Here you go: 6 tips to curb your Amazon addiction
In 2024 I bought 72 things on Amazon. In 2025, 0. Happy Prime Day!
Was it the $50 million wedding1 that pushed you over the edge? The fact that Prime Day2 has turned into Prime Weeks q1, q2, q3, q4? Or that the company produces unthinkable amounts of earth-destroying pollution (599 million pounds of plastic packaging waste in 2020) that has encouraged you most to fucking quit Amazon?
Whatever your reason(s) for wanting to quit the ‘zon — or rely on it a teensy bit less — I’m so glad you’re here.
After six full months of buying ~nothing~ from Amazon, I’ve amassed a few insights that might help you loosen the behemoth’s grip on your monthly credit statement. Some of these tips are very Amazon specific, while others you might apply to all of your online shopping habits.
None of these recommendations are revolutionary, let me be the first to admit. But perhaps they can help you stick to your guns. Here are some things I think could truly help:
1. Add back the friction
As discussed relentlessly in the last issue of GLGG, one-click buying has re-circuited the psychological process of shopping. Adding back in the friction — making yourself go through more steps to buy something — is a way to build back in the mindfulness that shopping once required.
Some ways to add back the friction:
Delete the Amazon app from your phone
Log out of Amazon on your web browser (the shopping experience is much less enjoyable/you can’t read as many reviews/can’t see how much things would cost with your membership)
Remove your payment method from your account, so you have to enter it every time you decide to buy something
Want to take it a step further? Delete all the shopping apps on your phone and remove all automatic payments. I do not have Apple Pay out of a desire to require more friction in my consumption life, not because I am a luddite. I don’t want to be able to buy something with only my phone. Sometimes the mere act of having to search through my bag for a couple of dollars or my credit card prevents me from buying something. I love that.
Oh I can hear you. You’re thinking its “safer” to have access to money on your phone in case of emergencies, in a pinch, etc. etc. But let me argue back: I don’t use Apple Pay and I have yet to die.
2. Do a Bezos Audit™
Ready for a wakeup call, sweetheart? Review your previous Amazon purchases. This can help you figure out your purchasing patterns, re-allot your subscriptions, and face your demons head on.
Amazon has tracked all of your purchases since the dawn of time, so you might as well take a gander. You can do this by clicking on “your account” —> “your orders.” Amazon allows you to sort your purchases over various spans of time:
As you can see, I have heroically bought nothing on the site in 2025. But in 2024, it’s a different story:
I bought 72 fucking things from Amazon in 2024, most recent being a foam cushion for my children and a replacement basket for our air fryer. Seventy-two things is so many things. As I scroll though my orders, which I’m not yet self-assured enough to do publicly, I can parse out my purchases into ~6 different categories, all of which are mind-numbingly boring:
Children’s birthday presents, toys, & toy organization items
Children’s books
Diapers, wipes, and other baby health items
Skin care products I wanted to try and never re-ordered
Dog food and dog poop bags
A bunch of disposable serving stuff because we hosted Thanksgiving
I can justify maybe five of these 72 items in hindsight: The convenience of instantly-delivered aluminum catering dishes was a salve for Thanksgiving stress; my dog needed an XL cone of shame after a surgery, and FAST; a quick diaper delivery wasn’t necessary, but did make life with two one-year-old poopers a little less hectic.
As for the rest? A lot of resources (shipping, labor, delivery) and money (mine) wasted for instant-and-instantly-fleeting gratification. But it is helpful to dissect these purchases, put my own vices under a microscope, and try to understand my personal consumption a bit better.
A bit of reflection tells me:
I’m a sucker for skin care claims (and now that I’ve named it, I can at least attempt to fight it)
I could do better planning around kids’ birthday gifts so I don’t have to rely on Amazon a day before a party
I can still have some conveniences without using Amazon (more on this shortly)
After going through this experience myself, I want to recommend to you: Feel no shame throughout your Amazon Audit. You bought a dumb thing (or 72), you will learn from that purchase, and make different choices in the future. That’s the whole point of this.
3. Re-home your most necessary subscriptions
It’s still possible to put things on autopilot; some purchases are perhaps not worth thinking about. The items that qualify here are yours to decide. Give Amazon less of your money and instead redirect your cash to bolster companies that are behaving a little better.
