I totally wrote the November Amazon orders post, but then I forgot to post it! So today, I’m going to post both Amazon November & December orders. I’m going to leave out the Christmas gifts, though.
I love Amazon. You love Amazon. So I thought I’d show you my Amazon orders each month!
If you missed it last time, you can see what I ordered from Amazon in October by clicking here.
Amazon can be a real time saver, but it can also get out of control quickly. If you’ve been reading the blog for a while, you know I have a pretty detailed household budget that I manage through You Need A Budget (YNAB). My YNAB Budget keeps me on track for my goals. Checking it before making a purchase means that I make smart decisions when it comes to spending.
How I Save When Shopping Amazon
I’m not always spending money from the budget when I shop on Amazon. I use Swagbucks to earn FREE amazon gift cards and they really help to have extra “fun money” to shop on Amazon. Click here to learn more about how I use Swagbucks every day to earn over $300 in Free Amazon Gift Cards each year!
I also use the Chase Amazon Prime Credit Card to make purchases when I’m not using my gift cards. The Chase Amazon Prime Card gives you the option to earn 5% on your purchase or use your points to pay on Amazon.com. I always select the 5% cash back option when I order, and then I will redeem the cash back as a statement credit on my credit card to save money. That way, each purchase earns me the 5% cash back, and I can choose to erase certain purchases with my cash back through the Chase website.
I tend to save up our cash back for the holidays, but sometimes if the budget is lean and we NEED something, I will use the cash back to reimburse the purchase.
November Amazon Purchases
November was mostly Christmas shopping, with a few random things thrown in here and there. Let’s see what I got!
First up, our daughter is having trouble learning how to read. I’m not a teacher and don’t know what I’m doing but desperately want to help her. I went to Amazon searching for answers, and used about $100 of cash from her school budget category to purchase materials to try to help her at home. (Side note: we have a budget category in our YNAB budget to save a bit from each paycheck to pay for things like tutors/advocates and even attorneys if we need them for her schooling. We couldn’t do this without YNAB.)
Anyway, I purchased the remaining sets of Bob Books that we didn’t already have. That included Set 1: Beginning Readers, Sight Words 1st Grade, First Stories, Set 2: Advancing Beginners, and Set 3: Word Families. I also picked up this set of magnet letters. I like that it comes with its own board, so they don’t have to be on the fridge. There’s also more than one set of lower case letters, so you can spell all kinds of words! Finally, I purchased this book called Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons. It’s been so crazy that we’ve only done one of the 100 lessons. Hopefully, we can work on it over Christmas break.
We hosted 2 Thanksgiving dinners in our new kitchen this year. The first was a small family one, just us and my parents, on Thanksgiving. The second was a Friendsgiving with two other families. After pulling out my old kitchen utensils after moving back into the kitchen, I noticed that they were in really rough shape. I found this pretty wood-handled grey silicone set of 8 utensils on Amazon, and they are perfect!
I also picked up some of these knock off Magic Eraser sponges. I’d always heard that these cheaper versions on Amazon were just as effective as the Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. That is totally true. I got 50 sponges for less than $10! I’ll never buy the real ones again.
For our monthly Subscribe & Save order, we all got our monthly vitamins. Doug got his SmartyPants Men’s Complete. I got my Smartypants Women’s Complete, the kids got a bottle of Smartypants Kids Formula & Fiber. I also got my Olly Sleep and Olly Skin Supplements.
Total Spent on Amazon in November
In November, I spent $214.81 on Amazon. All of that was on our Amazon Prime Credit Card that earns 5% cash back. I did not use any Gift Cards that I earned from Swagbucks. I chose not to redeem any of our points for cash back on our Amazon Prime Credit Card.
December Amazon Orders
With my first December order, I got my favorite facial gauze pads. I love these because they don’t absorb my toner which makes it last longer. I use them twice a day, so I get a little over 3 months out of this package. I’ve tried a few others and this is my favorite. Plus, they are really affordable.
After using my new silicone kitchen utensils, I decided that I needed a red set of utensils for the holiday season. So I purchased this red set. I also got a cook book stand, and a cute little red & white Christmas Cookie cookbook to put on it. This made the kitchen look so festive! For less than $20, I highly recommend a set of red utensils for next year’s Christmas kitchen!
Later in the month, I decided I needed something to wear on New Year’s Eve. We were going to be in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl, so I wanted something comfortable and fun. I decided on this off the shoulder pullover and sequin leggings. The Sequin leggings didn’t work out (the smallest size was WAY too big for me – size down), but the pullover was great! I paired the pullover with my Faux Leather Leggings, and I had a blast tossing beads on Bourbon Street!
Speaking of our trip, it’s been almost 5 years since I’ve flown on a plane. Apparently, I’ve decided to use a lot more liquid and gel products in that time. I couldn’t figure out how to get all of my stuff in a quart sized ziploc bag. So I ordered 2 of these quart sized clear zipper bags. I love these because having an actual zipper makes a huge difference. Plus, the plastic moves with your products, so you can get a ton more stuff in there.
With the zipper bags, I ordered some contact lens cases. I decanted some of my concealers in here, as well as foundation and primer. This helped cut down on some space-stealing tubes so that I could carry my bag on the plane.
I also decanted my favorite zip-zapping serum into an old sample pump bottle (sort of like these). I didn’t have very much left, so I ordered a new bottle. This stuff lasts a really long time, and it works really well!
I needed $35 to get next-day delivery since we were leaving 2 days after I placed this order. So I decided to get a book for my trip. I almost always go to the library, but the Shopaholic books are my favorite. I have all of them, and I didn’t know this one had been released. There’s also a Christmas one that just came out, but I’ll have to wait for that in paperback. These books are seriously hilarious. I’ve been reading them for over 15 years!
Finally, it was the end of the year, so I decided to get something that I can use for the blog. I broke down and bought an iPhone tripod with a bluetooth remote! Hopefully I’ll be able to do some more videos and outfit shots now. I hate pulling out my SLR camera and tripod, and I hate asking people to take my pic. I love doing everything myself.
Our monthly Subscribe & Save order was exactly the same as November’s.
Total Spent on Amazon in December
In December, I spent $256.59 on Amazon orders. I used $50 in Gift Cards that I earned from Swagbucks. I chose not to redeem any of our points for cash back on our Amazon Prime Credit Card.
Did you know I have an Amazon Storefront? I do! Check it out if you want to see the things I’m loving on Amazon! It’s fun for me to “windowshop”. I’ve also got my favorite Holiday items and even toy ideas for kids!
Did you order anything fun from Amazon this month that you absolutely love? Tell me in the comments! Check back next month to see my Amazon orders for January. I’ve already ordered some fun things that I love & can’t wait to share with you!
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