I Spent $119 on Amazon Prime Day -- and Saved $51

I didn't buy a lot on Prime Day -- but my savings were pretty decent.

For many people, Amazon Prime Day was a highly anticipated event this year. And I actually expected to spend my fair share of money. In the end, though, I only spent $119 -- not a lot compared to what some of the people I know spent. And while I only saved $51 in the process, proportionately speaking, that's a nice amount to shave off of my purchases.

What I bought on Prime Day

Initially, my planned purchases for Prime Day included an e-reader for my son, some pet toys, and holiday gifts I was hoping to snag well in advance of the winter. In the end, I purchased none of those things.

While there were some e-readers on sale, I decided to hold off on that purchase in the hopes of a better deal later on in the year. Besides, I prefer that my son read actual books he holds in his hands than read from a screen, so I opted to not move forward with that purchase.

Meanwhile, I didn't see any durable-looking pet toys on sale. And since my dog has a tendency to destroy them in minutes, I decided it wasn't worth spending money on discounted toys that didn't look like they'd hold up.

Finally, I wound up purchasing a couple of holiday gifts (which I'll get to in a minute), but most of the toy items I had on my radar weren't so discounted. For the modest amount of savings, I figured it wasn't worth having to store so much stuff in my house. And also, I figured it was worth waiting for pre-holiday sales.

So now that we've discussed what I didn't buy, here's what I did buy.

Two kids' fitness tracker watches for $14 (originally $38)

My daughters have been asking for these because they want to start counting their steps and mileage. Since they were heavily discounted, I bought them thinking I'd stash them away as holiday gifts. But I may end up handing them over sooner.

A label maker for $66 (originally $82)

This was my husband's idea and to be honest, I'm not sure if it will end up being worth the money. I own a business and have a lot of paperwork I need to hang onto. My husband thinks this tool will help me better organize my files and such.

Also, he thinks we'll use our label maker to better track our grocery inventory and avoid buying the same things over and over again at the supermarket. I'll admit that I'm not the most organized when it comes to food shopping, so maybe this purchase will end up paying for itself. Or not.

A sleeping bag for $27 (originally $30)

My son's sleeping bag has seen better days, and we've been meaning to upgrade him to a better one. The discount here wasn't huge, but since this is a purchase that's been on our list for a while, we figured we'd just order it.

Two pairs of swim goggles for $12 (originally $20)

My daughters prefer to use goggles when swimming in a pool. Unfortunately, they tend to lose and break their goggles easily. I commonly end up buying multiple pairs of goggles during the summer, so I figured I'd purchase a set on sale.

A successful shopping endeavor

All told, I'm happy with my Prime Day purchases because I didn't go overboard on spending and didn't give in to the temptation to purchase expensive items that weren't originally on my list. And while I didn't save a ton of money, I got things that I wanted at a lower cost.

Also, the purchases I made were eligible for extra cash back thanks to a promotion Amazon was running for its Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card. So that's a nice little bonus I'm taking with me.