Thank you for this! Since the start of the year, our household has bought five things from Amazon, totaling less than $100, a big reduction in our Amazon spending. A little research tells me that those things could have been bought from the brands themselves or from other retailers (we're learning).
I also canceled Prime (although they didn't offer a refund, instead I will have Prime benefits until my July renewal).
Finally, I used my Amazon credit card points (I had a card just for Amazon purchases) to buy a stroller for my granddaughter and applied the rest to my current month's balance.
So happy to be weaning myself off the Amazon ecosystem!
Oh my gosh I love all of this, thank you for sharing with us! Learning is truly the name of the game and striving for perfection is what kept me from long term change so I'm glad you are approaching it in a sustainable way.
I'm celebrating each of those achievements with you!!! 👏👏👏
I just cancelled my Audible effective February 22. The email I got confirming the cancellation said “Your email and password are still active, and any titles you bought are yours to keep.” Since Audible is a separate subscription I don’t think it has anything to do with Prime.
I did cancel my Prime but I was paid up through July so I still have it through then. Also you mention ebooks but Audible is for audiobooks so I wonder if we are talking about the same thing? In either event I would go ahead and get them downloaded just to be sure.
EIther way your e-books for kindle and/or your audiobooks from Audible should all still be accessible without Prime (I don't have Prime and haven't for 2 years and can still access these things on my devices).
I recently read that audible/Amazon can edit or delete any books they want to. I’m looking at you, list of banned books. Even the books you’ve purchased.
I just canceled my Audible account online. I screenshot my chat with them to verify that I would not lose my audiobooks. I also gave them my reasons for canceling which felt great!👍
I cancelled Prime back when they stopped providing rural communities with equitable service, e.g. no Whole Foods anywhere nearby, Prime Video overwhelmed our broadband speed, and two day delivery became "two days from when we ship it", which often meant more than a week. We still have all of our eBooks; I don't have Audible, so I can't speak to that.
Important points to note:
1. You can delete the app, but never delete your Amazon account. That is what your books are linked to.
2. "Buying" ebooks merely grants you a license to download and read them. That's why you can't share them outside of the constraints of your Amazon family. Make sure you share with someone, and that they have access to your Amazon account info upon your death, so that the access remains available (sorry to go dark there).
I canceled my account but before I did I chatted with customer service to be sure that I would not lose my audiobooks. I took a screenshot of the response just in case. It appears that I did not lose my audiobooks.
my experience is that i must keep the Audible app, which requires an Amazon account. But you don't have to buy ANYTHING, which accomplishes a lot of the objective.
I canceled my Amazon account!!! I did have to go through customer service chat to get a refund. On the site it only offered to cancel renewal. That felt great!!! 👏👏👏
Oh...I wanted to add a couple of other notes. For cleaning and household products I'm going to try Grove Collaborative as an alternative. They have a big focus on plastic free, which is another focus of mine.
And Bookshop.org just introduced a new e-book platform in addition to physical books. You can choose a local bookstore for your purchases to benefit, which I love!
Awesome!! For cleaning supplies I use only 3 products for my whole house-- Dr Bronner's Castile Soap for my cleaning spray, and vinegar and baking soda!
I am SO excited that Bookshop offers e-books now! Unfortunately they cannot be read on a kindle, arg. But I will be first in line when they make a device of their own! Or hopefully they find a workaround for reading them on a kindle. 🙏🙏
I love Dr. Bronners (and also heard they dropped their B corp status). Another local and sustainable cleaning company option is Branch Basics. They’re out of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Bookshop has their own eReader app which works pretty well for a 1.0 version. I stopped buying Kindles and switched to Android tablets a while back (I was a Kindle Fire user), so now I can use my Bookshop, Kindle, and Libby apps on the same device.
Try Calibre or ebook “converters”. I’m not sure what format Bookshop will use, but I’ve converted others formats and then added them to my kindle device.
