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Regardless of their background or educational pursuits, most students face one common problem during their college years; the struggle to hunt a cheaper deal. Our college years are usually strapped to a tight budget. Most of this money goes towards buying textbooks, school supplies, and food, and there’s often very little left to have fun with. 

But studying is a taxing vocation that takes plenty of concentration, time, and creativity. And if you don’t leave yourself some time to unwind and hang out with your friends, you’ll find yourself burning out before you get through the first year. That’s why it’s important to save up this money for some downtime with your friends. 

But this might be where you face a dilemma: to save money to spend with friends or to use this money for supplemental services? There are some services, of course, that you can’t imagine living without in the 21st century (here’s looking at you Amazon!). So even if you have to shell out some of that precious leftover cash, we can help you minimize these expenditures with a list of a few student discounts offered by online services.

So, without further ado, let’s dive right in!

Delivery Services 

First and foremost, let’s tackle the giant: Amazon. Amazon is the go-to website for online purchases, and an Amazon Prime membership affords you 2-day deliveries, and a handy streaming platform to satisfy all your late-night TV needs among many other benefits. And while Amazon Prime can be really expensive, with Prime Student you can get the first six months for free and continue on with a $6.49/month deal. All you have to do to get the membership is sign up with your .edu email address. To make your Amazon purchases even cheaper, do watch out for sales seasons and try to use an Amazon promo code to save up even more. 

Audiobook Services

Are you tired of reading textbooks but don’t have the time to sit down with a good novel or a book of poems in the middle of all your group assignment meetings and essay submissions? A quick way to get your literary fix without needing to set time aside specifically for it is to subscribe to audiobook services such as Audible and Chirp. With these services, you can enjoy a good book while on your morning commute to class or during a hurried lunch session. 

But there are a few distinctions between these two services, and which one you choose depends on your reading habits. Audible is a subscription service that charges you $14.99 for a month. You can get 3 books free during the 30-day free trial (90 days if you’re a Prime member!) and you can download audiobooks for offline streaming. You get one new audiobook for free every month, and everything in your Audible library remains with you even if you cancel your membership. But perhaps the most appealing is their vast library that shelves more than 10,000 audiobooks.      

Chirp, on the other hand, is for the more sporadic readers. If the urge to read doesn’t hit you every month, you’re safer off going with Chirp. Chirp doesn’t have a subscription plan like Audible; you only pay for the books you want. Chirp also allows you to download audiobooks for offline listening, and everything you buy is yours to keep. They also provide popular audiobooks for up to 95% off. Now that’s a deal we can get behind.  

Skills Improvement Services 

Want to enroll in some creative courses and upskill yourself, but don’t have the software to do so? Don’t worry because Adobe has a pretty sweet deal for students. Just by signing up with your .edu email address, you can get access to the entire Adobe Creative Cloud for just $19.99/month. This is huge considering the usual price is $52.99/month. Adobe Creative Cloud includes Adobe products such as Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere Pro, and InDesign satisfying all your creative needs.   

Other than online services, there are also numerous offline places that help out students with some much-needed discounts. These places will likely differ from location to location, and you should try to check out which establishments in your town will offer you these. For example, most museums and certain events will offer student discounts. Your university or department might also have tie-ups with certain stores or enterprises that offer students a discount, and you can enquire about these places to your department contact. Many other stores too might offer these, and it never hurts to ask the store attendant if their store does. After all, broke-ness is pretty much a universally shared experience, and no one’s gonna fault you for trying to save up a couple of dollars.