Want Not

So I know we’re all eagerly glued to the Amazon Lightning Deals this week, so I thought I’d give you a couple of quick tips about ‘em.

First of all, many of the deals are visible in advance of their “live” times (not the price, but the item itself), and even the “mystery” items can often be decoded based upon the descriptions, ahead of time. I know that scrolling through a hundred pages of deals first thing in the morning isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but if you’re wanting a particular item, it may be worth it to check ahead to see if something you want is coming up. And if you see an item you want, decide well before deal-time what you’re willing to pay for it. As with everything else, some of the deals are better than others.

When you want a deal: Make sure you’re signed in to your Amazon account and sitting at your computer, ready to click, as soon as it goes live. I have a friend who was trying to snag a deal on a Touch yesterday and both of us clicked for it the minute it went live and neither of us got it. Some deals (particularly the good ones) are available in extremely limited quantities and sell out in a flash. That’s the bad news. The good news is that when you miss out—don’t panic! Many of these deals are showing up more than once. The deal you miss today may be back on Friday. Be patient. Stalk your prey like a lioness, my pretties. Persistance pays off.

Remember, once you add a Lightning Deal to your cart, you only have 15 minutes to check out before you lose the deal price. If you’re on the fence about an item for some reason, you are better off clicking to add it to your cart immediately and then taking those 15 minutes to decide after you’ve secured your shot at it. And if you decide not to buy it? Take it out of your cart—there are people on the waiting list, most likely, and it’s the courteous thing to do.

Happy Lightning-ing!

Oh my pretties, the most wonderful thing has just happened!

Those of you who are Amazon veterans know that there are usually free Prime trials to be had here and there, and maybe over the years you’ve used various email addresses to make sure you had a free trial for your holiday shopping—after all, once those Lightning Deals start flying fast and furious, you’re going to want that free shipping. But they’ve tightened up and maybe you’ve already had a free trial on all your addresses, so now what?

Happy holidays—right now you can sign up for a free one-month Prime Trial and when you go through that link, you’ll have the option to choose an $8/month monthly plan. That means you can sign up today, and for just $8 next month, you can enjoy Prime all through this peak shopping season. Then if January rolls around and you don’t want it anymore, that’s cool, go ahead and cancel.

I think this will be $8 well-spent. [Edited to add: I tested this before I posted it, but folks are reporting it's not being offered to ever account. I'm not sure what determines if you get this offer or not, but I'm looking into it.]

It’s the greatest Discover Card bonus offer ever, so far as I’m concerned—sign up for this quarter’s extra perk, 5% Cashback on up to $1500 worth of… online shopping! (And department store purchases. If anyone does that, anymore.)

It’s like they get me, man. An extra $75 back while I do the remainder of my holiday shopping? Yes, please.

I can’t imagine what sorts of insider tips you’re going to get about toilet paper and paper towels when you do this (remember to sign up with an infrequently-used email address!), but if you go sign up with Scott Products Shared Values via that link, you can get a code for a $5 Amazon MP3 credit. Easy peasy.

Once you sign up and get your code, go enter it here and shop away. Free tunes!

I don’t know, it sounds kind of gimmicky to me… but the Eat This, Not That! folks have another book out, and this one’s called Drink This, Not That!. Supposedly following their directives for lower-calorie beverages can save you up to 30 pounds a year. (I think that should come with a disclaimer that those results only work for people who were previously hooked up to a constant IV drip of frappacinos.)

Anyway, right now you can pick up said book at Amazon for just $1.73, and for less than the cost of a cup of coffee at my favorite drive-through, maybe it’s worth checking out. (Prime and Super Saver Shipping eligible, of course.)

Then again, save for my two cups of coffee each day, I mostly drink water, so what do I know?

Do you love your Discover Card the way I love mine? Do you love Amazon? Do you love it when a plan comes together? (Oh, wait. That might be something else….) Ahem. Where was I? Oh! Right!

If you have a Discover Card, you’re going to love Amazon for the next two weeks—all sorts of eligible items come with free one-day shipping when you pay with your Discover Card and apply coupon code DSCVRFSP. No muss, no fuss. Way easier than fighting the crowds at the stores, and you’ll have it in your hands almost as quickly.