I stopped using my Amazon credit card after the first of the year, and this is with a $29,000 credit limit, not that i would ever spend that much! I also pay my bills when i get them, so they never get any interest from me. I'm not bragging. I'm 79 and have learned alot about personal finances due to very informative life lessons from "trial and error", with an emphasis on error! I used to use the credit card a lot to get the points for "free" items. Amazon has noticed that I've stopped using their card. This week, they sent me an email reminding me of the amount of "freebie" money I earned last year, but nothing in 2025. Guess what? That's not going to change. Our household also canceled subscriptions to wapo, LA times and NY times due to their biased and pro-trump reporting. We now follow meidas media, Bulwark, the contrarian and others on substack for our news. Also planning to delete Facebook, never did Twitter.
Wow that is a wild credit limit, trying to imagine what I would even need that for! 😂 Thank you for sharing your wisdom, you have certainly lived and gained a lot. 👏
Same for me,deleted all things META,deleted X after Musk bought it,deleted all things Amazon and PayPal. Do not miss any of it. Never subscribed to the papers but occasionally read NYT over the years.
I would also encourage folks to cancel their Wall Street Journal subscriptions. WSJ is owned by Rupert Murdoch, whose family corporation also owns Fox News.
I love this! I broke up with Amazon, too, and couldn’t be happier. One thing I did that has made me feel great is getting a membership-type thing at Etsy. For a low fee I get free shipping from most shops, and that has led my family and I to focus our gift-buying there. I’ve found some amazing gifts and supported artists. Thank you for your post!
Oh my gosh I had no idea Etsy offered this, thank you for sharing!! I used to run an Etsy shop and I know firsthand how much it means to shop artists and small businesses on there.
I’ve rediscovered eBay! For years, Amazon has been my place of “random stuff I need but can’t find at a store.” Every thing I have needed since starting my Amazon boycott after the election, I have found on eBay.
Gosh right?! Thank you for sharing this-- I am in need of a little lamp shade for a new lamp base I purchased at GoodWill and my mind kept whispering Amazon-- Ebay it is!!
I am due for renewal for my prime membership next month. I’ve had the membership for 16 years now! It seems so scary but I reallyyyyy don’t want to support them anymore. I have been a small business owner for almost 11 years now, I sold under Amazon handmade category for over 6 of those years, the amount of returns was absolutely ridiculous among other issues I pulled everything from Amazon last year and will never sell through them again. I was only making them richer!
Thank you for sharing your experience, I have always wondered how much small business owners have to sacrifice to be on Amazon and to cast Amazon as a "small business supporter." I say don't renew (you can also cancel it ahead of time and get reimbursed for the remaining time!)-- if you need Prime again, it will gladly take you back (and even offer you a deal.
This was so helpful! I've wanted to break up with Amazon lately, too - the 'convenience' has definitely made me impulse purchase unnecessary things in the past! Trying to break that habit! Will use these tips and tricks to help me do just that. Thanks, Brittany!
I had that same reflection, it's powerful to realize! And so often I can to see that there was so much convenience tangled up in things I really didn't need all that much. You got this Cassie-- it's a wonderful journey to embark on!!
i love this post and also truly appreciate you recognizing the accessibility issue for people.
know this is silly, but my biggest hold up to canceling prime, is prime video! some of my kids most beloved shows are amazon prime exclusive (i’m looking at you Tumbleleaf 🥹) and there are several shows my husband and i are working through on their right now. we don’t actually order from amazon that much, we basically just have a prime account for video. oh!! also all my photos are backed up through so i need to get those downloaded on to a hard drive before i cancel one day and that feels daunting.
Oh and check out Frog and Toad on Apple TV+, might be a nice replacement for the show you mentioned. My kids love Hilda on Netflix too!
And if you don't yet get streaming services provided by your mobile phone company it's worth calling to check on, ours covers Netflix and Apple TV+ for free, forever!
This is my hesitation, too, I hate to admit! Escapism is my jam these days. We stopped going to the movie theaters other than our local one with some friends now and then, and I rarely buy anything, I use my Libby app for audiobooks (for my one hour each way daily commute) and likely can stop using the occasional Audible book - but my husband and I do watch quite a few shows through Amazon Prime. Also we are in a rural area so it’s hard to “shop local” for some things (netting for the chicken yard to keep the hawks out, for instance). My extremely demanding job leaves me exhausted at times with little time to shop. When I get home after 7 pm, we eat dinner, hubby cleans the kitchen, then we put on an episode of whatever series we are watching together (while I snuggle up on the couch with my husband and our dogs) before I have to go to bed early so I can get up at 0530 to start all over again. I just need to let “Goliath” and “Three Body Problem” go!!
