From A Frugal Point Of View – Is An Amazon Prime Subscription Worth The Money Or Not?

As you’ll know by now if you’ve read earlier posts of mine, I’m particularly frugal, so I like saving money wherever possible. According to The Telegraph on average Britons are spending £44.50 a month on subscriptions which I find totally mind boggling. I currently pay for just one by myself which is Amazon Prime. It is one small indulgence I’m more than happy to pay for as it covers so many bases for me and I use it daily in one way or another.

I was very late to discover the joys Prime and only really began using it for the free shipping at the start of lockdown in 2020 when items were proving impossible to find in my local shops. Before this I just used it solely as my first port of call for TV series and films. This led me to looking into all the other perks that come with a membership to ensure I was getting my money’s worth:

Unlimited 1 day free delivery on millions of items

This enabled me to easily send a variety of gifts in one package for mothers’ day, fathers’ day and a few birthdays without having to shell out for extra postage. This was an absolute life saver during lockdown. I like that most items give you the option to leave out invoices, gift wrap and add notes which makes this even better. I was able to send well a priced Cath Kidston hand cream box set, bars of Green and Black’s chocolate, and other beauty miniatures all in one parcel for essentially the same price as what I’d have paid in stores and then had to post. I’ve been able to pick up skincare items for myself with £5 off the RRP savings too so am really pleased. I’ve also used it to help out friends in need of items when lockdown and local shopping became difficult.

Prime Video gives you access to lots of films, TV shows and originals

New additions are added every month and I’ve always easily found something good to watch. For about a year it was the only way I watched any TV. I like that there’s an option to tick “included with Prime” so I can easily skip items that require rental. My rent does include a TV license but if it didn’t I wouldn’t pay for one and still would just rely on Prime as I watch things from iPlayer etc so infrequently.

Prime Reading

Gives free access to over 1,000 books, magazines and comics. They also have Amazon First Reads which gives free access to 1 of 6 Kindle recommended books each month. Despite hating e-books normally this did prove handy in lockdown when access to my local library was closed and I’d run out of second hand paperbacks at home. I don’t buy magazines either so discovering this was a nice surprise.

Prime Music – free access to over 2 million songs

It’s advert free, I love the radio stations based on artists and that you can easily customise what you listen to. I honestly use this at least 6 days a week when cooking dinner or relaxing. Some albums do come and go so sometimes they’re included and other times not but this doesn’t bother me. It’s an upgrade from relying on my old iPod classic or YouTube which started to drive me mad with the adverts. I feel like this covers enough bases, along with my old very full iPod, that I don’t need Apple Music or Spotify.

Students get 6 months of Prime for free, after which it’s £3.99 a month. This also apparently works if you sign up with any educational institution email address. Otherwise it costs £7.99 a month.

The Comparison Maths:

Amazon Prime – £7.99
Netflix – £8.99
Spotify – £9.99
So by having Prime instead of the other options I save £10.99 a month and get extra benefits.

For me it covers enough bases that I don’t mind paying for it as my only subscription service. When I think that typical delivery charges online are around £3-5 if I were to place orders and I’m avoiding that charge whilst getting items delivered and lots of entertainment that its worth it.

Comments welcome