Best Cheap Subscription Boxes

Sock Panda was launched in 2011 with a vision that socks can be fun, amazingly colorful, and fashionable. Once you’ve checked their site out, you’ll see exactly what we’re talking about.   

Their socks are designed with the latest fashion trends in mind, allowing you to look sharp whether you’re at work, casually hanging out with your friends or out at night. 

On top of colorful designs, Panda socks are made of high-quality materials, usually 85% Peruvian cotton. They also feature more subtle varieties if you find their wacky designs a bit too much. Each month, you’ll receive socks with different patterns. 

Note that you don’t get to choose the socks you get every month. According to Sock Panda, the surprise factor is a part of the deal. However, if you don’t like what you got, you can always contact them and ask for a replacement.  

Sock Panda offers the following types of socks: 

• Men’s socks – Made to fit US shoe size 8-12;
• Women’s socks – Made to fit US women’s shoe size 5-10;
• Tween Socks – For age 9-11, they’ll recommend sock size 6-8; for extraordinarily tall tweens with large feet, they recommend going with the adult sizes;
• Panda Pals – These socks will fit children between the age of 3 and 8. Medium is for ages 6 to 8 and small for ages 3 to 5.

You are billed immediately after sign up and can expect your crazy socks within 3-5 days. Sock Panda uses USPS First Class for domestic and international shipments. Note that international orders usually require an additional 7-10 days to arrive. Sock Panda uses Stripe.com for subscription billing management. If you have any additional questions, you can always contact them via official email. 

Book Of The Month Club is a veteran amongst similar enterprises, being founded in 1926. They hold an extraordinary passion for books and look to spread the reading culture as far as possible.  

Their monthly box includes one title of your choice with the possibility of adding two more for 9.99$ each. They offer a broad spectrum of fiction and non-fiction titles, as they’re regularly approached by all the major publishers in the US. Note that you can’t order duplicates of the same title. You’ll receive hardcover books every month, with some titles also being available in the e-book format. 

Unfortunately, their service is only available to US citizens and US soldiers living overseas with FPO/APO addresses.  

Book Of The Month accepts MasterCard, Visa, American Express, and Discover. You’re charged automatically for each month. If you fail to choose your titles for a specific month, the charged fees will be transferred to the next month. You have until the 6th of each month to choose the said titles.   

Generally, your box will arrive within 5-7 work days while shipments to California, Alaska, and Hawaii may take up to 15 days. Every shipment comes with a confirmation and a tracking number.  

You can cancel the service anytime you want by simply calling their phone number or sending them an email.  

Book Of The Month membership can also be purchased as a gift through the Gift Purchase Page on their site. If the gift recipient is already a member, he/she can simply redeem the code and the value will be added to their personal account.   

GlobeIn is definitely a unique enterprise connecting artisans from distant corners of the world with buyers who appreciate their art. Their Artisan Subscription Box is what caught our attention, but we later learned that they also have an online shop. What is particularly amazing is just how dedicated they are to helping artisans all around the globe. So, if homemade, crafty, artsy, avant-garde subscription boxes are your thing, you’ll definitely love GlobeIn.  

GlobeIn Artisan Boxes cost 40$ for one month, 114$ for 3 months, and 210$ for 6 months. You can also become a member of the GlobeIn Club and receive even more items, but that option doesn’t concern us in this mini review. In case you want to buy just one box, you can purchase it in their online shop for 50$ each.  

The boxes contain unique but also practical items. GlobeIn tends to give a theme to each monthly box, so we have Laundry Box, Bathe Box, Cozy Box, and others. The specific items can range from food–related tools to home décor and other lifestyle products. Some of the best-selling products so far include a hand-painted Tunisian mug, a Turkish Pestemal Bath Towel, and so on.  

Boxes are usually sent between the 18th and 21st of each month. Shipping goes through FedEx and/or UPS and USPS for domestic shipments. International shipping depends on the country. 

The shipping costs go as follows: 

• US Standard – 5$ 
• US FedEx 3-day – 20$ 
• US FedEx 2-day – 30$ 
• US FedEx next day – 40$ 
• International shipping – 15-25$ 

Artisan Box + Club subscribers receive free shipping within the US. Shipping to Canada costs 12$ and 15$ for any other country.

Vellabox is a subscription box service offering artisan candles on a monthly basis. They claim that your senses will awaken after you’ve received your first Vellabox, offering ultimate comfort and bliss.  

Apart from candles, they also provide you with all the complementary products. Everything is made of lead-free, non-toxic materials, the candles are hand-poured, and the components come from some of the best manufacturers in the country.  

The sign-up process is rather simple; once you subscribe, you’ll start receiving your health-conscious candles each month right at your doorstep.  