You gotta do what you gotta do! AS I shared in the first paragraph, this is a post for people who want to curb their relationship-- sounds like you have a strong sense of your needs and why they matter to you, that's great too.
Happy to point you to some fave show we adore on Netflix, Disney+ and Apple TV+ if you ever need other ideas! We don't watch much TBH but we found a few gems for sure.
I use Google Photos and Apple iCloud for photo storage (I like to have a backup) and they were both so easy to upload and maintain (basically happens in the background!).
doing my best to boycott google... the gulf of America? NO WAY. just switched to duck duck go, and have so far avoided a gmail account. Every activist group I'm in uses google docs though, so I'm stuck there... at least for now.
You just have to wait a couple months and then they drop the price after the fervor dies down. I put it in my 'to watch' list and let it bake there until the price is right. But I will be dropping my Prime sub, so will have to wait for them to come either to other streaming platforms or to the library. I can easily be patient.
In the US too! I have noticed in the last year they are putting the new & desirable movies in the pay for section. Due to this the Prime movies have become less and less worth it.
I use the app JustWatch to find out where things are streaming. I use the free version and it is great. Many times I find a movie that Prime is charging rent for but the same movie is streaming "free" on another service.
I've found that my library has a great selection of dvd seasons for all kinds of shows, but not sure about if Amazon Exclusives make their way to public access via the library - but it's worth a phone call to your local librarian!
If your local library provides access to Hoopla that has a bunch of those kids shows! Depending on how many check outs you get a month you may run out but they offer something called a "BingePass" that gives you a bunch of episodes for like 7 days and it only uses one of your monthly credits. Libraries also very often give access to Kanopy which is a streaming service for mostly movies.
Brittany, this post is everything to me!! I stopped shopping on Amazon a few years ago as well. Small businesses are such important parts of my community -- they're my favorite part of living in Madison and how I've met so many of my friends. I love the ways you lay out a solid plan for letting go. It's so hard when it's sooooo prevalent!
Thank you, Kyli!! It's so true, small business really do so much for our communities! And they are working so hard just to stay afloat in this Amazon dominated world.
I hope it can help curb a little bit of our collective Amazon dependency, it feels good to detach the umbilical cord!
I applaud you for writing about this, and maybe you’re trying to reach a niche group, yet there are many more of us who already embrace and practice these life habits. I’m 60 and lived 1/2 my life without internet, cell phones, social media, 24/7 cable, etc and all those practices that isolate us and negatively impact communities.
Underconsumption, living within your means, buying local has always been here and a necessity for many — or just a lifestyle of those of us who have lived in much simpler, more satisfying lives. The opposite, and what you’re describing here as escaping from is a very privileged, consumeristic, materialistic lifestyle. And it’s what has gotten us into this mess with oligarchs now making decisions that will change our country forever. Our shopping addiction created Jeff Bezos. Our social media addiction created Meta and so on and so forth.
I always challenge the younger generation to try a minimalist life — don’t do social media. Buy local. Do free things. Support public lands and get outside.
Yes definitely, as I stated in the first sentence-- this is for people who are looking to curb their relationship with Amazon. 😄 Each generation definitely faces different challenges and we have much to learn from generations both above and below us. Different intersections with where technology has intercepted our lives definitely shift each generations relationship with it, I admire older generations who have a different life experience as well as younger generations who are choosing to actively understand and resist technologies grip. Each person and their personal experiences lead them on their own unique path and it's enriching to learn of how that plays out with people, thank you for sharing yours with us.
Although we have never been huge Amazon shoppers, they definitely have had a grip on us, their same/next/2-day shipping has set the standard of what we deem acceptable for delivery times & it’s so easy to purchase something via Amazon for that reason alone 🙃 but within the past couple of months, we have made a conscious effort to reduce our Amazon shopping by cancelling Prime & only purchasing there as a last resort! I’ve started to see more and more influencers pushing only Amazon products (so many of which are completely ridiculous items & just contribute to so. much. clutter! But that’s a discussion for another day haha), which is so disappointing.
