Category: Product Reviews

My Guide to the 2024 Amazon Prime Day: Best Deals and Discounts

Amazon Prime Day is currently running from July 16 – 17. Each year I find the sale a bit overwhelming, so I thought I would revisit my cheat sheet for how to find the best deals and discounts. Whether you’re a seasoned Prime Day shopper or new to the frenzy, I’m hoping this post can help you navigate the sale.

What is Amazon Prime Day?

The Amazon Prime Day sale is an annual event exclusively for Amazon Prime members, where they offer special discounts on a wide range of products. Think of it like a Black Friday sale, but online and in July.

Much like Black Friday, you don’t want to just wander aimlessly around the sale. While you won’t get trampled, there are literally thousands of items available and it can be easy to feel lost.

How I Prepare for Amazon Prime Day

I already have an Amazon Prime account, but if you don’t you can sign up for a 30-day free trail to check it out.

I review my Wishlist – I have a number of items I typically order and re-order from Amazon, so I can either pull them up through my designated wish list, or my ‘recent orders’ section so I can track price drops during the sale. For example, I always order my Vitamin C serum and Starbucks Nespresso pods from Amazon. You’d better believe I always keep an eye on when they drop in price so I can restock! In previous years, I’ve also had a list of larger items that I’d monitor for price drops.

To find the deals that would actually be helpful, I went through my purchases to see if any of them were included in the Prime Day sales.

However, before I get into the deals, I wanted to say THANK YOU in advance if you choose to click through any of my links for this year’s Prime Day sale. While commission links cost you nothing, they do help me earn a (very small) amount which helps pay for the annual hosting feels that keep Pocketful of Joules online.

Here are my favorites currently on sale for Prime Day:

Electronics

Under Desk Treadmill Walking Pad (blog post coming soon). Prime Day Deal Price: $125.89. Find it here: https://amzn.to/4cXdeGJ

Dreo Tower Fan. Prime Day Deal Price: $76.49. Find it here: https://amzn.to/3Q9JDlp

Flameless Candles with Remote. Prime Day Deal Price: $20.38. Find it here: https://amzn.to/43kZksL

Home Organization + Travel

Travel Backpack with Packing Cubes. Prime Day Deal Price: $33.99. Find it here: https://amzn.to/43geCz3

HomeHacks Storage 3-Pack Organizer Bags. Prime Day Deal Price: $11.97. Find it here: https://amzn.to/3pGfEXj

Groceries + Kitchen

Starbucks Nespresso pods. Prime Day Deal Price: $24.84. Find it here: https://amzn.to/3XVHA8j

Vega Protein, Coconut Almond. Prime Day Deal Price: $23.87. Find it here: https://amzn.to/3zDe1hz

Beauty and Personal Care

Vitamin C Face Serum. Prime Day Deal Price: $7.98. Find it here: https://amzn.to/3JSzxkE

COSRX Snail Mucen Essence. Prime Day Deal Price: $9.58. Find it here: https://amzn.to/4cAR5ON

I’ve written about each of these items (sometimes more than once) over the years, but if you have any specific questions feel free to post them below in the comments. As for me, I used the sale as an opportunity to restock my Nespresso pods, protein, and both face serums.

Books

OH, I just saw that a bunch of books are on sale too! So if you’re looking to stock up your TBR pile, you can check out my 2024 Book List which has mini reviews and Amazon links to all the books I’ve read so far this year.

Disclaimer: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. This means that clicking on a link may help me earn a small commission at no cost to you.

Farmhouse Fresh: Trying ALL the Masks

Back in April, I was placing a re-order for my favorite face wash and decided to take advantage of some of the Farmhouse Fresh samplers. You can read all about it here: Farmhouse Fresh: Trying ALL the Samples. Well, when I made my order I received a special promo code for some more items… which snowballed into me ordering both the Fast Fix Sampler and the Quick Recovery Sampler… giving me SIX new masks to try out.

Here are my thoughts on each of the masks, in case you were looking for a new one (or two) to try:

Fast Fix – Face Mask Sampler, $29 (find it here). This set contains three of their “favorite” face masks aimed to tighten, calm and bring radiance back to your skin: Mighty Tighty, Sundae Best, and Pajama Paste.

Mighty Tighty

According to Farmhouse Fresh: Feel tight, smooth and radiant with this antioxidant-rich blend of turmeric, fresh bananas, and New York-grown echinacea extract full of active compounds that nourish skin. Recommended skin type: dull, aging and uneven skin tone. Not recommended for sensitive skin.

My Thoughts: This one was lightly scented, very tingly and super cooling too. It really tightened on my skin as I let it dry. My skin did flush afterwards, but went back to normal within a half-hour or so.

