It's here! Prime Day - yay!

I don't know about you but I ran right out to the computer this morning to check on the Prime Day deals from Amazon.  So far I think this is the best deal....

We have the black and white Fire and my husband really loves it. It's easy to check out the latest ebooks from my friend, Boyd Craven. We might have to upgrade to this Kindle.. how fancy is that?

As I was clicking around I found some of my favorite things... and a few that I think I really need to get.

Like... a roomba.... I totally need this. I totally need this.

But maybe I'll just stik to getting another of my favorite knife holders... which i found out will also hold spatulas, measuring cups and measuring spoons.

Maybe I should get a back up stove top espresso maker. Last nite as we were scrambling to do our storm preps I had to make sure mine was clean and ready to go in case we lost power. Priorities you know...

Ohhh... hey look! Who needs a cordless sawsallto improve their pig day butchering experience? We use ours all the time. Just um.. be sure to use a clean blade and then be sure to clean up the saw really well afterwards.

I will probably just stick to the basics tho... like my favorite gardening gloves. Or maybe I should just order another lawn mower now.... you know, just in case.

Some folks had questions about this Amazon Prime thing yesterday so I'll see if I can cover some of them here.

What is Amazon Prime? 
It's a yearly membership in Amazon's program that gets you access to movies, TV shows, books, special deals, and best of all.... free two day shipping on Prime orders. The cost is $99 a year.... which we balked at for a long time. But now we are sold. The cost of the membership pays for itself if you use it. Meaning - if the only thing you do is watch four or five seasons of the Sopranos. I think you can watch the first episode for free right now... it will pay for itself. Otherwise each season is about $20 - $25.  So five seasons x $20 each = $100... there you go.

Who cares about two day shipping?
Me! It's so easy just to order what you need instead of driving into town. Maybe you live somewhere that is close to shopping but we don't. Any savings I might get by driving into Walmart is countered by the gas it takes to get there. We do not buy a lot of stuff... but some of what we need is specialty stuff and there are no local options. So I can either drive into the nearest big city which is about a 48 minute hard and fast drive one way to get what I need... or I can sit on my couch and two days later my stuff will show up.

The "two day" is the hook - otherwise you are kind of limited by what the shipping policies are from  wherever you are ordering. Sometimes it's 5 days.. sometimes 3 days.... or two weeks... but having two day shipping makes it easy to plan and prepare for the delivery. I know about what time the delivery guy gets here so me and the dogs just hang around and wait for him. Easy. Peasy.

Why don't you just plan better?
Right. Sure. That's it. But just in case I don't..... this is still much easier for me. Besides - it takes all day to drive into town. At minimum it's three hours off farm. During those three hours so much can happen here... so no. I don't need better planning I just need to be here on farm and get my work done. Someone else can do the driving and that is my delivery guy and that is his job.

So what is free and what isn't?
Especially for movies and TV on Amazon's Instant Video there are two categories.... "Prime Movies and TV" and just regular. The Prime movies and TV are included in the cost of the membership. There are tons of shows and movies to watch. Or... if you are like me and couldn't wait to couldn't wait to watch Dark Matter... we just paid for it.  What a great show!

We were thrilled to pay $1.99 per episode for our recent "SciFi Saturday." It was terrific and worth every penny. Dark Matter is a show currently on SyFy channel. We don't have cable - and never will get it - so this is how we watch the latest and greatest shows. We don't have a cable bill, usually don't got to movies, and really don't watch network TV anymore. So this works for us.

The key to making this work is to be careful about what you pay extra for and what you don't. For instance, both The Americansand Orphan Black (oooh! another free first episode right now!) will eventually get to Prime and be free for me to watch. So I'll just wait around until they get over to Prime. Easy peasy.

What's the bottom line?
So the bottom line is, yes the $99 is a big chunk all at one time but it works for you if you use it. Yesterday on 'the facebook' lots of my pals chimed in that their love their Prime membership also. But if you don't use it then it won't be worth your time or your money. Or maybe you like shopping - I don't and we don't have a lot of choices anyway. So this works for us.

The other great thing is that Amazon customer service is second to none. Really they are terrific. I love the "chat" feature instead of calling. So easy! I had a really complicated return one time and they went out of their way to help me out. Someone gave us a "gag" gift and it was not funny at all. I knew they got it from Amazon but then our friends used a different box and then shipped it to us directly to us. The customer service guy was able to figure out where the original order came from, email me a return label, and then I got a credit - which I used for something better than an unfunny gift. I was so glad.

I know folks who buy all their Christmas presents from Amazon and they are shipped directly to their friends and family. (I think you can even get gift wrapping.) How great is that? When was the last time anyone tried to ship a box by UPS? I don't even know where the UPS store is!

So there are lot's of ways to use Amazon Prime - you just have to get used to it. For us the biggest benefit are the online shows and also the two day shipping. We need to remember to use the free Kindle books, photo storage, or whatever else they have with it. I should probably make sure I'm not leaving anything else out.

What if you aren't sure.... 
Hey sign up for the free 30 day trial of Amazon Prime and you can check it out! Yes, you can sign up and check out the sales... and cancel it if you want. No one will be mad and it's just fine.

Why are you talking about this anyway?
Because I love Amazon and it's programs. Their affiliate program is a great way for "micro business" owners like me to make a little money on the side. I don't have any "thing" to sell but I can make recommendations for products that work for me. If you use any of my links to go to Amazon and then buy something I get a tiny percentage of the sale. This helps me with the "cost" of this blog. The Amazon ads and the affiliate links support the time and effort it takes to blog. Otherwise, I would not be able to do this. Am I making a million bucks? Nope. But it pays for some tools, seeds, and things we need to help with our farming efforts.

I never know who orders what - I do not have access to order details. But I'm always so glad when folks use my page to go to Amazon and buy what they need anyway. So that's why.

Happy Prime Day everyone! Hope you find some bargains out there!