Lately, the UPS driver has been to my house delivering of all things... diapers. When I walk into my youngest son's bedroom, I see boxes of diapers. Have I begun hoarding? Am I taking this stockpiling too far? The best price that I can purchase diapers for locally is $4.99 for a pack of 36 diapers or $0.16 per diaper (this is other than the rare almost free diaper sales with coupons...in the two years that I have been strategically using coupons… this has only happened once a year in my area and I did stockpile at that time). If I can get diapers for half that price or less ... wouldn't you stock up? It can be done but Amazon, strategic shopping, coupons, and magazine subscriptions are the key.
The first step is to subscribe at the lowest price possible to the following magazines:
- American Baby
- Baby Talk
- Parenting
- Fit Pregnancy
- Parents
Some of these magazines are available for free... while others regularly have their subscriptions offered on the internet for less than $6 a year. Amazon advertises in these magazines almost monthly. These advertisements usually have either a 20% discount coupon on diapers or a $10 off coupon on diapers. The key is to stack the coupons. Each month it appears that the 20% discount coupon changes its first two digits of the coupon code from YT to YJ. So if you have a coupon that expires in the current month with a YT coupon code and you receive a coupon that expires next month in one of your magazines and it has a YJ coupon code, you can use both coupons (stacking them) to purchase your one diaper deal. (One issue though is that you will receive 20% off with one coupon but with the other coupon you will only receive 10% off... I don't know what causes this but I am researching this issue to find an answer) Usually this can be done in the last week of the current month, as that is when you start receiving the next month’s coupons. (Please note… Amazon only lets you use 1 coupon set per Amazon id per month... so if you have two YT coupons or two YJ coupons, you would have to do two separate transactions under two unique Amazon ids.) Now for even better news... you can also stack the 20% diaper coupons with the $10 off diaper coupon. So you can use all three coupons on your diaper purchase. That is what I call strategic stacking.
The second step is to subscribe to the Amazon Mom program. This program is free and gives you a 15% discount on select diaper deals. Along with the Amazon Mom program, utilize the Subscribe and Save function when you purchase the diapers for an additional 15% discount.
The third step is to identify the diapers that are on sale for the lowest dollar amount per diaper. In the case of my latest purchase, I purchased the Luv diapers size 3 which is 204 diapers per carton. The list price was $38.99 but Amazon had the diapers on sale for $34.54 (which is a 11% discount) or 17₵ per diaper. Now I bought two boxes and my final price was $17.63 for two boxes or $8.82 per box or 4₵ per diaper. That is a savings from the sales price of $25.72 per box or 74% and a total savings from the list price of $30.17 per box or 77%. If I had just purchased one box, I would have paid a price of $3.82 or 2₵ per diaper. This is a savings of $30.72 or 89% from sales price or a savings of $35.17 or 90% from list price. However, as the $10 coupons are not often the coupon that Amazon offers, I chose to purchase 2 cartons and spread the impact of that coupon over 508 diapers instead of the 204 diapers. This can be seen below:
Per Carton | Per Diaper | % Savings | |
List Price | $ 38.99 | $ 0.19 | |
Sales Price | $ 34.54 | $ 0.17 | |
savings | $ 4.45 | $ 0.02 | 11% |
Discounts | |||
Amazon Mom 15% | $ 5.18 | $ 0.03 | |
Subscribe & Save 15% | $ 5.18 | $ 0.03 | |
adjusted price | $ 24.18 | $ 0.12 | |
savings from sales price | $ 10.36 | 30% | |
savings from list price | $ 14.81 | 38% | |
Coupons | |||
20% Discount Coupons | |||
Current Month 20% | $ 6.91 | $ 0.03 | |
Next Month 10% | $ 3.45 | $ 0.02 | |
adjusted price | $ 13.82 | $ 0.07 | |
savings from sales price | $ 20.72 | 60% | |
savings from list price | $ 25.17 | 65% | |
$10 Off Coupon | |||
adjusted price | $ 3.82 | $ 0.02 | |
savings from sales price | $ 30.72 | 89% | |
savings from list price | $ 35.17 | 90% | |
Impact of purchasing 2 cartons | |||
adjusted price | $ 17.63 | $ 0.04 | |
savings from sales price | $ 51.45 | 74% | |
savings from list price | $ 60.35 | 77% | |
Strategic shopping is the utilization of all aspects of the shopping experience to obtain the lowest possible price for a product. In this case, it all begins with the preplanning of the subscriptions and the knowledge of the Amazon marketing systems. So am I hoarding... No. But I am getting to know the UPS delivery drivers on a first name basis.
