Written by Yang Yue
Shopping is an essential activity for all of us, we shop for various things related to our daily life and study, including groceries, clothes, electronic devices, etc. As international students, shopping could be a little challenging, as we try to make ends meet in a foreign country. Taking advantage of student discounts is one of the useful ways to shop the things we need, while also saving some money for ourselves. In this blog, I will introduce some places or ways that we could utilize the student discounts to shop for the things we need.
First, as graduate students, a computer or other electronic devices are needed for our study and everyday life, but they are not very cheap. With student discounts provided by the manufacturers could help save a large amount. Take Apple as an example, Apple provides discounts throughout the whole year for qualified students when buying Mac and iPad, usually more than $50 off. Moreover, during the summers, from June to September, Apple provides extra discounts for students. This year, when students shopping for Macbook or iPad, besides the regular student discounts, Apple would also give you a pair of AirPods for free, or you could upgrade to AirPods Pro for only $90 (the original price is $249). And other manufacturers, such as Dell and Lenovo, also provide some similar discounts for students, so we could just search their website to find it.
Besides the discounts from manufacturers, some retailers also provide student discounts. You could also shop in Best Buy, an electronic retailer, for computers and other electronic devices. Best Buy provides special discounts for students, usually 10% off or more. To utilize the student discount provided by Best Buy, you need to register and verify your student status on their website (just follow the instructions, which is quite easy), then you could shop for electronics with student discounts.
The grocery is another major part of our expense, usually, the price in the supermarket, like Walmart, is quite low, so we may not have student discounts there. However, if you would like to shop in some member-only warehouse clubs or use some member-only services, such as Costco and Amazon Prime, they offer discounts for students. For example, Costco sometimes will give a $20 gift card if you become a member as a qualified student, and Amazon offers 50% off for students to become a Prime member. With these memberships, we could enjoy various member-exclusive offers in Costco or on Amazon.
After we get the electronic devices needed and find out a cheap way for groceries, we may want to spend our money on other items, such as clothes and leisure activities. For clothes, most of the brands provide students discounts. For example, Nike and Under Armour would give 10% to 20% off for students, besides the regular discounts, and you could find lots of cheap clothes especially when they are on sales during some holidays or shopping seasons. As for leisure activities, you could find lots of theme parks and amusement parks around Southern California, such as Universal Studio, Disneyland, if you are interested in them. And of course, you could find student discounts, and they are easier to get, because most student discount tickets of these places are available in ASUCI on our campus, you could purchase either online (https://www.asuci.uci.edu/store/tickets/) or in-person in ASUCI office (depends on the polices on specific tickets). You could enjoy these fantastic parks without worrying about the expensive prices.
So far, we have talked about shopping for various stuff using student discounts to save money. However, you may feel inconvenient that you have to search for the specific student discounts before shopping, either in the store or on the retailer’s website, which could be time-consuming. Don’t worry, let me introduce some secret weapons to search for discounts. The first one is Rakuten, it is a website that provides discount information of lots of brands, such as Nike, Adidas, Dell, Apple, you could just search the brands or stores you would like to shop, and it would list the available discounts, not just student discounts. Moreover, Rakuten also gives you cash back when you shop through their website, usually 2% to 8%, sometimes even 12%, of the subtotal you spend, which could maximize the discounts and save you more money. Another is called DealMoon, which is mainly used by Chinese people. It provides various discounts and sale information, including student discounts sometimes. You could easily find the items that are currently on sale in various places, such as Nike, Amazon, Costco, etc. The information includes the current price, the original price, and the lowest price sometimes, so it is easier to know if it is a good deal or not, and we could benefit from the information.
As international students, we have to do a lot of shopping once we arrive and start living in a foreign country. By taking advantage of student discounts mentioned in this blog, we could easily save lots of money and avoid a financial crisis, then we can just enjoy shopping and living here!