Where You Can Get The Best Discounts If You're A Student

Student discounts are so much more important than they might initially seem. Cutting the cost of everyday items down to size is something that students are frequently looking to bring into their everyday lifestyle. From meal plans and on-campus living that can diminish transportation costs and bundle eating requirements for greater value to happy hours and drink specials when getting out for social events, saving money is part of a student's daily grind. Many high schoolers can take advantage of student rates for services in their local area, but student discounts really come into their own when speaking about the college experience. Away at college, you'll need to budget on your own and care for many of your individual needs without the same support system found in your younger years. Fortunately, a huge volume of student discounts exist across virtually all spending categories you might find yourself engaging with.

From technology brands to meal prep solutions and entertainment, just about everything you spend money on can benefit from the inclusion of a student discount. Some discounts are felt a small price reductions, keeping a few extra bucks in your pocket. Others bring massive rate cuts into the mix, and can sometimes even deliver free or extremely cheap services that bring about major improvements to your lifestyle. These are some of the best student discounts you'll find across the market to improve your time away at school.

Amazon Prime is one of the first discount options that students will want to look into. It's easy to sign up for a student rate, and when you do you'll get 6 months of Prime membership service for free. After this, the monthly subscription cost is cut in half, allowing you to continue taking advantage of all of Amazon's critical Prime features at a major price reduction.

Amazon Prime is a service that has grown into a wide-reaching consumer solution. As of this year, over 180 million U.S.-based subscribers have signed up for this enhanced experience on the platform. Started as a means of reducing shipping costs, Prime has grown into a music streaming service, video playback option, and an integrated storage solution for data of all sorts. Amazon has even looked into expanding into telehealth solutions for Prime members. The value of a student Prime account is substantial. Getting it for half price will allow you to shop for all of the educational essentials you require with greater ease while also taking advantage of its entertainment inclusions. Amazon is a bookstore at heart, even if it has grown into something much larger in its roughly three decades of existence. You'll still find great deals on used books, in particular, to support your educational journey, and that's to say nothing of the virtually endless digital shelves that the marketplace provides beyond reading materials.

Microsoft Office covers a suite of programs that every student will want to install on their computer. College students across the world utilize these tools to communicate with classmates and teachers, write papers, and dissect data and information for projects. Outlook can be instrumental in helping maintain productivity throughout your educational journey, and Microsoft Word is obviously one of the most important things you'll install on your computer, perhaps throughout your entire life.

Microsoft offers a range of Office packages, including discounted student options. You might buy the software outright, utilizing Microsoft student rates in the process, or opt for a subscription service. Either way, student rates are a major help in keeping costs low and getting you these software solutions you require. One option that can be a valuable asset for students looking to cut down on their expenses is the online Microsoft 365 personal package. Microsoft offers it for $2.99 per month to students.

The software you use and the books you study from are only a small portion of the expenses you have while in school. Naturally, these are important features in your educational journey, but a number of other expense areas also play an outsized role in your experience. One that can't be ignored is the clothing you wear. From your attire in the classroom to the threads you wear out with friends in the evening, clothing is a big part of your experience as a human in society. Away at college, this can play a major role in your transformation into the person you are trying to become. Your style says a lot about you, and that makes clothing an important point of expression as you venture off on your own for the first time.

Fortunately for students, there are a great many options available when it comes to discounted retailers. Clothing options with solid student discounts exist across most prominent brands. Some of the biggest names include Nike, with a 10% discount for students, up to 25% off at American Eagle, and up to 15% price reductions at both Adidas and Aeropostale. No matter what your style looks like, getting some of the key staple features of your wardrobe for discounted rates can make a huge difference in your budget.

Books and clothing aren't the only expenses to consider as you build a collegiate budget. The entertainment resources that form a part of your lifestyle while in school are also essential to good mental health, a balanced daily and weekly workload, and more. There's no getting around the reality that socialization is a key feature in any college experience. You won't go away to school simply to sit in class and learn. Growing as a solo individual figuring things out on your own is also a key part of this equation. Going out with friends to see movies, exploring romantic relationships, and new friendships in class and beyond, and managing all of these social commitments alongside study requirements, projects, and papers enriches your life in countless ways.

Student discounts at the cinema are widely available. Regal and AMC theaters are two of the biggest names in the American movie theater conversation. Both can be found in cities and suburban communities across the United States. Both movie theaters operate discounted student prices, however it should be noted that every individual theater will likely roll out these benefits to students in their own unique ways. Checking with your local theater is your best bet. You may find that tickets are reduced by a flat rate or that the theater offers steep discounts on a certain day of the week or within timing windows. However your local theater handles its student discounts, these offers can be a great way to catch the movies you are excited about with friends at a reduced price.

Headspace is a valuable mental health resource that can provide beneficial wellness support to students who may be struggling with the transition into college life. Headspace can help connect users with therapy resources, but it's also an instrumental tool for meditation, sleep improvement, and for those chasing general mindfulness and tranquility in their life. Taking time to step away from the business that is college life and exploring your own mental wellbeing is critically important. Unfortunately, many students don't know where to turn when it comes to these kinds of practices.

Headspace provides an 85% discount on its student plan. This comes out to less than 10 bucks for the year. The result is a robust mental health resource that students can take advantage of for literally cents on the dollar. Trying out the program is a great way to explore meditation and other mental wellbeing tools that can help ground your studies and give you the clarity you need to excel in everything you do.

