Your Student ID is the Golden Ticket in London:

Spend smart on a budget

Start of the week: You budget about £25 for a weekly food shop, £20 for TFL & £10 for miscellaneous things 

End of the week: You didn’t even do a food shop, spent £30 on takeaway, tfl took £30 from you (again!) and you spent £20 on the AU’s XOYO sports night… 

Relatable? I figured as much. But budgeting doesn’t always have to be so difficult, especially when YOU have the golden ticket to discounts, promotions & insane savings. 

No, you don’t need to dig through hundreds of Wonka Bars to find that, you already have it - your student ID! 

If you’re someone who has moved to London from abroad, you don’t have ages and ages to see everything London has to offer, especially if budgeting is a problem. I suggest - save on essentials, spend on experiences. 

Here’s exactly how. 

📱Apps that you NEED: 

• UniDAYS 
• Student Beans

Completely free to join, a one time log in for both, your ID is valid for a year and these are just some of the things you can get: 

• £2 Starbucks tall drink on a Tuesday
• Free Gillette razor worth almost £11 (no need to pay for postage either) 
• 20% of Starbucks, Wasabi and Coco Di Mama (Wasabi has a £5 minimum spend) 
• And many more!

💰Loyalty Apps:

This is the best kept secret that not many people know about. I got a £14.95 pizza for free last week from Franco Manca through their loyalty scheme! 

Download these apps, log your purchases, get free drinks, snacks, food & more! 

• Starbucks Rewards - free drink when you reach 130 Stars 
• GAIL’S Loyalty - free welcome drink with any purchase
• Coco Di Mama - free welcome drink with any purchase & when you collect 6 stamps - free treat! (basically, any item on the menu for free) 
• Wasabi - collect points, move through tiers, get rewards (snacks/ drinks) 
• Itsu - freebies & a birthday treat! 
• Costa Club - free drink when you collect 10 beans

🍴Food shops:

Your weekly food shop does NOT need to be taking over your entire weekly budget, try out these discounted methods!

• Tesco Clubcard/ Nectar at Sainsbury’s - free to join, there is no need for anyone to be spending more than £3.85 on a Tesco meal deal  
• GoPuff - Save £15 on your first order, minimum spend £30 with this code: GOQXRJE23X
• AmazonNow - purchase groceries with discounts & free delivery with Prime (usually arrives within 45 minutes) 
• Too Good To Go - cafes and restaurants create these surprise bags of surplus food worth more than what you pay

🚘 Miscellaneous hacks:

• Boots Advantage Card - verify your student identity and get 10% off all purchases at Boots AND rack up points that you can use to purchase something! 
• Uber - £10 off your first ride when you sign up 
• Amazon Prime Student - 6 months free, then half-price Prime
• 18+ Oyster Photocard - 30% off adult-rate travelcards 
• 16-25 Railcard - ⅓ off trains across the UK - you can plan a cheeky weekend escape out of London! 
• Bonus hack! Add a 16-25 railcard to your student Oyster and get 34% off peak pay-as-you-go fares and daily caps (you will thank me later) 

⭐️ Final thoughts:

Simply adding UniDAYS to your doomscroll rotation can help you find so many random (but probably really helpful) discounts, it can give you ideas on places to explore & ensure you’re not overspending on things that you can really save on! 

If none of these scream your vibe, definitely use social media to find pop-up events, one-off discounts and freebies! 

Happy saving! :)