Amazon Prime Day Confessions

Bracing myself for what will arrive in the next week (and my plan to undo the damage).

Friends,

As many of you know, my family moved from NYC to Florida last winter. There are still a lot of things we need for our new home. I knew Amazon Prime Days were coming so I had my list ready and waiting. I was organized and I planned. I would be disciplined and only get what I needed and only if the price was worth it.

(Note: please read to the end for a really important poll!)

But then came hurricane Milton. The news reports started on Monday. No more national morning TV news shows. No Dancing with the Stars. Everything was pre-empted by never ending non stop coverage of the storm that was coming. It was wall to wall coverage of Milton.

Friends who have lived in Florida for years told me not to worry, but how could we not? True, Milton wasn’t coming directly to where we live in South Florida (although we actually got some very scary tornadoes) but everything was shutting down and the warnings were out there. Also our pool was getting higher and higher as rains came in ahead of the actual hurricane.

We did what any new Florida resident would do. We bought lots of food and other “essential” items.

By Tuesday we realized one essential item was missing: Mallomars. We went straight to Publix on a mission. They were not in the end of aisle display as they usually were. We panicked. We went to the cookie aisle and they were nowhere to be found. Then my husband spotted some “Pinwheels” high up on a shelf. While we were considering whether to trade down to these as a “better than nothing” solution, I noticed way up on that top shelf, pushed to the back were just a few boxes of precious Mallomars.

Success!

Three boxes were ours. We were ready for Milton.

I share this to set the tone for our state of mind: not healthy to say the least.

Fast forward to Wednesday. Amazon Prime started. I took a look at the items I had on my list and didn’t see huge bargains. An inexpensive item at 20 percent off isn’t all that exciting. I wanted to win big. Fifty percent or more. I made the decision to wait until day two.

Now it is Thursday morning. My husband reminded me: make sure you get those items we need during Amazon Prime Days. Today is the last day! Hours went by as I obsessively watched endless news coverage of Milton. I made myself a nice lunch, naturally including Mallomars.

And then it began.

First: to the list. Some of the items I had chosen were on sale but even then, not that much off. So I looked for similar items but at bigger discounts. Now, keep in mind some of the new items were a bigger percentage discount but a higher price. This is where things start to go off course. I completed the adjusted list.

Here is a sample of what was purchased, which as you can see is nothing too crazy:

Some items from my Prime Day planned list

But then I started thinking: I’m a really good shopper. Look at all these great deals I got for my family. I bet I can find more amazing discounts. And I will only buy 50 percent off or more deals. #winning!

Now keep in mind, my fellow “money experts” put out warnings to stop this behavior. Here is one from my friend Lindsey Stanberry:

BTW her Substack newsletter “The Purse” is one of the best there is so you should definitely subscribe.

I was now on a mission to find the BEST deals on Amazon prime. So I googled: “Best deals on Amazon Prime Day October 2024”. Bad idea. Down the rabbit hole I went. Not only was I reading various websites’ lists of deals, but now the bots were on to me. I really should know better.

I had been looking and coveting the Dyson fancy hair air wrap which emulates a professional blow dry. The one I wanted sells for about $600. That wasn’t on sale but guess what was pushed to me by the bots as 50 percent off? The “Drybar: The Double Shot Oval Blow Dryer Brush | Brush and Blow Dryer in One, Lightweight Blowout Brush for Long Hair and Volume with 3 Temps for Customized Hair Styling”. How could I resist? In the basket it went.

Then I spotted even better deals.. some close to 80 percent off and all things that we could really use.

Here comes the justification:

The hand held vacuum- YES. We have a house now not an apartment and the messes are more regular and having a little vacuum will be good.

Also good: new oven mitts. Why? Because these are pink and the ones we have are gray. Pink is a happier color than gray.

And of course Living Proof Perfect Hair Day Dry Shampoo. I know its great because I have several of them in the drawer ready to use when the current one is finished.

These were REALLY great deals.. right?

Oh wait: wasn’t this me just last week talking about “UNDERCONSUMPTION CORE” on Fox 26 in Houston?

And I have one more confession and this one proves I’m being totally honest.

As I mentioned the bots were on to me! I could not resist the click bait headline. Celebrities were getting their amazing sun kissed glow from this ONE special product. I just wanted to know. I wasn’t going to actually BUY it. I clicked. Big mistake.

Really, it was just a small addition to my order(s) at this point.

Of course now that I went to all these celebrities pages to further investigate, I realize they are all PAID endorsers of the product. They got me.

So now the plan is to go back to reality and return the things I regret buying.

That’s the advice I often share and it really is true. It is more than ok to return impulse buys you wish you had not bought. The damage can be 100 percent undone, and we can move on. In other words, even so - called “money experts” sometimes need to take our own advice.

So here is my question to you dear friends:

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