The content of the box depends on your subscription plan: 

• The Standard box (Lucerna) includes one 4 oz candle each month, which translates to around 25 hours of burn time. The price is 10$.
• The Aficionado box (Ignis) entails one 8 oz candle, which provides around 50 hours of burn time. The price is 20$.
• The Luxe box brings you two candles with an approximate weight of 12 oz and 75 hours of burn time. The price of 30$ also includes free shipping.

Every candle is handpicked by a professional curator and Vellabox guarantees clean burning and a complete absence of toxic materials. Every box will also contain a special gift.  

Orders must be received by the 5th of the month unless you’re a new customer, in which case you can get that month’s box by placing an order by the 20th of the month. After your initial billing, you’ll be billed every 1st of the month for the new box of candles. 

Vellabox is currently available only to US citizens. They feature a gift program and an online shop where you can buy candles without a subscription. Their service is also very easy to cancel and you can do it anytime on their site. Note that you cannot purchase an individual Vellabox, though. The service also doesn’t contain any hidden fees whatsoever. 

The idea behind RawSpiceBar was to combine fresh flavors with quality ingredients and allow home chefs to prepare global dishes with ease. The company is responsible for sourcing, roasting, grinding, and blending, which is why they are able to offer more than fair prices for exotic spices none of us has probably even heard of. With RawSpiceBar, you can forget about generic over-priced and pre-ground spices that have lost their flavor long before hitting the shelves. 

The registration process is quite simple, you’ll just have to provide your email, a password of choice, and an address to which you’d like your spices to be delivered. You can always contact their user support with any additional questions you might have. 

After you sign up, you’ll receive your first spice box within the next 10 business days. After that, you’ll receive kits regularly on the 10th of every month. You are billed on the 1st of every month, but annual subscriptions are billed all at once. You can choose your spice kit on the official shop page and change it once every three months. Every box includes a free giveaway as well. You can cancel the service anytime you want on your personal account.

Every box is shipped via USPS First Class, but the company doesn’t provide shipment tracking.

All of the spices are ground just a couple of days before shipping, so they’ll be around 7-10 days past ground date once they arrive at your address. The average weight of the spices sent is between 1 and 15 oz. 

RawSpiceBar doesn’t include any fillers into their spice pouches, such as MSG, yeast, rice, salt, sugar, flour or animal products. This also makes the vast majority of products vegan-friendly. 

Walmart Beauty Box was launched in 2014 to provide their customers with exclusive access to the newest health and beauty products. Since that time, they’ve delivered more than 2 million samples to their subscribers, including brands like Aveeno, Neutrogena, Schwarzkopf, Nivea, Garnier, Dove, Biore, CoverGirl, Jergens, and others. The program is entirely managed by BrandShare, one of the world’s most prominent e-commerce product sampling providers. 

Walmart features an impressive list of partners, which enables them to bring you the most useful and hip seasonal essentials. Note that Walmart Beauty Box sends 4 boxes per year, one for every season.  

The procedure starts with the registration process for your first box of hand-selected products that fit your seasonal profile. Once you’ve made your personal account, you’ll receive a new box of goodies every 3 months. Note that you’ll only be charged for the shipping costs, meaning Walmart Beauty Box has a solid 5$ flat rate (20$ for an entire year). After you receive your box of beauty products, you can opt to fill out a survey and share your experience with the providers. 

Your shipment should usually arrive within 5-10 business days and Walmart Beauty Box also provides a tracking option. At the moment, they only ship within the United States. Note that the company doesn’t offer refunds, but you may contact their user support in case your box went missing or has arrived with a damaged product(s). Gift subscriptions are also available, but only for a full prepaid year. Once you purchase the gift subscription, the recipient(s) will get an email prompting them to create an account and redeem their code.    

Target doesn’t do subscriptions. They offer beauty boxes from time to time and they always go very fast. They do provide a preview before the box goes live, so you can have some insight into the content and the timeline. Note that Target doesn’t specify product sizes in these previews, so it’s a bit of a gamble on that front. However, past Target boxes always contained at least one full-size product.  

Target Box often includes a combo of popular brands owned by P&G, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, and some smaller brands like Marlow, Acure, Shea Moisture, You Are Amazing, and others. Target Beauty Boxes have definitely increased in diversity over the last couple of years. The boxes don’t actually feature themes anymore and we can also see a lot of Korean products included as well. Sometimes, Target also offers boxes for men, as opposed to usually female-centric ones.  

If you want to get your hands on one of these, you’ll have to act pretty quickly since they tend to just disappear the moment they go live. As we already said, you can’t subscribe to Target Beauty Boxes, so you have to be prepared in advance.  

The price is not consistent, alternating between 5$ and 7$. The boxes always contain a 3$ coupon you can use for your next 15$ in-store purchase. The coupon has no restrictions, so you can use it for whatever you want.  

