Do you shop online? Our family does and most of the purchases are done on Amazon.com. We shop from Amazon ALL the time (like, seriously, at least once a week).

For most items, you can usually get way better of a deal on Amazon.com than you could at your local stores and you don’t even have to leave your house (bonus points for the PJ lovers)!

The only drawback? You’ve gotta wait several days for your awesome stuff to be delivered :-/ and sometimes, once you add the shipping charges, you realize you didn’t really get the supreme savings you thought you were getting in the first place .

BUT WAIT, all hope is not lost. Amazon has a yearly subscription service known as Amazon Prime. What is Prime? Why do I think it is THE top dog shopping site of the web? Two words: Prime Shipping.

Whenever you become a member of Amazon Prime, you get the option to filter your searches by “Prime Shipping”. Amazon boasts that they have millions of Prime Shipping eligible items. Almost anything you can think of will be Prime eligible. So what does it mean if a product is eligible for Prime Shipping?

It means the shipping is FREE (yes, completely free) – do you hear angels in the background, I do . This is what makes Amazon Prime membership SO supremely  worth it. Mostly everything you were going to buy on Amazon anyway, you can now buy it with FREE SHIPPING.

Pretty cool, right?

You know what’s even better? Amazon Prime’s FREE SHIPPING is not some turtle slow, 5-7 day standard US Postal Service Option. It’s 2 DAY SHIPPING. That’s fast – Superfast – Freakishly Fast. So, when I order some new ink for my printer on Monday, by Wednesday, the UPS guy is dropping it off at my doorstep (my kids are like best friends with the UPS man).

Still with me? The benefits don’t stop there! Amazon touts some other benefits worth signing up for Amazon Prime, such as:

• Unlimited instant streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with Prime Instant Videos
• A Kindle book to borrow for free each month from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library

The Amazon Prime Instant Video service is kind of like Netflix’s online streaming, except there is a lot less content. That’s okay for most people though, because this is just more of an extra perk.

If you are buying even just 1 item a month using Amazon Prime, you are probably spending way less on your Prime membership than the standard shipping charges would run (and the item is delivered way quicker). The free Kindle book that you can borrow each month is no big deal either, but just another nice little bonus (you can’t beat FREE books).

Another thing that I love about Amazon Prime is that you can try it for FREE for 30 days. You don’t have to suffer with stress or buyer’s remorse from making a hasty decision. Try it out for 30 days, if you like it (which you will), great. If not, cancel and no harm done.

The normal price for the service is $79 per year. As frequently as our spunky family shops on Amazon, it is still a HUGE bargain at that price. Fortunately for some people, Amazon also offers a couple of discout programs to get Amazon Prime at an EVEN BETTER rate.

Amazon Student – just like it sounds, this program is for students. To qualify, you must be a college student with an .EDU email address. You get Prime Membership (minus the video streaming) free for 6 months, and after that, it’s only $39 yearly (woot)! If this program applies to you, you can start your FREE Trial here .

Amazon Mom – this program is for parents and caregivers (not just moms). It gives you the free trial period for 3 months. After that, the Prime Membership is the standard $79 per year, BUT you get a few extra perks like 20% off diapers, AND access to limited time promotions that pertain to parents. See more info and SIGN UP here .

Last but not least, a super cool thing about Amazon Prime: you can Share your Prime account with up to four members of your household OR four co-workers! However, this only applies to the standard subscription – you can’t take advantage of this if you have the Student or Mom account . But hey, even if you don’t get this perk, you are still saving ginormous amounts of money, so don’t complain. :-p

So, that’s my two cents on Amazon Prime. We have used it for about two years now, and have not had one single problem. It’s actually made me kind of spoiled because I am SO used to the fast shipping, I get depressed if I buy something elsewhere (like Etsy) and have to wait a week or two to get it!

If you are an Amazon shopper, you gotta at least take advantage of one of the free trial offers and judge for yourself. You can sign up for your FREE trial of Amazon Prime here .

Thanks for being gracious enough to check out my review! Let me know your thoughts on Amazon Prime! Have a Spunky Day!