I often get books at our library’s monthly book sales (if I don’t want to wait for something to become available!), the books are in such great condition, it’s like buying them new!
Oh yes there is so much psychology to the Amazon approach-- they did a lot by design and even when goods aren't cheaper there they have already conditioned us to think they are! Plus the "free shipping" psychology even though it's not free, it came at a premium! It's truly a fascinating convo. I studied marketing and advertising pre-Amazon days (or at least, when Amazon was pretty much just for textbooks) and learned so many of the psychological side of things-- it would be fascinating to see how much is taught about Amazon alone now.
Oh yes thank you the library sales are so lovely!! I just went to GoodWill this morning too and picked up a brand new copy of Good Material by Dolly Alderton to send to a friend for $3!!! I also love looking in these areas to see what my neighbors are reading. 😄
I want to chime in with a big shout out to your local library! You can borrow books, cookbooks, DVDs, CDs and even records. Some give you digital subscriptions to Liby for audio and ebooks. Plus some give you a Kanopy subscription so you can stream several movies a month. All for free! Not to mention the events they host (book clubs, story time, crafting groups, homework help, chess clubs, etc.). It's a great way to participate in your community.
100%! Ours even has an expansive lending library (including games as I mentioned), for tools and gardening supplies, etc! Libraries are such huge resources. I have not encountered records at ours yet, how cool!
loooooove this. i canceled my prime last week and have been going either local or direct to manufacturer since jan. it makes shopping so much more purposeful and intentional
This is so great--thank you for sharing! I am also in process of breaking up with Amazon this year--deleted the app, waiting for our Prime to run out and not renew, using as a last resort (I did overnight toddler snow boots the other week...).
My other tip is to get rid of all your wishlists if people have them! I basically just used that to catalog things I might want to buy someday--skincare I heard was good, that cute lamp an influencer linked, toys to send the grandparents for the next birthday, etc. I took some time at the start of the year and went through all my wishlists to decide if I really want to hold onto something and created a separate place to track with links to find them or something similar in other places.
The Kindle ebooks is my last place to work on. I am using Libby more though!
Thank you for this! Since the start of the year, our household has bought five things from Amazon, totaling less than $100, a big reduction in our Amazon spending. A little research tells me that those things could have been bought from the brands themselves or from other retailers (we're learning).
I also canceled Prime (although they didn't offer a refund, instead I will have Prime benefits until my July renewal).
Finally, I used my Amazon credit card points (I had a card just for Amazon purchases) to buy a stroller for my granddaughter and applied the rest to my current month's balance.
So happy to be weaning myself off the Amazon ecosystem!
Oh my gosh I love all of this, thank you for sharing with us! Learning is truly the name of the game and striving for perfection is what kept me from long term change so I'm glad you are approaching it in a sustainable way.
I'm celebrating each of those achievements with you!!! 👏👏👏
I have over 400 ebooks from Audible. I’m led to understand that I will lose them all if I cancel my Amazon Prime account. Is that true?
I just cancelled my Audible effective February 22. The email I got confirming the cancellation said “Your email and password are still active, and any titles you bought are yours to keep.” Since Audible is a separate subscription I don’t think it has anything to do with Prime.
THAT IS GREAT TO KNOW!
Did you cancel your Prime account though? That’s when I’m led to believe you lose your downloads. Anxiously waiting for your response!
I did cancel my Prime but I was paid up through July so I still have it through then. Also you mention ebooks but Audible is for audiobooks so I wonder if we are talking about the same thing? In either event I would go ahead and get them downloaded just to be sure.
EIther way your e-books for kindle and/or your audiobooks from Audible should all still be accessible without Prime (I don't have Prime and haven't for 2 years and can still access these things on my devices).
Audible is owned by Amazon
I recently read that audible/Amazon can edit or delete any books they want to. I’m looking at you, list of banned books. Even the books you’ve purchased.
I’ve been trying to purchase physical copies of banned books, slowly but surely. 🙏
I guess we will add “book thief” to his dubious list of attributes. He won’t get another dime from me.
What about my streaming services that I get through Prime: Acorn, Britbox etc?
