I did when I bought diapers for my grandkids. They gave me a year's worth of Prime to go with it, and when that ran out I paid the yearly fee. I shop at Amazon for 75% of my online shopping, and living in the country it really pays off. Just the other day I ordered two air mattresses that weighed a ton. The S&H alone would have cost a fortune.

I was curious when I posed the question. Years ago, I got the newspaper. Sunday ads were a "must look at" thing with me. It prompted me to SHOP - which led me to buy more than I anticipated! Other than that, the papers just piled up and made a mess. I finally discontinued the newspaper - (got tired of the mess). Junk mail is out of control! It comes in the house and gets thrown in a "pile" in the den. The only time I read it is if I'm thinking about going grocery shopping...I want to know if chicken breasts are on sale or? I get the big-lots, and some linens and some other misc ads that I may be interested in. Usually by time I read them, they are expired! lol. (A good thing - saves me money!) What I've found...IF I don't read the ads, I SAVE lots of $$$! And by cancelling the newspaper, I save more there too. I KNOW I can "save" using coupons from the paper, but if I don't SEE the coupon, I won't go to store! There is a way to cancel ALL junk mail delivered to house, but I won't do it - as there are two major and two minor grocers that I WANT ads from - to look for any sales on what I want to buy. (This is done sporadically - like, if I suddenly decide I want to cook a roast, "Are there any on sale?". (If not, I won't buy-lol!) I am currently gearing up for a huge shopping excursion on the sale items for Easter! (I like to buy lots while on sale to last for a few months - the good thing about holidays! lol) Other junk mail - like for auto related, I never know what to do with - as it seems everytime I throw them out, someone needs a coupon for oil change or something. There are two types of junk that REALLY irritate me: 1) CRAPPY PIZZA ads... they come in every week but expire three months from receipt. DH loves pizza, but geez...why pay for all the ads? (I think most people have their desired pizza places, and no ad will sway them.) So, if they just would QUIT, they could offer the same pizza at much lower price, and everyone would make out! 2) That MAJOR company that provides cable TV service! (I've been fighting them for three years now for "services not rendered" - so I especially have a very bad distaste for them). Now they "offer" phone and internet - as well as the "whole package deal". And I get NUMEROUS ads from them every single week, not to mention the ads on TV, and even when I call to complain about NON-service of TV, they STILL try to push off their new services! NO WAY! OK, that #2 was too graphic - need another thread for that one! To sum it up...I've actually SAVED a lot of $$$ by NOT reading the ads - even tho they enter my house. OTOH, when I DO decide I want to shop, I can scan the ads at home to see if what I want is on sale to save money.

In the past, I was a real magazine junkie. But over the past few years, I have really cut back. My daughter enjoys National Geographic so we still get that one and my son asked for Nat Geo Kids so we will subscribe to that one as well. I just got a really smashing great offer for Smithsonian and so will probably subscribe to it as well. Used to subscribe to Cottage Living but stopped when I realized that every "cottage" re-do was done by an architect and his artist wife, a lawyer and his antiques dealer wife, a doctor and his interior decorator wife and that the "cottages" were usually about 3000 to 5000 square feet in size. Not my idea of a "cottage". The magazine went under. I was not surprised. Although I will say that my most favorite part of that magazine was the back page where a reader sent in a photo of his or her home and an architect/designer did a lovely sketch of the home "cottage-d up". Wish I could get his name and send him a picture of my house. I love Bookmarks and must resubscribe but then I stop and look at the lists of titles I have written down from each issue of Bookmarks. I will never get through all of my TBR lists... let alone read magazines as well! How do you all find the time?! A note on the fundraising sales. My sister bought a mag from my daughter during a fundraising drive. The magazine title was switched on her from a travel magazine to a fishing magazine with no prior warning. And because she bought it through a clearing house, she had no recourse. The travel mag went under and the clearing house substituted something of similar value without consulting her. PAM

We only buy the Sunday paper so DH can get the TV guide. He's not as computer dependent as I am. Still wants the TV guide even though he only watches one show,The Big Bang Theory, when football season isn't here. I look at the ads and sometimes skim the paper. The quality of the print and the paper is so bad I find it annoying. I do read comics online now and then. DH reads them online daily, has a tab on his browser for them. Now I have to go check out Zits. LOL