Some ideas:
Dog food —> Chewy.com (Chewy literally sends my dogs cards for their birthdays. Can my dogs read? Has Jeff Bezos ever done that for any pet ever?
Toilet paper & paper towels —> Thrive Market, Grove, WhoGivesACrap
Laundry, dishwasher, & cleaning type stuff —> Puracy, Dropps
Oh maybe these things will be more expensive than they were on Amazon. OK? If you stop using Amazon as much, you will inevitably spend less on needless shit, so ultimately the switch is saving you money. (72 random pieces of shit, remember?)
4. Go without (if only momentarily)
I was thinking how desperate I am for a new bathing suit or two: My reliable workhorse is getting awfully stretched out in the straps. I added a bunch of options to my cart only to swiftly abandon that bitch (and, unsurprisingly, received a $20 coupon in my email almost instantly — waiting does pay off).
I am delegating a task to myself: Go into your bin of lesser-worn swim suits and try them on. Perhaps there are some good enough to make it through another season. If not, then I can put that coupon of desperation to use.
This is an example of simply fending off instant gratification, or resisting the ease of one-click buying. Are there places in your consumption where pausing is possible? Think about it babe.
5. Cancel your Prime membership
There’s a common misconception that you need to wait until your annual membership subscription is up to quit Prime without losing your investment. It is not the case! Do it now, do it, do it!
From CNET:
For a monthly plan, if your membership renews at the end of the month but you want to cancel it today, Amazon will offer you a refund of however many days you had left in your cycle.
For the annual plan, the same logic applies. If you cancel your membership halfway through your year, you will get a refund of half of what you paid for the full year membership.
Be the change you want to see in the world. (Click on that CNET link for a useful how-to.)
You should cancel your membership even if you’re not planning to fully give up the service. To get free shipping, non-Prime customers must make a purchase of $35 on eligible items. This is another way to add back the friction: Maybe you’ll try to meet that minimum, or maybe you’ll realize you’re not willing to pay shipping for an of-the-moment desire. Whatever happens, you’ll spend a little more time thinking about what you’re buying before metaphorically swiping your card.
6. Join Libby — and your local library
Amazon has been a blessing for easy book access, but there are other ways and YES they do work on your Amazon-branded Kindle.
Please sign up for a library card at your local establishment and use that card on Libby, the most wonderful app that allows you to reserve and check out books for your e-reader without moving from your bed. Libby has a cult following for good reason, and using it will save you money so you don’t have to feel bad about spending more on toilet paper.
For physical books, consider two favorites:
Bookshop for new books
ThriftBooks for used books
This is what I’ve got for now. Your thoughts? Think you’ll start to do any of these things? Please do let me know!
P.S. While reading “This Jeff Bezos & Lauren Sánchez Bezos Wedding is So, So, So Fucking Dumb” by the very funny Phoebe Robinson, I came across this AUTHENTIC AND SOMEHOW NOT FAKE actual genuine invite from the Bezos wedding:
There’s so much to love about this but I just wanted to shout out the No Gifts request. Good job you guys. It’s a nice effort from a couple that owns everything in the truest sense. But hats off and mazel tov. (What would you even buy this couple?????)
P.P.S. Prime Day is so fucked up as a concept and I hate that I’ve fallen victim to it so many times before.
AND LASTLY: Thanks so much for reading all the way down here! If you enjoyed this read, please like and/or leave a comment, which can help this publication grow. If you are reading this as an email, click the heart button at the top or bottom of this email: You’ll be directed to the Substack website where you can also leave a comment. If you are reading it online, just click the heart button at the top or bottom of this post. I’d truly love to hear from you. Thank you!
*“[W]hile this sum may appear lavish to any ordinary American, it amounted to just 0.0193-0.0230 percent of the Amazon founder's estimated $244 billion net worth, as recorded by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.” - cute Newsweek article
Toying with Amazon Crime Day™️ — ey? ey?
Thank you for this!! While I am not ready to cancel completely, you have provided great tips on how to be mindful in my purchases.
Love this - great tips, great reminders, great read!!!!