I decided to try and compile a list of tricks I learnt as a student to get the best deals, click on the underlined words to follow a link to the named brand's website for the deal.
Student deals
Firstly if you are a UK student the NUS card is definitely worth buying it costs £12 for each academic year but the savings you get are immense. It gets you discounts of on everything from McDonalds to Topshop to club entry and the savings easily justify the cost.
If you are an NUS holder, think before you buy because large websites such as asos.com often sell the same products online and offer a 10-20% student discount that the physical stores don't. There is also no need to worry about shipping costs as all standard deliveries are free along with returns. One of my greatest bargains that come under this particular category is a pair of heels that I wanted from River Island. They were in the London store for £60 with no student discount offered. After checking online I realised ASOS were holding a "20% off full priced items for students" day and I was able to get them for only £48 which is £12 more off than I would otherwise have managed!
When buying books for uni, have a look on sites such as Ebay to see if there are any second hand course books you can buy cheaply. I managed to get a copy of a book called "The Dictionary of Human Geography" for £7 including delivery when the retail price would have been £80! I did buy the 4th instead of the 5th edition but apart from the cover and a few odd notes it was exactly the same as the new edition.... except for a few coffee stains so i pretty much saved myself £73! Google shopping is a great way to source these deals just type in the name of the book you require, hit search and change the sort by option to low to high to find the best deal.
General deals
Vouchercloud is an amazing way to quickly find deals and has a handy app that works on most smartphones. It is particularly good for 2for1 meals and 50% off codes at restaurants such as Ask, Bella Italia, Handmade Burger co., Me Love Sushi and Pizza Express.
Signing up for a free a Bitecard can be great for commuters as it gets you 20% off food and drink at most of the shops in UK railway stations. This has been great as I live in london and travel from Kings Cross to university in Leicester frequently and I can justify an extra snack on the train.
Quidco is a free service that gives you get cashback on your purchases from certain stores. The money takes forever to arrive but you do get 4% or so cashback on quite alot of things so it would eventually rack up. So far I have a whole £6 in my account after about a year and i probably remembered to declare five or so things. This one probably takes some real dedication to get any significant money back.
Loyalty cards can be great if you sign up to ones such as The Body Shop, Boots, Tesco, Superdrug and Matalan to name a few. However, you will need a purse to fit all these cards in and remember to take them with you to the store. I keep my Superdrug card in my night out bag because it doubles as a super slim mirror, but as I don't live near a Superdrug I doubt Iwill ever use that card for its intended purpose.
If you don't fancy cooking for a while you can sign up to a free 1 month trial of Tastecard which offers cardholders great deals on loads of restaurants around the UK. However, I remain unconvinced by this card because the vast majority of these deals can also be found elsewhere online on sites such as vouchercloud. The benefits of this card will most likely be found on local restaurants rather than major chains but in my opinion as it costs £79.99 I don't think for me it would be worth the price.
Brandalley is one of those 50/50 sites, I was able to find a Moschino handbag for £40 that had been reduced down from £180 and it arrived in perfect condition and i use it all the time. This price drop is normally because they buy them in bulk or they are the previous seasons stock. You must be willing to wait up to 21 days to receive your item as they explain in a long text on their site and pay a £5 delivery charge. Unfortunately, they messed up my second order so i am not sure how impressed i am with them although they did give me a £10 voucher to apologise and with this i got myself some effectively free shoes that did arrive quickly so it was no real loss but i wouldn't buy anything that i really needed urgently from them. Another thing to be wary of when using Brandalley is how they mix in semi-designer brands with the designer ones. If you haven't heard of the brand, it is probably because it is pretty unknown and it might be designed by a designer somewhere in the world but it will definitely not be of the same quality no matter what ridiculous RRP they have stuck on it.
Look online on sites such as Groupon or Wowcher for great days out/experiences/beauty treatments as they often have some great offers up for grabs! Read the offer through carefully before purchase though to make sure you really know what you are getting and check the expiry date of the experience fits in with your schedule as well.
Another quick tip is if you are going to buy an expensive perfume or beauty product it may be well worth searching around for the best deal. Often this can be from free gifts with your purchase in store to finding the product in a department store on offer. Use google shopping to find the best price but don't buy off any unrecognised sites that are not secure. A secure site will have a padlock symbol in the browser bar or will use a checkout system that has a security certificates. You can check these certificates for authenticity on the creditors website. If you can't find any offers, see if you know anyone who will be travelling through an airport anytime soon who will be able to buy it for you tax free.
Feel free to add comments on your experiences with these deals and suggest other ones you have found in the comment box below. I hope you find this list useful, these little things have saved me loads in the past few years!!
Update: Someone who read this post sent me this link to access the taste card for the discounted £49.95! Click here for that offer!
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