If your home has Prime, free restaurant delivery moved today, and it now starts at a $25 order.
Your Daily Dad Joke
I went to the library yesterday and asked, “Do you have any books on shelving?”
The librarian said, “Yes, all of them.”
Your free delivery moved
It’s late, nobody wants to cook, and somebody opens an app to get dinner brought to the door. The food looks like one price. By the time the fees and the tip land, it’s a different price.
That’s why I wanted to pass this along, if your home has Amazon Prime.
You may have seen the news this morning. Amazon announced that Prime members now get a $0 delivery fee on restaurant orders placed through Amazon, with Uber Eats doing the delivering. Amazon says you order on its site or app, and no Uber account is needed. Digital Trends reports that it replaces the Grubhub+ perk Prime members had, and that Prime members lose that Grubhub+ access.
So does this save you money? That depends on how your home orders.
If you order dinner for the family, it can. Amazon says the $0 delivery fee applies to restaurant orders of $25 or more, so a real dinner order gets there easily.
If it’s usually lunch for one, it may not kick in at all. A $14 sandwich and a drink don’t reach $25, and adding a dessert just to cross the line is how a lunch turns into a $30 lunch.
Two things the headlines skip. Amazon’s announcement is about the delivery fee. It doesn’t say the service fee or the tip go away, so the checkout total is still the number that counts. And the “save more than $175 a year” line? Amazon says that’s its own estimate, based on what it calls a typical number of orders. Your number is yours.
There’s a launch deal too. Amazon says new users get $20 off each of their first two orders of $25 or more, if they’re placed within the first 14 days.
The one thing I’d do. The next time you order, look at the total on the checkout screen, not the “free delivery” line, and jot down two numbers: what the food cost and what you paid. That gap is the real price of having it brought to you. Some nights it’s worth every penny. It’s just nice to know the number.
Anyway, I wanted to make sure you heard about it before your next takeout night.
When your home gets takeout, do you have it delivered or go pick it up yourself? Share it in the comments so we can all learn from it. I read every comment.
If this was important to you, share it with someone you care about.
Free is a nice word, and I’m glad when it’s real. Knowing what you’re actually paying is what lets you enjoy the nights you do order, without the little sting when the bill shows up later.
— Steve
Coming later today, a new podcast episode. A scam call landed on my phone this week, a calm voice saying my student loan was in default and my bank account would be frozen unless I pressed 7. I’ve never had a student loan. So I’m playing you the real call and taking it apart, line by line, so you can spot the next one. It’s on the Your Money Actually podcast: on Substack (subscribing there sends you no extra emails), Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube. If you missed the first episode, on why you can quit a streaming service and come back, it’s here.
A longer video from me: Why I’m Afraid of Getting Monetized on YouTube. About 20 years ago my website made $28,000 a month from Google ads in its biggest months, and I didn’t control any of it. Why that still scares me, and the one question I’d ask about any check you depend on.
SEE A SCAM? SAY SOMETHING. If one has landed on you or someone you love, tell me at tips@getoutofdebt.org. The ones that can warn other people may show up here. Leave out account numbers and passwords.
If this was important to you, share it with someone you care about. It’s free at yourmoneyactually.com, and I don’t sell the list. The places I actually use for my own money, and what I get out of telling you, are on one page where they’ll always be.
This is what I’m telling friends like you over coffee. But remember, you do you.