I have always gotten britbox and acorn directly from their sites. Reach out to them for more information. You can also get through Apple
Thank You! Now if only I can cancel Audible and Kindle Unlimited (I keep getting error messages when I try)
I just canceled my Audible account online. I screenshot my chat with them to verify that I would not lose my audiobooks. I also gave them my reasons for canceling which felt great!👍
When I cancelled Audible, I was told that I would keep all of the titles that I owned.
Amazon own Audible. However, audiobooks are not linked to Prime. If you cancel Audible you should still have access to the audiobooks you bought.
Thank you! ☺️ I’m off to cancel my Amazon Prime and Audible!!! #economicboycott2025
Good question! I would hope we don't as we have purchased them. I believe I have all of mine downloaded as well.
I cancelled Prime back when they stopped providing rural communities with equitable service, e.g. no Whole Foods anywhere nearby, Prime Video overwhelmed our broadband speed, and two day delivery became "two days from when we ship it", which often meant more than a week. We still have all of our eBooks; I don't have Audible, so I can't speak to that.
Important points to note:
1. You can delete the app, but never delete your Amazon account. That is what your books are linked to.
2. "Buying" ebooks merely grants you a license to download and read them. That's why you can't share them outside of the constraints of your Amazon family. Make sure you share with someone, and that they have access to your Amazon account info upon your death, so that the access remains available (sorry to go dark there).
I just cancelled my Target account. I’m not finished yet! Amazon is next!
👏👏👏
Don't cancel your account, if you have ebooks!! Delete the app, commit to not buying, but your account is what links to all of your ebook purchases!!
I cancelled Audible and I am still able to access all of my audio books.
I canceled my account but before I did I chatted with customer service to be sure that I would not lose my audiobooks. I took a screenshot of the response just in case. It appears that I did not lose my audiobooks.
Now I am confused. Don’t cancel my Audible account? Please respond asap! I did want to close my Amazon account! THANKS FOR YOUR HELP! 😖
I have canceled my audible membership and still have access to the books I read.
my experience is that i must keep the Audible app, which requires an Amazon account. But you don't have to buy ANYTHING, which accomplishes a lot of the objective.
I canceled my Amazon account!!! I did have to go through customer service chat to get a refund. On the site it only offered to cancel renewal. That felt great!!! 👏👏👏
🍾🤜🤛 We’re celebrating with you!!! YAY!
Oh I just canceled my prime but no refund, do you think I can call them after the fact and get the refund? I had auto-paid on december 22nd :(
Your card also gets 5% back at Whole Foods, if you shop there (:
If you live anywhere near a Whole Foods...
Oh...I wanted to add a couple of other notes. For cleaning and household products I'm going to try Grove Collaborative as an alternative. They have a big focus on plastic free, which is another focus of mine.
And Bookshop.org just introduced a new e-book platform in addition to physical books. You can choose a local bookstore for your purchases to benefit, which I love!
Awesome!! For cleaning supplies I use only 3 products for my whole house-- Dr Bronner's Castile Soap for my cleaning spray, and vinegar and baking soda!
I am SO excited that Bookshop offers e-books now! Unfortunately they cannot be read on a kindle, arg. But I will be first in line when they make a device of their own! Or hopefully they find a workaround for reading them on a kindle. 🙏🙏
I love Dr. Bronners (and also heard they dropped their B corp status). Another local and sustainable cleaning company option is Branch Basics. They’re out of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Oooo I had not heard this, thank you for letting me know! Oh yes I used Branch Basics a while ago, thank you for reminding me of them!!
Bookshop has their own eReader app which works pretty well for a 1.0 version. I stopped buying Kindles and switched to Android tablets a while back (I was a Kindle Fire user), so now I can use my Bookshop, Kindle, and Libby apps on the same device.
LOVE it!
Try Calibre or ebook “converters”. I’m not sure what format Bookshop will use, but I’ve converted others formats and then added them to my kindle device.
Oooo thank you for the tip!
Try Powell’s Books at Powell’s.com. Located in Portland, Oregon, they are the largest used bookstore in North America
Love Powells!!
Can they be read on a Boox Palma?
Yes I believe so!!
