How I Saved $21 in 10 Minutes While Shopping on Amazon

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KEY POINTS

  • Pets are wonderful, but they can be expensive.
  • Price comparisons are a smart way to save money.
  • Credit cards can help your financial situation if you use them wisely.

Being loyal to a retailer sometimes pays off.

Thanks to rampant inflation, life is getting more expensive these days. So I try to pinch my pennies where I can, and even though I love spoiling my pets, I still need to save money on the sometimes-expensive things I buy for them, be it food, furniture, or a new cat carrier.

Pets aren't cheap!

I added a third cat to my household last fall, but I had been putting off buying a third carrier, even though I needed one. Emergencies happen, and what if I needed to get all three of them to the vet at the same time? I was dragging my feet because carriers can be expensive, and I've been trying to rein in my spending.

As I so often do, I turned to the internet for my search. After asking some fellow cat-owning friends for their carrier recommendations, I picked a promising brand and model, and proceeded to check out a few online and local retailers for their prices. The prices were about the same on all the sites I checked, and although I could have picked up my chosen carrier in person rather than waiting for it to be shipped, the closest pet store to me that had it on their shelves is 50 miles away. Have you seen the gas prices lately?

Improving my Amazon game

I sometimes joke that Amazon Prime is my lifeline, so of course I was going to check to see if they had the carrier I wanted at a good price. And it will probably come as no surprise that this Amazon fan also uses the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card. I got this credit card way back at the beginning of 2020, shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic changed many people's relationship with online shopping. I am no exception, as a frequent Amazon shopper. My annual Prime membership has paid for itself in free shipping every year since 2015, when I joined. It's very easy for me to shop with Amazon: It knows where I live and I don't have to create a new account on its site. And as it turned out, I had a nice little surprise waiting for me when I checked out the price of the cat carrier.

What a deal!

Here, I have to admit that I don't usually keep close track of the 5% back I earn with the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card. I really enjoy the occasional surprise I get when I can save a chunk of money on an Amazon purchase. But I don't always use the rewards when they're offered at checkout, sometimes preferring to save them for a larger purchase if I know one is coming up for me. Lately, I've been trying to cut back on my spending in general, in the face of inflation and in my ongoing mission to become better with money. So since I knew I wasn't going to be making any larger Amazon purchases soon, I happily used the $21 in rewards waiting on me, and scored my new carrier for the very reasonable sum of $14.

Smarter shopping with credit cards

Credit cards often get a bad rap. It's very easy to overspend, throw your budget out the window, and rack up big interest charges on a credit card balance. But credit cards also offer some benefits, including "free money" in the form of cash back or rewards points that can add up to savings on purchases. They can also help you build or improve your credit. I had cash in my checking account and could've used my debit card to buy the new carrier. I had even budgeted for it, as an expense for my elderly cat's upcoming dental work this summer. But by using a credit card instead, I scored a new carrier for less than half of what I would have paid otherwise, and can take less money out of my veterinary care fund.

We're all trying to save more and spend less these days. While $21 isn't really a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, I'm really happy whenever I can save even a little money by being a smarter shopper. My cats have all thoroughly vetted the new carrier since it arrived, and one of them even napped in it the other day. Money well-spent, indeed!

Our Research Expert

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