The site contains the exact list of shipping locations, but Target doesn’t ship to PO Boxes. You can return faulty items within 90 days of the original shipping date and you have to return them to any Target store.   

Graze was launched by seven friends who grew tired of boring old snacks like chips and candy. The company was “founded” in a spare room, focusing on “showing the tasty side of health.” Today, they feature more than 100 delicious snacks and a proprietary algorithm named Darvin, which allows them to customize every box for every individual subscriber. 

Ordering is very simple, you just have to pick a box type and 8 snacks will arrive at your doorstep every month. You’ll have to provide your address and payment details as well. At the moment, Graze only ships to US addresses, including P.O. Boxes. They do not ship to FPOs, APOs, and US Territory addresses. 

Graze currently features around 100 tasty snacks, including seeds, nuts, crackers, dried fruits, dips, and natural treats. Note that their portfolio is not recommended for people with allergies since all the food is packed in the same place, thus cross-contamination is very likely to occur.    

The boxes are delivered via USPS and they’re specially designed to fit standard-size mailboxes. You can postpone your due delivery on their official site, which is especially convenient if you are going on a vacation or have some sort of an emergency. Order amendments can only be made before your cut-off date and you won’t be able to postpone a shipment that’s already in preparation.   

Each Graze Discovery Box costs 13.99$ including delivery and you are charged up to a week in advance. You can cancel your subscription online anytime you want, but Graze recommend that you give them a fair notice since they prepare your boxes in advance

Bulu Box is a pioneering effort in making a discovery box focused on nutrition, health, weight loss, and helping you feel your absolute best. Every month will bring a new box with a combo of 4-5 samples from top-quality brands for you to try. Bulu Box also hands out reward points for filling out their sample surveys.

The monthly subscription to Bulu Box costs 10$ and can be canceled anytime you want. Note that the 12-month subscription comes with one month free. You can also pause your subscription in case you’re moving, taking a vacation or have other planned activities away from home. The boxes cannot be exchanged and are not refundable, but you can contact the support team in case you have received a defective product and they’ll do their best to reimburse you in an adequate way.  

The orders are shipped around the 15th of each month, so you’ll have to place your order by the 5th if you want to receive that month’s box. The boxes should arrive within 5-7 business days after the 15th.    

The Bulu Box subscription plans go as follows: 

• 3 months – The price is 10$ and it is billed every month; 
• 6 months – The subscription costs 60$ and one payment is expected every month;
• 12 months – The price is 110$ with the same payment structure.

After your subscription period expires, it will be automatically renewed unless you cancel it beforehand. You’ll receive an auto-renewal email notification before that, so you’ll be left with ample time to decide what to do with your subscription. Bulu subscriptions are also available as a gift. You can order any type of subscription or a gift card and send them to your friends or family. 

Love With Food offers subscription boxes with organic, gluten-free, and all-natural snacks, which they simply call good-for-you snacks. They’ll ship a mystery box to your doorstep every single month. They are also involved in charity work, so they’ll send a portion of their fee to help fight childhood hunger in the United States and all around the world.     

Love With Food offers the following subscription plans: 

• 3-month plan (8.99$ per month) – One-time charge of 26.97$, no bonus points; 
• 6-month plan – Tasting Box – (8.50$ per month) – One-time charge of 51.00$, 600 bonus points; 
• Annual plan – Deluxe Box – (7.99$ per month) – One-time charge of 95. 88$, 1000 bonus points.

Bonus points allow you to purchase additional snacks from the Love With Food online shop. Every 1000 bonus point converts to 10$. You can combine Tasting and Deluxe boxes for even more delicious snacks. Note that the plans cannot be downgraded at this moment. 

The company also offers gluten-free subscription boxes: 

• Monthly Gluten-free Box – 24.99$ per month, 250 bonus points;  
• 3 months – 68.97$ every 3 months, 750 bonus points; 
• 6 months – 131.94 every 3 months, 1500 bonus points; 
• Annual subscription – 239.88 once per year, 2500 bonus points. 

All the snacks offered by Love With Food are handpicked, unique, and meet FDA guidelines. The company guarantees no artificial coloring or flavoring, no trans fats, no hydrogenated oils, and no high-fructose corn syrup, only organic or all-natural, mostly dairy-free products.    

Love With Food ships their boxes to addresses located in the US, US territories, and FPO/APO/DPO addresses. They also ship internationally, making them one of the rare subscription box companies with international shipping. The full list of countries can be found on their site. The shipping costs will vary, depending on your plan and address. The boxes are sent around the 10th of the month and usually arrive between the 15th and 24th. After your order is shipped, you’ll receive a USPS tracking number, so you can follow your box at all times.