Savings being a student!

poormaria

Hello

Does anyone know if there is a list or thread somewhere detailing all the savings you can make as a student?
Its not really the 'spend to save' ones I am interested in, more the ones like not paying council tax etc! Or the freebies
I love the 10% student discounts but really trying not to spend at the mo

brendon

• Free railcard from Santander.
• Connect your Oyster to your railcard (if in London)
• 9 month contracts for broadband (Virgin Media, etc -- other providers could be cheaper with a 12 month contract, but probably not wise to go for the cheapest).
• Use MySupermarket, type in what product you want and click "Sort by Price per Unit". Compare with any supermarket that's close by (including ALDI). Useful for things that won't be reduced (vegetables, booze, household items).
• Don't be fooled by "% student savings". A 10% discount on a £20 t-shirt is sure a saving of £2, but you could probably buy it from another store at £10.

pandora205

Discovered a useful website recently called Save the Student with masses of advice, including tax refund forms etc.
http://www.savethestudent.org/

NervousHomeowner

http://www.studentbeans.com/ Is a good website for getting free things or discounts! They do often have some rubbish discounts but I ended up getting a £20 Topshop voucher last year in a 'deal' that I signed up for through them. Pretty useful!

Another suggestion is to look out for 'student days' at shops. Sometimes they have days where there is a bigger discount for students (e.g. 25% off instead of 10%) or sometimes they have lock-ins late at night which are only open to students and you get a pick of highly discounted items, plus refreshments.

I know a while ago I received a discount on my TV license but I dunno if that's an actual 'thing' or if the person I was talking to was just very kind but it's worth a shot if you're planning on getting a TV license when you're at uni!

If you're going to be using public transport regularly, look into what deals the bus companies do. I get a student travel card which costs me £233 per term but covers me for travel throughout the entirety of the West Midlands on bus, trains and trams. I know other companies also do discounted bus passes for students! And again, student rail card is always useful if you're likely to use the train (You can get a free 4 year rail card if you sign up for the Santander Student Account).

10% discounts also don't just happen at clothes shop - Paperchase also do a 10% discount for students and they do all sorts of 'back to school' supplies. I dunno if you're anything like me but I love Paperchase so I therefore love their discount

sarahlouisexo

Get an NUS card - saves you money on buses and the NUS website tells you all the other things you can save on with it!

brendon

sarahlouisexo wrote: »

Get an NUS card - saves you money on buses and the NUS website tells you all the other things you can save on with it!

Quite often your free student card will do in place of a NUS card. My university isn't part of NUS, and I have had no problems with using my student card for student promotions.

The_Jakal

sarahlouisexo wrote: »

Get an NUS card - saves you money on buses and the NUS website tells you all the other things you can save on with it!

Amazingly the actual NUS website doesn't tell you where you can get discounts with your standard card.

They only show you where you can get NUS Extra discounts... seems a bit odd to me!

There is a standard NUS discount directory here http://www.savethestudent.org/student-discounts

It's a good idea not to get confused between a discount and a deal too! They are different things and sometimes you can even use your student discount on top of a deal!

Cycrow

when i was at uni, the student union area was a good place to save money. They often handed out freebies, and vouchers for free things.

Especially the first few weeks of term

sarahlouisexo

brendon wrote: »

Quite often your free student card will do in place of a NUS card. My university isn't part of NUS, and I have had no problems with using my student card for student promotions.

This only works if your student card has dates of attendance on it - any student cards without dates of attendance don't tend to be useable for discounts etc.

Also not sure where in the country youre posting from, but Arriva buses which operate in a few places only give you the student fare if you have an NUS card.

MiniDF

sarahlouisexo wrote: »

This only works if your student card has dates of attendance on it - any student cards without dates of attendance don't tend to be useable for discounts etc.

Also not sure where in the country youre posting from, but Arriva buses which operate in a few places only give you the student fare if you have an NUS card.

In Liverpool they let me get a student bus pass without an NUS card and any friends who visited me got student fare with just their normal student card.

JohnStuart_2

Pretty helpful. Thank you @brendon