Sundae Best

According to Farmhouse Fresh: a natural, blended active face mask with soothing wholesome ingredients like cocoa, coconut milk and honey in addition to powerhouse enzymes that boost your natural defenses against the look of wrinkles and sagging – including CoQ10, Live Carrot Fruit Cells and Ginseng Extract. This mask leaves your face feeling tight, smooth, and radiant! Great for dry, uneven and aging skin. Not recommended for sensitive or rosacea-prone skin.

My Thoughts: Oh my gosh, this one smells like hot fudge and I totally wanted to eat it. It made my skin tight before I washed it off, but I didn’t feel any tingle or have any flushing.

Pajama Paste

According to Farmhouse Fresh: a natural, fresh-blended pot of active yogurt, cooling bentonite clay, wild honey and oats that instantly refines the look of skin. Utterly scrumptious smell aside, this magic mask deep cleanses so pores look like they go poof! Great for rosacea-prone and aging skin. Not recommended for sensitive skin.

My Thoughts: This one smelled a little bit like cinnamon to me. It goes on like a super thick and luxurious lotion and there is lots of tingle and tightness while it dries.

Quick Recovery – Face Mask Sampler, $29 (find it here). This set contains three of their “mega radiance boosters” for the ultimate face-rejuvenation: Guac Star Soothing Avocado Hydration Mask, Pudding Apeel Tapioca + Rice Active Fruit Glycolic Mask and Splendid Dirt Nutrient Mud Mask.

Guac Star

According to Farmhouse Fresh: This revitalizing mask is packed with fresh avocado butter, extract and oil from California-grown non-GMO creamy avocados to deliver key fatty acids to support the outermost layer of skin that helps protect us from environmental stresses.

My Thoughts: This smells really good and not like guacamole at all. It feels very thick and goes on smooth for a super moisturizing feel.

Pudding Apeel

According to Farmhouse Fresh: Glycolic and fruit extract Alpha Hydroxy Acids combine with hydrating honey and coconut milk to infuse skin with moisture as you renew. Tapioca provides a silky feel to skin. Added green tea and honeysuckle extracts help soothe irritations. The exfoliation process also aids in the control of acne and helps improve the look of sun damaged and aging skin.

My Thoughts: This has a very, very faint smell and a teensy bit of grit when you rub it on. I left it on for 15 minutes before washing it off and my face did feel exfoliated without any irritation.

Splendid Dirt

 According to Farmhouse Fresh: a natural, nutrient-rich pot of fresh organic pumpkin puree full of enzymes, Illite and Bentonite clays, and active yogurt cultures that instantly boosts overall radiance by deep cleansing pores, temporarily shrinking their look, and improving the look of uneven skin tones.

My Thoughts: This one smells like possibly cinnamon or maybe pumpkin pie spice? I like it a lot! When it’s on my face it feels cooling with a little tingle. It made my skin super tight before I washed it off.

I actually really enjoyed both of the mask samplers and at 1-ounce each, they actually contain quite a bit of product. According to their website, a full size 4-ounce jar of mask contains 20-25 applications, which means a 1-ounce jar would contain 5-6 applications. I’ve used most of the samples two times so far and it seems like there are at least 4 or more applications left.

If I had to pick a favorite sampler set to recommend, I’d go with the Quick Recovery set. I really liked the Pudding Apeel gentle exfoliation and using that followed by the Guac Star made my face feel very clean, bright and glowy. I also really love the scent of Splendid Dirt and it had just the right amount of cooling and tingle.

These samplers would make a fantastic gift for the skincare lover in your life (or yourself, obviously) and honestly a pretty cute stocking stuffer too. I love how Farmhouse Fresh has so many sample options so that you can try a bunch of their products with less commitment.

Disclaimer: No referral links and not sponsored.

Another Slim Kid Shorts Hack

I’ve talked about it before, but Jack is one of those tall slim kids where it’s hard to get pants to fit in the waist AND the length. I wrote a post back in November on how I switch out the drawstring in his pants with elastic (find it here) and I did the same thing for his shorts this summer. Well, when we went down to Florida, I realized I was going to need to do something with his swim trunks and came up with a new EVEN EASIER way to do it.

Drawstring toggles!

If you’ve ever done that thing where you knot your kid’s swim trunks tight so that they won’t fall down and then have to deal with the freakout when they can’t get their pants down to go to the bathroom and the wet string is impossible to undo… you need these.

I purchased a 30 pack of assorted colors on Amazon for $9 and let Jack pick which color he wanted on each pair of this year’s swim trunks.

They also work out great for more *fancy* shorts. I had to purchase a pair of chino-type shorts for Jack (even though he HATES all non-exercise shorts right now) for some upcoming events and the drawstring toggle will work perfect for keeping them up around his waist without the constant tying/untying issues.

Fun fact: they are also great on shoes, for when you want the shoestrings to stay tight without retying them!

Also, this $9 pack will basically last us forever, since I can just steal them back off a pair of shorts when he outgrows them.

Disclaimer: This post contains an Amazon affiliate link. This means that clicking on a link may help me earn a small commission at no cost to you.