I LOVE my Force of Nature cleaner. I’ve been using it for years now.
Oooo thank you for sharing!
I've been using Grove for at least 6 years and it's great.
Thanks for the feedback!
Oooo awesome, thank you for sharing!
I stopped using my Amazon credit card after the first of the year, and this is with a $29,000 credit limit, not that i would ever spend that much! I also pay my bills when i get them, so they never get any interest from me. I'm not bragging. I'm 79 and have learned alot about personal finances due to very informative life lessons from "trial and error", with an emphasis on error! I used to use the credit card a lot to get the points for "free" items. Amazon has noticed that I've stopped using their card. This week, they sent me an email reminding me of the amount of "freebie" money I earned last year, but nothing in 2025. Guess what? That's not going to change. Our household also canceled subscriptions to wapo, LA times and NY times due to their biased and pro-trump reporting. We now follow meidas media, Bulwark, the contrarian and others on substack for our news. Also planning to delete Facebook, never did Twitter.
Wow that is a wild credit limit, trying to imagine what I would even need that for! 😂 Thank you for sharing your wisdom, you have certainly lived and gained a lot. 👏
Same for me,deleted all things META,deleted X after Musk bought it,deleted all things Amazon and PayPal. Do not miss any of it. Never subscribed to the papers but occasionally read NYT over the years.
I would also encourage folks to cancel their Wall Street Journal subscriptions. WSJ is owned by Rupert Murdoch, whose family corporation also owns Fox News.
Great information Phil! I've drastically cut back on Amazon & really want to break free.
I love this! I broke up with Amazon, too, and couldn’t be happier. One thing I did that has made me feel great is getting a membership-type thing at Etsy. For a low fee I get free shipping from most shops, and that has led my family and I to focus our gift-buying there. I’ve found some amazing gifts and supported artists. Thank you for your post!
Oh my gosh I had no idea Etsy offered this, thank you for sharing!! I used to run an Etsy shop and I know firsthand how much it means to shop artists and small businesses on there.
I’ve rediscovered eBay! For years, Amazon has been my place of “random stuff I need but can’t find at a store.” Every thing I have needed since starting my Amazon boycott after the election, I have found on eBay.
Gosh right?! Thank you for sharing this-- I am in need of a little lamp shade for a new lamp base I purchased at GoodWill and my mind kept whispering Amazon-- Ebay it is!!
I am due for renewal for my prime membership next month. I’ve had the membership for 16 years now! It seems so scary but I reallyyyyy don’t want to support them anymore. I have been a small business owner for almost 11 years now, I sold under Amazon handmade category for over 6 of those years, the amount of returns was absolutely ridiculous among other issues I pulled everything from Amazon last year and will never sell through them again. I was only making them richer!
Thank you for sharing your experience, I have always wondered how much small business owners have to sacrifice to be on Amazon and to cast Amazon as a "small business supporter." I say don't renew (you can also cancel it ahead of time and get reimbursed for the remaining time!)-- if you need Prime again, it will gladly take you back (and even offer you a deal.
If I can do it, you can do it!
This was so helpful! I've wanted to break up with Amazon lately, too - the 'convenience' has definitely made me impulse purchase unnecessary things in the past! Trying to break that habit! Will use these tips and tricks to help me do just that. Thanks, Brittany!
I had that same reflection, it's powerful to realize! And so often I can to see that there was so much convenience tangled up in things I really didn't need all that much. You got this Cassie-- it's a wonderful journey to embark on!!
You can do it!
i love this post and also truly appreciate you recognizing the accessibility issue for people.
know this is silly, but my biggest hold up to canceling prime, is prime video! some of my kids most beloved shows are amazon prime exclusive (i’m looking at you Tumbleleaf 🥹) and there are several shows my husband and i are working through on their right now. we don’t actually order from amazon that much, we basically just have a prime account for video. oh!! also all my photos are backed up through so i need to get those downloaded on to a hard drive before i cancel one day and that feels daunting.
Oh and check out Frog and Toad on Apple TV+, might be a nice replacement for the show you mentioned. My kids love Hilda on Netflix too!
And if you don't yet get streaming services provided by your mobile phone company it's worth calling to check on, ours covers Netflix and Apple TV+ for free, forever!
