If you’re paying full price then you’re doing something wrong. These days you would be hard pressed to find a company which doesn’t price discriminate. If businesses can split a market up into groups that are willing to pay different prices for their products, then they’ll do just that in search of higher profits. But it’s not just businesses that benefit, students profit too. By signing up to Unidays and Student Beans, flashing your blue Leeds University card and getting a TOTUM card, you’ll have access to hundreds of offers and can start saving on everything from gym membership to TV entertainment. Here’s our pick of the best student discounts available right now…

Technology

If you’re buying a laptop for university, then a great place to start is on Unidays, which will show you the student discount you can get with each brand. HP is currently offering the biggest discounts to students, with up to 35% off, whilst Lenovo and Dell offer 20%, Acer 15% and Apple around 10% on their MacBooks. Also worth noting is students get Microsoft Office 365 for free, so remember this before being talked into buying it as part of a package.

Transport

You’ll probably use public transport to get across the UK a lot more than you would’ve previously. The trips back home will start to add up quickly, but worry not, there are plenty of discounts to be had. The best is the 16-25 railcard which can be purchased for £30 (or free with a Santander current account) and will get you around a third off rail fares.

National Express will give students 15% off or there is the option to buy a Young Person’s Coach Card for £10 per year, which increases the discount to a third. Even Megabus offer 10% student discount with a NUS/TOTUM card, not that this makes much of a difference as a full price will rarely set you back more than a tenner. Make sure to show your student card if you’re getting the bus in Leeds as you’ll often save yourself a quid.

Health and Fitness

If you’re in halls then it’s quite likely you’ll have some form of gym membership for the Edge included in your rent. For those of you living in private accommodation, then you’ll probably be looking for cheaper options.

Xercise4Less seem to have the best offer on at the moment, with a standard membership at only £12.99 per month and students benefiting from the first month only costing £1, two free personal trainer sessions and the option to have no continuing contract. Another budget option is The Gym, which has multiple centres spread across the city.

Entertainment

Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon music are all on par at £4.99 per month for students, but whilst Spotify only offers a 3 month free sign up deal, the others offer 6 months. If you’ve already got an account with Spotify, you could save yourself £60 by benefiting from both Apple and Amazon’s introductory offers.

Sadly, Netfix offers nothing aimed at specifically students, with it’s cheapest rate at £5.99 per month. Amazon Prime, however, (including prime video) offers 6 months for free and only charges £3.99 per month after. Now TV are currently offering 2 months for £5 and, if you fancy pushing the boat out, students can get Sky entertainment for £19 per month.

Food and Drink

It would be quicker to name places that don’t offer any food discounts than those which do, but that wouldn’t be so helpful, so here are some of the highlights: 50% off at Bella Italia and Café Rouge, 35% off Dominos, 30% off at Pizza Express, Zizzis, Byron Burger and Ask Italian. Deliveroo offers students £4 off their first order and £2.50 off the second.

Books and Stationary

First of all, if you want to save money on textbooks then look to buy them second hand from the year above on Facebook or at a second hand textbook fare, or from the department themselves. Failing that, Blackwells across from the Parkinson building and Laidlaw library will price match amazon for you. For anything else, then students can get 10% off Waterstones, Paperchase and Rymans.

Clothes and Shoes

Adidas and Rebok are currently offering students 30% off, Boohoo 25% off, Misguided 20% off and pretty much everywhere else are offering students 10%.

Image: [Will Southall]