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This is the sixth year for Amazon Prime Day, but the first time that it happened so close to Christmas. Usually it takes place in mid-July; this year it starts at 3 a.m. Eastern Oct. 13 and winds up in 48 hours.
During that time you’ll see a lot of deals, some of which might be exactly what you want. Although I am an Amazon Prime member I have yet to take part in Prime Day. A single-mom relative of mine has used it to stretch her holiday budget, however.
It’s being said that Amazon is basically encouraging everyone to do their holiday shopping now. Apparently other retailers have the same idea, both in-store and online. Black Friday “previews” and “sneak peeks” are already showing up and may come out in force during the month of November.
According to Consumer Reports, the idea is to keep crowds down and thus reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19. Until I read that, I figured it was just another prime (as it were) example of “Christmas creep.” But the coronavirus angle makes sense, too.
To take advantage of Prime Day deals you must be a Prime member. You can do an end run around this by signing up for a 30-day free trial and canceling once Prime Day is over.
Consumer Reports has these tips for getting the most out of Prime Day:
Get the smartphone app. It will let you see some deals in advance, sign up for alerts and create a “watch this deal” list.
Get the Amazon Assistant plug-in. This works with most popular browsers, and will let you compare prices as well as get deal notifications. (Note: You’ll be opting in to letting Amazon do some tracking of your online browsing.)
Be a joiner. If a Lightning Deal is sold out before you get to it, click the “Join Waitlist” button. Deals get taken back if the shopper doesn’t pay within 15 minutes, and Amazon will alert the next person in the virtual line – which might be you.
Use the Prime Day hub. Consumer Reports will be scouting the best deals.
Oh, and don’t forget your other favorite retailers. Target, Best Buy, Walmart, Best Buy and Bed, Bath and Beyond (among others) are planning their own sales. If you have an idea of what you want to buy, check these merchants to see if they’re offering the same things at similar prices. Even if they charge a bit more, being able to buy online from these retailers for in-store or curbside pickup means you won’t have to worry about porch pirates stealing your Amazon delivery if you’re away from home during the day.
Things to win
Congratulations to CarolH, who won the mostly Alaskan stocking stuffers and $10 gift card giveaway from last week. Now I’ve got another giveaway up and running, for another $25 gift card of the winner’s choosing.
If it seems like I’m doing a lot of giveaways lately, it’s because I am. My hope is to do one every week or 10 days until Christmas – and maybe beyond. As I know from painful personal experience, even a small amount of unexpected money can help shore up the budget.
A few other things you can win:
A $100 e-gift card to The Gap. Savings.com is giving away five $100 cards in another quick-turnaround giveaway. This #OCTOBERatGAP drawing ends 11:59 PDT Tuesday, Oct. 13, so make your move.
A $100 e-gift card to Macy’s. Savings.com is giving away five $100 cards in another fast-and-furious giveaway. The #MacysThankYou giveaway ends at 11:59 p.m. PDT Thursday, Oct. 15.
An NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Graphics Card or $750 cash, from SWEEPS.GG and Macaiyla. If I can’t win, I hope you can. (And yeah, I’d take the cash. I’m not a gamer and don’t need a graphics card.) The giveaway ends at 11 a.m. PDT Oct. 23.
The $200 Amazon gift card giveaway from Your Money Geek is still live. You have until Nov. 2 to enter this one.
Fresh Giveaways has a $50 Amazon gift card up for grabs. It ends Oct. 31.
Celebrating “money mediocrity”
Tired of personal finance porn? I sure am.
I’m talking about clickbaity stuff like “She paid off two zillion dollars’ worth of debt in 18 months” or “He retired at 35 and now lives at the beach.”
When you read the articles you often learn that these folks had families who paid for their education or provided some other kind of help (one couple was given a condo by a grandparent!). You know, the kind of things that don’t typically happen.
Of course, sometimes people really do create financial miracles with hard work, discipline and, yeah, maybe a break or two. The trouble with both groups of people, though, is that they can make the rest of us feel sort of…slow. Why aren’t we living on the beach?!?
The lovely and talented Miranda Marquit has written an antidote to that kind of get-rich-quick thinking. It’s all about “the power of money mediocrity.”
“I didn’t pay off an astounding amount of debt in a short time. My income’s never been super-amazing,” she writes. “Rather than a stunning transformation, I simply have boring incremental financial progress.”
Instead of punishing ourselves because we’re not clickbait miracles, Marquit suggests we focus on where we are. “Look at how far you’ve come. Celebrate your financial progress.”
This is particularly true during a recession, or a pandemic. “Sometimes financial progress is just about getting to the end of the week,” Marquit notes. “Sometimes it’s about survival.”
Suppose that by cobbling together available savings plus enhanced unemployment benefits plus a little help from the local food bank you’re able to almost cover the month’s expenses. You may have to cover the difference with a credit card – but at least you didn’t have to charge all of your expenses.
Even if it’s two steps forward, one step back, celebrate it. “It still sucks,” she says. “But it’s progress.”
Listen to Miranda. Miranda is wise. She’s been a full-time freelancer in the personal finance blogosphere for as long as I have; we first met at the original Financial Blogger Conference (the one with the Klingon).
She’s also a single parent, holder of an MBA, one-third of the genius behind the Freelance Writer Academy and currently a candidate for the state of Idaho’s House of Representatives. Myself, I think they’d be lucky to get her.
Readers: Got any previous – or present – money mediocrity stories to share?
Money Mediocrity and boring incremental financial progress: thanks, I needed that.
Slow and steady sometimes does win the race. Besides, as Marquit points out in her article there’s no use in beating yourself up for mistakes you didn’t know you were making. Learn from them and move on.
Nice article – from both you and Miranda. I hadn’t realized the Miranda Marquit on my ballot was the same one I’d heard of online, so thanks for the heads up on that. Turns out my daughter went to school with her, too, which is quite a coincidence.
I’ve already voted (and I’d voted for her, btw), but I was happy to share this info with my friends on Facebook. Hopefully they’ll be as impressed with her as I am. lol
Miranda is pretty awesome. If I lived in her area I wold have voted for her. Heck, I would have helped her canvass.
I don’t know if it is true, but I have a philosophy that changes that occurs slowly, will last or at least not disappear quickly. I know of folks who spent year getting out of shape physically and then thought a bootcamp could undo a decade of lounging. I think it works for money. If you win the lottery you are more likely to lose your fortune than if you worked for it. It is not just the material gain that you are accumulating it is the self discipline and grit that you are gaining as well.