Sometime before January 15th, I have to make a decision – whether or not to renew my subscription to Amazon Prime.

For those not familiar, Amazon Prime is a membership program that, to quote the web site, “gives you and your family unlimited fast shipping, such as FREE Two-Day shipping and One-day shipping for $3.99 per item on all eligible purchases for an annual membership fee of $79.”

This year, I did all of my shopping online, and when I wasn’t on Etsy.com or ToysRus.com, I was shopping through Amazon, working my Prime membership.

With Prime in mind, I found that my online shopping habits changed in an effort to maximize my savings.

• When shopping on Amazon.com, I made sure the “Prime eligible” box was selected so I was only presented with results without shipping costs.
• Before making a purchase elsewhere, I would check to see if the price was better on Amazon, or if I would end up spending more when delivery charges were included. (I did on two occasions find better prices or speedier delivery when going through non-Amazon sites).
• I made smaller batches of purchases more frequently – 12 batches this month – rather than trying to get all the shopping done at once to keep my shipping costs done.

Looking back, Amazon Prime is probably the reason I did most of my shopping online!

That being said, I’m not sure that free shipping is enough of a reason to renew. But as I’ve shopped online, I have noticed the introduction of new benefits to Amazon Prime members, including:

• Share Prime benefits with up to four members of my household
• Borrow books from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library  at no charge
• Stream movies and TV to our mobile devices, Logitech Revue and LG Smart TV Upgrader  with Amazon Instant Video

Given that we are considering getting rid of cable television (more on that later) and that we own a couple of Kindles, $6.60 per month doesn’t sound unreasonable.

So it looks like we’re renewing Amazon Prime. How about you?