This is my hesitation, too, I hate to admit! Escapism is my jam these days. We stopped going to the movie theaters other than our local one with some friends now and then, and I rarely buy anything, I use my Libby app for audiobooks (for my one hour each way daily commute) and likely can stop using the occasional Audible book - but my husband and I do watch quite a few shows through Amazon Prime. Also we are in a rural area so it’s hard to “shop local” for some things (netting for the chicken yard to keep the hawks out, for instance). My extremely demanding job leaves me exhausted at times with little time to shop. When I get home after 7 pm, we eat dinner, hubby cleans the kitchen, then we put on an episode of whatever series we are watching together (while I snuggle up on the couch with my husband and our dogs) before I have to go to bed early so I can get up at 0530 to start all over again. I just need to let “Goliath” and “Three Body Problem” go!!
Many rural areas have local farm and feed supply stores that will have things like tree netting - or they can order it. Just a thought!
You gotta do what you gotta do! AS I shared in the first paragraph, this is a post for people who want to curb their relationship-- sounds like you have a strong sense of your needs and why they matter to you, that's great too.
Happy to point you to some fave show we adore on Netflix, Disney+ and Apple TV+ if you ever need other ideas! We don't watch much TBH but we found a few gems for sure.
I use Google Photos and Apple iCloud for photo storage (I like to have a backup) and they were both so easy to upload and maintain (basically happens in the background!).
doing my best to boycott google... the gulf of America? NO WAY. just switched to duck duck go, and have so far avoided a gmail account. Every activist group I'm in uses google docs though, so I'm stuck there... at least for now.
Ah yes that’s a tricky one that deeply woven in.
But Amazon makes you pay for many shows on Prime - at least in the UK. I found it was not worth it.
You just have to wait a couple months and then they drop the price after the fervor dies down. I put it in my 'to watch' list and let it bake there until the price is right. But I will be dropping my Prime sub, so will have to wait for them to come either to other streaming platforms or to the library. I can easily be patient.
I buy movies via Apple TV, have been doing that since my iPod days 🤣 great idea about letting things “bake” though
In the US too! I have noticed in the last year they are putting the new & desirable movies in the pay for section. Due to this the Prime movies have become less and less worth it.
You might be able to find the shows somewhere else (but not if they are produced by Amazon).
I always Google "where can I watch _______?"
I use the app JustWatch to find out where things are streaming. I use the free version and it is great. Many times I find a movie that Prime is charging rent for but the same movie is streaming "free" on another service.
Brilliant, thank you so much!
I've found that my library has a great selection of dvd seasons for all kinds of shows, but not sure about if Amazon Exclusives make their way to public access via the library - but it's worth a phone call to your local librarian!
If your local library provides access to Hoopla that has a bunch of those kids shows! Depending on how many check outs you get a month you may run out but they offer something called a "BingePass" that gives you a bunch of episodes for like 7 days and it only uses one of your monthly credits. Libraries also very often give access to Kanopy which is a streaming service for mostly movies.
Thank you for sharing!!
Brittany, this post is everything to me!! I stopped shopping on Amazon a few years ago as well. Small businesses are such important parts of my community -- they're my favorite part of living in Madison and how I've met so many of my friends. I love the ways you lay out a solid plan for letting go. It's so hard when it's sooooo prevalent!
Thank you, Kyli!! It's so true, small business really do so much for our communities! And they are working so hard just to stay afloat in this Amazon dominated world.
I hope it can help curb a little bit of our collective Amazon dependency, it feels good to detach the umbilical cord!
I have over 400 ebooks from Audible. I’m led to understand that I will lose them all if I cancel my Amazon Prime account. Is that true?
I don't know about ebooks but I was able to keep all of my Audio books when I cancelled Audible.
I applaud you for writing about this, and maybe you’re trying to reach a niche group, yet there are many more of us who already embrace and practice these life habits. I’m 60 and lived 1/2 my life without internet, cell phones, social media, 24/7 cable, etc and all those practices that isolate us and negatively impact communities.
