Save Money Every Month With This Little-Known Amazon Fresh Membership Perk

If you're irritated by Amazon eliminating its "Prime Invitee" program, where you can share your Prime delivery perks with another address, don't get rid of your membership in disgust quite yet. There are other benefits to keeping your account, such as an under-the-radar way to save money on groceries. Amazon has a deal where Prime members can save $10 a month on grocery purchases of at least $50 at an Amazon Fresh store. The online coupon is automatically applied at checkout if you are signed into your Amazon account and are a Prime member. If you shop there every month and save $10 each time, you're basically saving nearly the cost of an Amazon Prime membership, which is $139 per year.

While it's great to hear that being a Prime member can save you money in unexpected ways, like many things when it comes to Amazon, there are a few caveats. The coupon must be used in-store only, and the fine print says it can't be combined with any other coupons or offers. It is also only valid for grocery items, so taxes or alcohol purchases don't count towards the total. The coupons also have expiration dates on them and they're not stackable, meaning you can't hang onto them and save more than $10 in one month. But perhaps one of the biggest problems with this "perk" is that it's not very accessible to all Amazon Prime members. There are only eight states with Amazon Fresh locations.

What is Amazon Fresh grocery and how does it work? It's simply an Amazon-run online and in-store grocery store with delivery available. Anyone, even those people without Amazon accounts or Prime memberships, can shop there. Perhaps the coolest thing about these stores is that they offer a service called Amazon Dash Cart, which allows you to skip the checkout line via sensors that can tell what you put in your cart. You can even ask Alexa to help you find items while shopping.

Whole Foods also has a partnership with Amazon, so what's the difference between Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods? If you don't have an Amazon Fresh store near you, it means you can still get grocery savings thanks to your Amazon Prime membership, which is one of the best ways to shop at Whole Foods if you're on a budget. You can even get unlimited grocery delivery from the store for a payment of $9.99, (which is on top of the yearly Prime membership fee). Prime members also get an extra 10% off any storewide sales at Whole Foods. There's also a Prime Visa card, which requires a Prime membership, where you earn 5% back every time you shop at Whole Foods Market and Amazon. Both Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods have in-store Amazon order package pickup, so even if you can no longer share your account with friends, you can still have items sent to a store.