I tend to buy an odd assortment of stuff from Amazon from month to month, I have to say. There are some things that I just plain buy from Amazon regularly (like for instance, I tend to buy my Chewable children's Benadryl from Amazon when they have it as it is MUCH cheaper than buying it at my local stores) because my stores don't have it available or because Amazon just beats local prices by large amounts. This is definitely one of those hauls.
So, what did I buy? Let's break it down
(Quick warning: This post contains affiliate links to the products when possible. If you order the products through these links I'll get a small commission from Amazon for pushing the sale their way. This will not cost you any extra to do and helps to support the blog a bit. If you do purchase through these links, thank you!).
Well, first, I actually ordered more than this but Amazon back ordered some things that I just plain ended up cancelling or reordering because it was quicker to get through a third party seller or something. For instance I originally ordered this olive oil, but it just would not ship and just kept getting delayed (it is a good deal, though, as it is imported from Italy and is 50% off with a coupon code), so I gave up and just cancelled the order. Instead I got this one on subscribe and save instead. It actually came, which was a nice change of pace! I'm trying to start buying things like olive oil in tins instead of in plastic bottles for the sake of the tins being opaque (so the light doesn't get to the oil) and they tend to come packed in a couple of nice thick boxes to avoid them getting too damaged where the plastic bottles I have LITERALLY gotten in from Amazon with a shipping label slapped onto the bottle itself and mailed. Amazon is great that way. You have no idea what you are going to get when you order from them.
By the way, to get the Subscribe and Save discount you have to order five or more things to be delivered on your delivery date in a month to get the best deals. After the items get to you in your order (if you don't want them on a continual rotation, which I never do), just go to "Subscribe and Save Items" under your Amazon account, go to the "subscriptions" tab under Subscribe and Save and then just click one item at a time and go down to the very bottom of the screen to "cancel subscription". I always pick "Other" as a reason for cancelling the items and voila. No worries about getting items shipped to you that you don't want six months down the line (I always order items on a six month rotation, just in case I forget to cancel my subscription for a little bit). Another thing that ordering your Subscribe and Save items fresh every month does for you is if there is a coupon for your first Subscribe and Save order only, you'll be able to take advantage of those coupons (sometimes up to like 20% off of the already reduced price) where if you had it on rotation, you wouldn't be able to use the coupon since you already had an order in for it.
Right, so let's break down the items I got (I'm including the Subscribe and Save amounts that I bought them for after the discounts apply).
Colavita Oilve Oil, 101 fl oz tin. This is now a bit cheaper than when I got it (as of 3/2/23 anyway). It was 25.54 when I got mine. We go through a lot of olive oil around here as my son eats it on pasta nearly every day.
Always Pads, Ultra Thin, Size 2 Long Super Absorbency 126 ct (2). I got these on a buy 1, get 1 50% off sale, so I ended up spending 27.73 after the sale and the Subscribe and Save discounts were applied. This is enough feminine care products to last us for quite a while, so I was happy to get them on sale.
Guittard Baking Wafers, Milk Chocolate, 12 oz bag I was able to get these for 14.98 (other types of Guittard chocolate wafers are cheaper than the current price listed on this one right now if you search for it). I know that this is expensive, but this is a peanut free chocolate (made in a peanut free facility) and while I was sick through Valentine's Day, I still want to make my kids some chocolate goodies (better late than never). So, I got these as I can't find them at my local store right now.
Gold Medal Self Rising Flour, 5 lb. I don't live in the South, obviously, where it seems self rising flour is really easy to find. I wanted to get some to make biscuits with, but self rising flour here, if you can find it (which ain't easy it seems) is like 8.00 per bag and making my own just gave me some inconsistent results (not sure why). So, I ordered one through Amazon for 3.42 after Subscribe and Save discount. Not pictured as I put it into a plastic bag to avoid anymore flour spilling out as it was not in a bag when it was shipped, so I forgot to put it back in the picture.
Wholesome Organic Cane Sugar, 10 lbs. Yup, this is an odd one to order from Amazon, I'll admit. But, after Subscribe and Save Discounts were applied (you get 15% off with five items added onto your order), it comes down to 9.89 for 10 lbs of sugar. I know that 4 lb bags of sugar at my store have gotten RIDICULOUSLY expensive, so it was actually cheaper for me to get 10 lbs of organic sugar then getting 8 lbs of non-organic sugar. The world is nuts.
