How Students Can Save Money: A Guide to Discounts and Smart Spending

Budget management can be hard. Expenses such as rent, books, food and other bills are always a pain. And made extra tricky on a limited income. Any student knows all about that. Especially with rising costs. Despite these challenges, it's entirely possible to live large and even save money using student-specific savings and opportunities.

Why Student Discounts Matter and How to Access Them

Companies and businesses have long appreciated the amount of shopping students do. Top brands, retailers and businesses all tend to offer students money off. Not only shops, but restaurants and transport services have also joined the fray. Accessing these discounts is relatively easy to.

First, you need a student card. This can be an NUS card obtained through your university. If you have a student login and university email, then you can sign up to popular student discount sites such as Unidays, Student Beans and Totum. Each of these lists all the retailers and restaurants offering discounts. Once signed up, you can get regular emails about the latest discounts, download the app and so on.

More Ways to Get Discounts Online

Student discounts can also be obtained via other websites too. There are discount and voucher sites that specialise in collecting and collating all the different offers, vouchers and codes available. Sites like Discoup.com also take the process one step further: all codes and discounts are checked and verified first to ensure they're working. Additionally, it's very easy to find codes and discounts for specific brands as they are listed in brand pages. Typically, there are search and filter functions too, which makes it easy to find very specific offers. Student deals are always listed on these sites, but so are general discounts and coupons as well. As such, the savings potential on one of these sites reaches further than just students, giving everyone a chance to save. Even if you can't find a student discount, use these sites to save.

Examples of Popular Student Discounts

Brands and retailers from a wide array of categories all offer discounts to students. For instance, when it comes to technology, some of the major retailers like Apple, Microsoft and HP all have student savings available. These include discounts on laptops, phones and accessories. Depending on the brand, here's looking at you Microsoft, there are also discounts on software packages like Office 365.

Fashion is a major area where students can save, and save big. ASOS, Dr. Martens, Adidas and more, all have major student discounts. Now, many of these student offers cannot be found directly on their sites. Instead, you will have to go through the Unidays or Student Beans pages to access and activate the student deal.

Students can make massive savings when it comes to food as well. Domino's, Papa Johns and Franco Manca are just a few of the student discount-giving food places. Restaurants often give student discounts for eating in. Delivery services will offer free delivery for those of you staying inside.

Travel can be made cheaper too, by grabbing the 16-25 railcard. Or, there are bus discounts to be had (think Megabus or Flixbus), which offer discounts via Unidays and Student Beans. Entertainment options are also easy to get cheaper. Streaming giant Amazon actually offers its Prime membership with a free trial and huge monthly discounts. Spotify and YouTube Premium are also great places to get solid student deals.

Tips for Maximizing Savings

One thing students often do is fail to actually make use of these saving options. Always ask in any store if there is a student discount. You'd be surprised at how many deals are not advertised. Student discounts can also typically be combined with other seasonal offers, making them more lucrative than you can imagine. Student discounts can also be used abroad with many major European cities and destinations accepting UK student cards to claim these offers. Many people miss out on these offers simply because they don't know about them. Always ask if there are offers and keep your card on you.