Busy Woman's Toolkit: Amazon Prime

I love my husband, but I’m having an affair with Amazon Prime.

As you build your busy woman toolkit, may I recommend you add Amazon Prime, stat. For an annual fee of $79, you get free two-day shipping on a HUGE range of products and overnight shipping on weekdays for $3.99 per item. For the amount I order, I’m getting my money’s worth by saving on shipping fees. There’s also the opportunity cost. I save tons of time I’d otherwise spend shopping in stores.

Before you say, “Oh, I don’t order that many books or electronics,” let’s huddle up together. Below are five kinds of items you can order and have delivered right to your door, and you may have never even considered using Amazon for them:

Sporting Goods and Gear

Have you ever tried to get your kid’s baseball/softball pants in the right color and size at the beginning of the season… along with every other family in town? Or remembered you need goggles for a swim meet or gloves a few days before a ski trip? Prime has saved me in these situations.

Replacements

In the last two years, I’ve replaced the broken glass carafe from my coffeemaker, the water filters from my fridge dispenser, printer ink cartridges, vacuum bags, Sonicare toothbrush heads and the sugar bowl from my now discontinued dish set.

 Gifts for Kids Birthday Parties. 

I have saved SO much time ordering birthday gifts on Amazon. Cherry-pick what you want – books, toys, arts & crafts and more. Zero in on a few favorite gifts by age and gender and place the order as soon as you RSVP. No day-of-the-party scramble necessary.

Cosmetics. 

You’d be surprised what you can get on Amazon – Origins, NARS, perfume and of course the drugstore beauty items. The beauty of it, pun intended, is that you know right away if your preferred color or variety is in stock.

Small Appliances. 

I’d much rather skip a trip to the big box store and instead browse with reviews and ratings in front of me. Items I’ve bought with Prime: handheld vacuum, dorm-size refrigerator, air popcorn popper, coffee maker.

And if you’ve made it to the end of this article, there’s another awesome Prime benefit that might seal the deal. As a Prime member, you have special access to a big library of free movie and TV content, as well as free/low-cost Kindle books. I only recently discovered that benefit, and am now caught up on Downton Abbey as a result.

Happy shopping! (Incidentally, I am not sponsored by Amazon in any way – I just love this service and shamelessly evangelize it.)