LorAnn Bakery Emulsions, Peppermint, 4 fl oz). I was able to get this on Subscribe and Save, which brought the price at the time down to 4.74. I couldn't find peppermint extract at the store and wanted it to make cookies, so this is what I got instead (alcohol containing items, like extracts, don't ship to Alaska, so bakery emulsions are a good way to get around that). True to form with Amazon, I got a bottle that was missing the cap out of the blue. Why? Who knows! The safety seal was perfect, but no cap. I would have returned it and complained, but I had a cap off of another bottle that would work (I couldn't believe it when it happened as that was a long shot). I did complain, though, as that is kind of ridiculous.
French's Crispy Onions, 24 oz bag. Cheaper than a smaller bag at my local store, I wanted to get some of these to make Swedish hot dogs and a few other things with. They were 8.25 after Subscribe and Save discount.
Amazon Basic Care Esomeprazole with Magnesium, 42 ct.. My husband takes this medication daily for his acid reflux, so I tend to buy this pretty often from Amazon when it is on sale. 42 caplets cost me 6.36 after Subscribe and Save discounts were applied. This is way cheaper than the 30.00 to 40.00 this would have cost me at my local stores.
Clear Book Tape, 15 yard roll, 1 inch. Book tape is something that when you need it, you need it. Book tape is acid free tape, so you don't have to worry about it slowly eating your books that you repair with it. I got some because my little embroidery book that was my great grandma's has always had a binding that was coming off, but it is getting worse and trying to lose pages, So, I got this and some book glue (not shown) to try and repair the little book as it is really precious to me. It cost me 9.85 after discounts were applied.
Tempered Glass Screen Protector for iPad Mini, 1st generation. My son finally managed to spiderweb a screen protector. I was impressed that the iPad mini wasn't damaged. Alvah's been REALLY hard on things the last bit, so I ordered this and a really heavy duty case to replace his current one as well. The screen protector got here first, so I put that on so the iPad was able to get back in service for a bit until the case gets picked up. I paid regular 8.88 price for this, but it came in at the same time as the Subscribe and Save order, so they threw it into the same box and it ended up in the photo.
32 pack Friskies wet cat food variety pack, 16.09 after subscribe and save discount and a coupon for 5.75 off on the full price. It isn't available right now, but I know how hard it is to find cat food at the stores at the moment, so if you need cat food, keep checking Amazon as they do get it in and it does go on sale decently cheap (at least by Alaska standards). This is one of those items I've been buying from Amazon a LOT as it has been darned near impossible to find cat food at the local stores (dry food is also something I've been getting from Amazon). Not pictured as my husband dropped the box when getting it out of the car and dented a bunch of the cans horribly, so we were doing triage work with cat food cans and didn't get them into the photo.
Organic Chia Seeds, 2 lbs. This seems like another odd one doesn't it? I got these for two reasons. One, the son's PICA is back of late and since he's eating cardboard, I thought he might eat chia seeds again (as he likes to eat dirt and the texture raw is similar since they are so tiny) and get some added nutrition into his diet instead of eating non-food items. I also ordered these because I can use them as an egg extender by making chia eggs to use in baking (it's like 1 TBS chia seeds to 3 TBS water...it's been a while, so I'll have to look it up to be sure. For 2 lbs, after discounts, I paid 9.34. This was another one that I couldn't seem to find locally at the stores.
And last but not least (also not pictured) is...
Willow Garlic Ear Oil. This stuff is great and a now essential thing I keep in my house. The Prudent Homemaker/Brandy turned me onto this stuff years ago. It has staved off many an ear infection for my kids. I actually used up nearly all of my old bottle helping Alvah with his discomfort with an ear infection earlier in the year, so when this stuff came available again (it seems like it comes into stock and then is sold out EVERYWHERE online for months at a time), I used my Amazon Associate fees from the last few months (THANK you to those who order through my associate links! I truly appreciate it!!!) to buy a new bottle to have in the house. It is currently 14.39, which is actually a bit cheaper than I paid for it (I paid 14.99 through the seller I ended up getting it through), but worth every penny!
So, my total spent for my haul for the month was 140.31 (after Amazon Associates fees paid for the ear oil and gave me an additional tiny bit toward my groceries).
I've been doing a big grocery order/trip one week and then the next week I'll try to aim for anything we've run out of (like Alvah essentials) and milk for the next week. We get paid every two weeks, so this has worked pretty well for being able to use some of the money from the "light week" of grocery shopping to buy things in bulk or pick up things from Amazon and such. It is the only way, really, that I beat inflation in a lot of ways. I'll go into some more tips later on, but this is one way I'm trying to get things at a good cost (or get them at all) with the resources I have available to me right now :).
Hope this was interesting if nothing else. Enjoy folks!