What is Prime Pantry? How to Buy Groceries for Less

Update: As of January 2021, Amazon Prime Pantry has been discontinued. This makes me very sad! I still use their Subscribe and Save to get good deals, as well as shop with their digital coupons, but it's just not the same. I'm saving this post as documentation of what the service to use to offer, for those who are interested. 

A few months back, I shared how I was able to stock up my pantry for an emergency (or simply stock extras of what a family of 8 would need) by using Amazon Subscribe and Save paired with the Amazon Mom program. What is Prime Pantry? I'll share the scoop on this amazing service and how I use it at least once a week to save money on Prime Pantry household supplies.

 
What is Prime Pantry

Since I wrote that, there have been changes to the program that have made it more difficult to get the big 20% or more savings that I was used to.  Fortunately, their new Amazon Pantry Box program helps recoup some of that missed savings. I've had so many people ask me about it. "What is Prime Pantry?" they ask. Here's my best explanation, with step-by-step on how its saving me money!


What is Prime Pantry?


According to the website,
Prime Pantry is a new shopping experience on Amazon.com. Prime members can shop popular household essentials and have them conveniently delivered. Adding your first Prime Pantry item to Cart starts a Prime Pantry box. As you shop, you see that each Pantry item tells you what percentage of a Pantry box it fills based on its size and weight. Pantry boxes are large and can hold up to 45 pounds or four cubic feet of household products. As you check items off your list, we continuously track and show you how full your box is. You can buy as much or as little as you want for a flat $5.99 delivery fee per Prime Pantry box. Save gas, save money, save time.
For those of you who are used to getting FREE shipping for Amazon Subscribe and Save, I can see that the new shipping charge could be a turnoff. (And I'll be answering your questions as to what is Prime Pantry shipping credit and how to get it). There are many ways to make the cost worth it, however or even have the shipping charge waived.

Here's how I've been using it to get up to 50% off on everyday grocery, healthcare, and household items using Prime Pantry.

​What is Prime Pantry Shopping?

1. If you're not already an Amazon Prime Member, sign up here.  


You will get a free 30-day trial, and after that it's $99 a year. (You'll also get access to instantly watch over 40,000 movies and TV episodes , borrow Kindle books, and get unlimited FREE two-day shipping on all Prime eligible orders.)

There are ways to get a free prime membership, including by signing up for special credit cards. But these are few and far between at the moment.

2. Start shopping on the Amazon Prime Pantry page, starting with the coupon offers.  


Start filling your Pantry box with items you buy anyway, paying attention to products that have a "clippable" coupon that bring the price down very low.

See all of this week's Amazon clippable coupons here. It's kind of a "secret" coupon page. 

You can always return to the Amazon coupons page by checking the right hand of the slider at the top of of the pantry store as shown below:

 
 


3.  Keep adding items to your box to bring it to 100% full.


I usually get my Prime Pantry boxes to around 99%. To easily find items that fit, use the filters on the left-hand side of the page to refine products to those that fill a percentage of your box.
 
 

4. Before your box is filled, check for Free Shipping promotions.  


What is Prime Pantry Free Shipping? It's a credit that will be given to you upon checkout to remove the shipping fee from your total checkout cost. I found 2 that actually applied to me. One required purchasing 4 pepsi products, and the other required purchasing 4 spring cleaning supplies.  You can see what deal they have going on at the moment by checking the bid slider on the Home Page of the Prime Pantry site. (See photo below for an example.)
 


Once you're ready to check out, ensure that you have just ONE box filled, that you have all your coupons applied, and that you have free shipping credited (if you qualify).  With the tax savings available in most states, and the big coupon discounts, you can get 20% or more off the cost of most pantry-sized items you buy everyday! Remember, though, Amazon coupons expire. If you clip Amazon coupons, be sure to use them right away. 

Have we answered your question of "what is Prime Pantry?" I hope so! Have you used Prime Pantry? What has been your best deal?

We're here to answer your other Amazon questions, too! Find info on:

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Comments

  1. Thank you for this! As a new subscriber to Amazon Prime, I found this to be very helpful. I ordered my first Prime Pantry box last month, but I didn't realize I could search by coupons and that there were even free shipping deals to keep an eye out for. Yay! Thanks for the pointers!

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  2. Nice article, thank you for the sharing

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  3. I'm a minor couponer and love to scope out sales at kroger and aldi. I'm also an avid amazon shopper. I loved the idea of shopping Amazon PrimePantry and having my groceries delivered to me, especially since I don't drive...but I don't know where to start. I'm kind of anal and I want to look at everything they have and add it if I want it, but there 101 pages of groceries. Should I just forget that dream and look at the couponed items, then search for the rest? Just wondering how you actually went about adding items to your box. Thanks!

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