One perk of being a student is having a wide range of discounts available to you and it all helps with making your money stretch as far as possible.
TOTUM
TOTUM offers over 600 discounts and exlclusives at over 400 big brands, stretching across sectors such as tech and mobile, travel, fashion, beauty, food & drink and health & fitness and can save you plenty of money. You can sign up for a free Totum membership to access a range of online offers, or pay to upgrade to a plus membership for 1,2 or 3 years, costing £14.99, £24.99 or £39.99 respectively. To find out more, click here.
UniDays
Whether you’re in college or university (or even sixth form in the UK) you can get more while spending less on everything from fashion and food to music and tech. UNiDAYS is a free app and signing up connects you to exclusive discounts measning youu can pay less for the things you need. Register here
Loyalty Cards
An essential cost for all of us is food shopping, and if you don’t have the loyalty card for your go to shops then you are missing out on some good money-saving deals. With many of these loyalty cards, people can rack up enough points throughout the year for a cheeky treat at Christmas or a free weeks shopping when it is really needed. So wherever you shop, make sure to check out whethery they have a loyalty card scheme.
Cashback
Using cashback sites (e.g. Quidco, Top Cashback) is a really easy way to get money for free. You will need register an account with them, search their database for the shop/service you intend to use and then purchase your item as normal. For example if you’re going bowling, search for Tenpin bowling, reserve your slot and after your visit and the retailer has confirmed your visit, your account will be credited with the specified amount. The rate of cashback varies and there are often additional incentives so it is wise to keep checking what is available.
Eating Out vs Eating In
It’s a fact of student life that you are going to eat out and treat yourself to the odd takeaway here or there. So why not make sure you do it as cheaply as you can?
Vouchercloud is a popular app that once installed on your phone, tells you useful information like if a local restuarant/fast food outlet has a 20% off code or that there is a free cup of coffee from a local coffee shop if you pay with Mastercard.
If you have a TOTUM card then it is always worth asking if a discount is available. The worst they can say is no, but you will certtainly be no worse off.
If you order takeaways through delivery apps such as Just Eat it can also take some of the sting off of the cost, particularly if done through the cashback sites which have promotion codes available from time to time.
Meerkat Meals
For those students who have worked out how to get access to Meerkat Movies for an initial annual outlay of around £1 (a google search will help with this) there is also the option of discounts through Meerkat Meals.
Too Good To Go
Too Good To Go is a service which allows people to buy up food for cheap, to stop it going to waste. Supermarkets, restuarants and cafes are signed up to it in their numbers and by using the app you can see what businesses near you are selling off cheap. That could be a sandwich from a local shop, or a cheap roast from a nearby carvery. You can find out more here: https://www.toogoodtogo.com/en-us/how-to-collect-too-good-to-go
Another source of free or discounted food
Olio - Your Local Sharing App (olioapp.com)
Last Updated: April 2025