You Asked We Answered: How To Save On The Top Items You Need

Here’s how you can save some money on your everyday essentials.

We know that things are tough for students right now. The cost of living crisis paired with soaring student accommodation costs has left many students struggling financially and worried about making their student loans stretch to cover rent and essentials.

While setting a budget can help you to cut down on some non-essential purchases it doesn’t account for the things that you’ll need to pay for every week or every month and can’t avoid spending money on.

Our Beat The Bills page is a collection of all the best student discounts you can get from Student Beans that can help you to save money on student essentials.

We asked you over on Instagram what you wish you could spend money on and it turns out, with a bit of help from your Student Beans account you can! So, here are some of the things that you want to save on and how you can do it.

Food shopping

It’s no surprise that a lot of you said that you want to save on your weekly food shop. While making swaps to cheaper own-brand items is always an option to save a bit of cash, it doesn’t always drastically reduce the costs. Luckily, you can get a student discount at many supermarkets including Ocado and Iceland. Plus, if you want to treat yourself to the occasional takeaway Domino’s, KFC and Burger King also offer great student deals too.

Check out the Beat The Bills discount page for more deals on essentials.

Books

If you have to buy a lot of books for your course or you just like to read in your spare time, you’ll know that it can be expensive. A lot of you said that you’d like to save on books and luckily, if you need to buy a lot of textbooks or notepads there are loads of brands that offer a student discount that you might not know about! WHSmith, Ryman, Papier, Kortext and Amazon Prime are just some of the retailers that offer discounts on textbooks, stationery and more.

Check out the Beat The Bills discount page for more deals on essentials.

Transport

A LOT of our submissions were around travelling. Clearly, a lot of you need to regularly get trains and buses and are fed up with the rising costs. We hear you on this one, which is why you may be surprised to hear that you can actually get a student discount at Trainline and on a 16-25 railcard to help cut the costs of train travel. If you prefer to travel via coach or bus National Express and Flixbus also offer a range of discounts too, so definitely double-check which offers are available before booking your next journey.

Check out the Beat The Bills discount page for more deals on essentials.

Buying nice and fresh ingredients

This is a totally valid struggle that evidently a lot of students struggle with. When you have a busy schedule it can be hard to make it to a supermarket and with the rising costs of fresh ingredients it’s easy to opt for frozen food or ready meals instead as they are often much cheaper. If you want to try healthy and fresh meals, a HelloFresh subscription is a great idea to get you eating healthier and you can a really good student discount too on your first and subsequent boxes.

Check out the Beat The Bills discount page for more deals on essentials.

Airport and holiday tickets

Ok, so a holiday might not be an essential but we can’t blame you for dreaming about a getaway. Luckily, if you do want to book a trip you don’t have to pay full price as you can get a student discount at Virgin Atlantic on Virgin Flights. So, while it’s not an every day essential if you do want to treat yourself to a holiday once a year it’s good to know you have options when it comes to discounts.

Check out the Beat The Bills discount page for more deals on essentials.

Phone bills

Let’s face it, paying for phone bills and wifi is probably one of the most annoying bills. It’s impossible to get by without a smartphone and wifi, and the costs of a monthly bill or package deal can be extortionate for something that’s a basic necessity. Luckily VOXI, EE and BT are some of the providers that offer great deals to students, so it’s worth having a look to see if you can switch your contract to save some money off your bill each month.

Check out the Beat The Bills discount page for more deals on essentials.

Hopefully, with this, you’ll have a better idea of how you can cut the costs of some of your bills and everyday essentials. Don’t forget to check our Beat The Bills page for all of our essential student discounts to help you cut the costs of your bills and student must-haves during the cost of living crisis.