News is a critical resource for those hungry to learn. Understanding what's going on in the world around you can help frame the things you're learning about in the classroom. Whether you're engaged in scientific research, data analysis, or programming or studying a humanities field, knowing what is happening in the world outside of your educational environment is a big deal. The most timely news resources out there are frequently hidden behind a paywall, and so you'll need to subscribe to major news outlets in order to get up to the minute coverage across most thematic areas.

However, this doesn't mean that you need to pay full price to learn about what's going on in the world or your community. Essentially every major news outlet that you might consider reading can be found with student discount plans in place. The New York Times, The Economist, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg all provide student rates for their news service plans, and the list goes on. Whether you're looking for financial information to help you stock market journey or the latest updates on economic issues like the outlook on inflation in the coming months, subscribing to your chosen news outlets at discounted prices can help keep you in the know.

It's not just information flowing one way that's discounted for students. Communication tools are frequently delivered at student rates, too. In particular, America's the most prominent cell service providers dole out a range of discounts for those enrolled in a degree program. This is a service that just about everyone in the modern world simply can't live without, so getting a rate reduction on your plan is an important resource that every student should use to their advantage. This is also a service that most people pay too much for without realizing it, both while in school and beyond. If you're going to be paying for it anyway, you should look for bargain rates whenever they're available.

Discounts can vary depending on the plan you require and more. But generally speaking, you'll be able to save at least a few dollars per month on upgrades to the base fare or perhaps even get tailored options to buy new phones at student discounted rates over the already favorable contract renewal terms frequently offered to subscribers. It's also worth shopping around if your contract is set to expire. Most of the nation's prominent providers deliver roughly the same coverage and service standards, so if you can lock in a better base price and tack on additional student discounts to further reduce the cost for this essential service, there's no reason to stick with your existing provider and continue paying more.

Approaching communication devices from a different angle, major device manufacturers like Samsung and Apple also offer price reduction for students. These are two of the most prominent players in the marketplace and many products across categories fall under the purview of their student pricing plans. If you're a Mac user, getting a new laptop with a nice chunk taken off the top can help you continue your studies with a key financial boost built into the purchase.

There's also accessory devices to consider. Wireless headphones, tablets, and even TVs (from Samsung, specifically) are frequently offered with additional student discounts built into the price. All kinds of consumer electronics benefit from pricing reductions for those with a valid student ID. Importantly, this is to say nothing for those who prefer cell phones from either one of these goliath manufacturers. Buying a device directly from the maker can be a great way to rack up even more discounts. All told, it's entirely likely that you'll be able to find a price reduction on one or more consumer electronics products that you'd be buying anyway during the four year stretch in the university setting from one of these two primary competitors. Beyond just these two names though, HP, Asus, and many other device manufacturers deliver computers, tablets, printers, and more to the market with favorable pricing for students.

Food has been mentioned a few times above. Feeding yourself is without a doubt one of the most important tasks to consider as you leave for college. Many students will have spent the first 18 years of their lives getting fed largely by their parents. Making dinner for yourself and budgeting for the expense of sourcing ingredients to cook and deciding when to buy meals out and about is a major change for many first-year college students. This new responsibility can be overwhelming, leading some to spend too much of their essential cashflow on fast food and meals out at restaurants. Under normal circumstances, eating out with friends too often is one of the biggest money mistakes you can make.

But when you're a student, the sting of this often-budget-busting practice subsides just a bit. A wide range of prominent fast food chains and established restaurants offer student discounts that can reduce the bill by a notable margin. Restaurants that offer discounts, promotions, and free add-ons include places like Buffalo Wild Wings, TGI Fridays, and Smash Burger. On the fast food side of things, Chick-fil-A, Subway, Chipotle, and McDonald's deliver 10% reductions to their pricing for students, although the specifics on these programs can vary by location. Delivery services also offer price mitigations for students in some circumstances, as well. When it comes to meal planning in your own dorm room or apartment, subscription services like HelloFresh and Home Chef offer notable reductions in the boxes you'll get delivered to help support your journey into adulthood.

In addition to Amazon Prime delivering entertainment as part of its schtick, plenty of other entertainment resources can also be purchased at discounted subscription rates. Hulu, Spotify, Peacock, and YouTube Premium are just a few names on this list. Each one provides key downtime solutions that can help you recharge and relax at the end of a long day of study or working. Spotify and YouTube Premium are also great options to help keep your focus going as you grind through an evening of paper writing or studying for the next test.

Entertainment is an important part of any lifestyle, whether you're a student or otherwise. But students gain significant value when signing up for these resources. Dropping the price on subscription services means that you can save money on your normal load of subscriptions or add in an extra services to catch up on other shows you may have missed without breaking the bank. The average American spends over $200 every month on subscription services, and in many cases they're wasting money by carrying services they no longer use. As an important aside, canceling your autopay settings can help clear out these unwanted financial drains.

Transportation is yet another expense category that students frequently rely on and can get decent price reductions within. There are actually numerous airlines that offer student discounts, including United and some international carriers like Iberia and Air France. Whether you're flying home for the summer or heading away for a vacation somewhere (or maybe even studying abroad for a semester), discounted flights can be a big help. There's also a few cost-reducing strategies to consider when booking flights. Travel experts often recommend 'open-jaw' tickets that don't act as a standard roundtrip itinerary for good discounts. Then there's the option to skiplag that comes into play—but can be problematic if you aren't careful.

On the ground, students can also bag solid price reductions when renting cars and trucks. Penske offers 10% rate reductions on moving vans, and Zipcar includes discounted rates under certain circumstances for students. Buying a GM can get you a student discount, and the program extends to those who have graduated within the last two years. Rail services are another transportation option that benefits from student rates. Providers like N.J. Transit and Amtrak both give students a healthy price break when booking travel or buying monthly rail passes.