You Can Now Score a $15 Amazon Credit by Stocking Up on Household Essentials

Although it's fairly easy to score your share of deals when shopping on Amazon, snagging a credit to use anywhere on the site isn't always so simple. Sure, the online retail giant gives out credits toward digital content for being more flexible with your shipping and delivery dates. But those credits are generally limited to digital content alone. 

Now, Amazon is giving away $15 credits to shoppers who load up on certain P&G products between now and the end of the year. Since you have plenty of time to capitalize on this promotion, it's worth shopping strategically when you need to replenish your household essentials.

Get that free Amazon money while you can

A $15 credit on Amazon is, for many people, the same thing as free cash. That's because you can buy almost anything you need on Amazon, from socks to batteries to toys for your kids.

Right now, the online retail giant is running a promotion where $60 worth of P&G products will leave you with $15 to spend as you wish on the site. The list of eligible items includes a lot of household essentials, like Bounty paper towels and Tide laundry detergent. It also includes many personal care items, like Pampers diapers and Gillette shaving cream. You can consult this list to see which specific items are eligible for the promotion. 

Once you add enough eligible items to your Amazon cart and check out, the promotion will be applied automatically. And, you have until Dec. 31 to use your promotional credit.

However, you should know that you can only enjoy this promotion once between now and late December. In other words, let's say you buy $60 worth of eligible P&G products three times between now and the end of the year. Unfortunately, you'll only snag one $15 credit in the process. 

A deal worth pursuing

Sometimes, consumers are tempted to spend extra money just to snag cash back. In fact, it's somewhat common for people to charge needless expenses on a credit card in order to capitalize on a sign-up bonus, and that often does not make financial sense. 

Forcing yourself to spend an additional $500 to meet a sign-up bonus threshold leaves you out money, not up money, if that bonus amounts to a $250 payday. (Just do the math -- you're down $250 all in).

But this Amazon promotion actually does make sense if you use the products that are eligible for it. Not only are they everyday products, but many of them don't come with an expiration date. Buying extra paper towels, for example, is a pretty low-risk proposition because you're apt to need them eventually, and they certainly won't go bad on you anytime soon.

If you're unable to capitalize on this particular Amazon promotion (say, you just don't use the products in question), it does pay to be on the lookout for future deals along these lines. Chances are, another promotion will become available that might make more sense for you to go after.