten my shipment at least one or two days before my scheduled delivery date.
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I know at first this can seem kind of complicated, but as soon as you’ve gone through the process, you will see that it’s really a quick and easy way to save 15% off all your Amazon.com subscription orders. I love the Subscribe & Save service – and hope you will come to love it, too!
Do you have other questions about Amazon Subscribe & Save?
When setting up a S&S order, is the coupon “locked in” with that order as well? Is there a chance that the coupon will expire before the order is processed? I don’t recall ever seeing an exp date for Amazon coupons.
Yes, the coupon value locks in, too — just for that first order.
The thing I found about the monthly delivery date recently was that if you place an order at the beginning of December lets say, your first delivery isn’t scheduled until the beginning of January. You can change the date of the delivery but not the month. So the diapers I needed were not going to arrive for a whole month! You really need to plan in advance if you want the item to come in a decent amount of time. Even 2 weeks might be too long to wait, depending on what it is.
Rena, if you change the date of delivery to 10 days later or more, you can then change the month to get it sooner.