Underconsumption, living within your means, buying local has always been here and a necessity for many — or just a lifestyle of those of us who have lived in much simpler, more satisfying lives. The opposite, and what you’re describing here as escaping from is a very privileged, consumeristic, materialistic lifestyle. And it’s what has gotten us into this mess with oligarchs now making decisions that will change our country forever. Our shopping addiction created Jeff Bezos. Our social media addiction created Meta and so on and so forth.
I always challenge the younger generation to try a minimalist life — don’t do social media. Buy local. Do free things. Support public lands and get outside.
Yes definitely, as I stated in the first sentence-- this is for people who are looking to curb their relationship with Amazon. 😄 Each generation definitely faces different challenges and we have much to learn from generations both above and below us. Different intersections with where technology has intercepted our lives definitely shift each generations relationship with it, I admire older generations who have a different life experience as well as younger generations who are choosing to actively understand and resist technologies grip. Each person and their personal experiences lead them on their own unique path and it's enriching to learn of how that plays out with people, thank you for sharing yours with us.
Although we have never been huge Amazon shoppers, they definitely have had a grip on us, their same/next/2-day shipping has set the standard of what we deem acceptable for delivery times & it’s so easy to purchase something via Amazon for that reason alone 🙃 but within the past couple of months, we have made a conscious effort to reduce our Amazon shopping by cancelling Prime & only purchasing there as a last resort! I’ve started to see more and more influencers pushing only Amazon products (so many of which are completely ridiculous items & just contribute to so. much. clutter! But that’s a discussion for another day haha), which is so disappointing.
I often get books at our library’s monthly book sales (if I don’t want to wait for something to become available!), the books are in such great condition, it’s like buying them new!
Oh yes there is so much psychology to the Amazon approach-- they did a lot by design and even when goods aren't cheaper there they have already conditioned us to think they are! Plus the "free shipping" psychology even though it's not free, it came at a premium! It's truly a fascinating convo. I studied marketing and advertising pre-Amazon days (or at least, when Amazon was pretty much just for textbooks) and learned so many of the psychological side of things-- it would be fascinating to see how much is taught about Amazon alone now.
Oh yes thank you the library sales are so lovely!! I just went to GoodWill this morning too and picked up a brand new copy of Good Material by Dolly Alderton to send to a friend for $3!!! I also love looking in these areas to see what my neighbors are reading. 😄
Yes to all of this!
I'm committed to not buying from Amazon. “Every $ is a vote”. This article has great ideas to start and nice lists of alternatives.
I’m glad you found some helpful ideas and tips here, Diane!
I was looking for a way to completely divorce Jeff Bezos and this article definitely took me forward a very long way. Thank you!
I’m so thrilled to hear this! 👏👏
Already ordered my first book on bookshop.org.
HURRAH!!! They are so wonderful!
I want to chime in with a big shout out to your local library! You can borrow books, cookbooks, DVDs, CDs and even records. Some give you digital subscriptions to Liby for audio and ebooks. Plus some give you a Kanopy subscription so you can stream several movies a month. All for free! Not to mention the events they host (book clubs, story time, crafting groups, homework help, chess clubs, etc.). It's a great way to participate in your community.
100%! Ours even has an expansive lending library (including games as I mentioned), for tools and gardening supplies, etc! Libraries are such huge resources. I have not encountered records at ours yet, how cool!
loooooove this. i canceled my prime last week and have been going either local or direct to manufacturer since jan. it makes shopping so much more purposeful and intentional
👏👏👏 I love to hear it! You're absolutely right!!
This is so great--thank you for sharing! I am also in process of breaking up with Amazon this year--deleted the app, waiting for our Prime to run out and not renew, using as a last resort (I did overnight toddler snow boots the other week...).
My other tip is to get rid of all your wishlists if people have them! I basically just used that to catalog things I might want to buy someday--skincare I heard was good, that cute lamp an influencer linked, toys to send the grandparents for the next birthday, etc. I took some time at the start of the year and went through all my wishlists to decide if I really want to hold onto something and created a separate place to track with links to find them or something similar in other places.
The Kindle ebooks is my last place to work on. I am using Libby more though!
LOVE IT!! This is wonderful progress.
Great tip on the wishlists too, it is amazing to go back through those "wants" and see what really matters still-- often times, so little does!