Post By: Mahkameh Rasouli, Peer Mentor 2022
Most of the time, students have limited living budgets and are in lower socioeconomic categories. We must pay for housing rent, transportation, groceries, and educational supplies and, finally, spend our money on buying what we like, such as clothes, accessories, and cosmetics. Therefore, one of the essential skills we need is to learn how to buy our needs at an affordable price. This skill could help us save more money to buy whatever we want or travel to dream places.
In this blog post, I categorized the hacks by online and in-store shopping and the needs categories. Before starting, let’s discuss discounts and the brand advertisements policy. As we know, every year in December, on black Friday, almost all the brands will offer a considerable discount on their products, making us buy things that we don’t need!
Fortunately, all of us know that all the discounts are not true and just fool our brains to say, “Oh, 70% off,” and shop for that product! So, please don’t fool about such discounts unless you know the primary price and you find an extraordinary decrease. Sometimes the store’s price is higher than the primary price before the deal to motivate the customer. So, don’t rush for the discounts! Most brands have deals frequently for special dates such as black Friday, 4th of July, Father’s Day, etc. And also, they have sales and clearance of the products on their websites or stores. So, buy what you need and don’t be fooled by the discounts!
Online Shopping
Almost all brands have online shopping websites that became so popular during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, most online shopping websites have a discount for your first purchase. So, if you are new to the USA and don’t have an account on a brand’s website, first create an account to receive the first purchase promo code most of the time through your email, then proceed to your purchase.
Additionally, UNiDAYS is a website (it has an application too.) that informs you about student discounts of various brands. You can use the provided promo code on the brand’s website to get your discount. And also, some brands, such as H & M, have a permanent section on their website for the student discount.
On most brands’ websites, there is a section called sale and clearance, which contains low-priced products with limited sizes or amounts. On the other hand, to solve the problem of delivery fees, shop with your friends simultaneously to make the shipping price free because most online shopping websites have a limit for purchasing. If you reach that limit, they will ship your purchases for free.
Another beneficial market is Amazon, which has everything you might need. So, one of the immediate actions you need to do is to get an Amazon prime membership free for 6 months with your UCI email address. It will deliver almost all of your purchases without additional fees. However, it might not work for furniture such as chairs and tables. However, I don’t recommend buying clothes from Amazon.
Just don’t forget “Rakuten,” an application/website/chrome extension that gives you cash back on each purchase and sends it to you every 3 months via Paypal or mail. Ask one of your friends to refer you to Rakuten because it will give you and your friends 30 $ reward separately.
And about referring!!! Ask your friends to refer you for applying credit cards, such as Discover and Chase, because they will give you and your friend a reward with your first purchase. But be careful about the inquiries on your credit score when you apply for new credit cards. I won’t recommend getting a specific brand credit card in their store!
In-store Shopping
Food
You may not have a car once you arrive in the USA. So, for food, it’s better to find a nearby store, and if you have a problem carrying what you buy, you can use an application named Instacard which will deliver your grocery to your home with an annual premium account which is not too expensive.
I’m addicted to coffee, and I’m sure most of you are the same. So, there are multiple Starbucks around the campus. You can save money by installing the Starbucks application on your phone and getting a discount. On the other hand, suppose you drink coffee frequently. In that case, you can think of buying a new/used coffee/espresso maker for your home from Amazon, Facebook market place or Offer Up with an affordable price to have good quality coffees and save your money.
The good part of being a UCI student is that there are multiple good restaurants near campus where you can hang out with your friends on weekends. You can plan for your gathering when some restaurants have happy hours and offer foods and beverages at a lower price than other times. Be aware of the delivery fee if you want to order food from your home.
Clothes and Accessories
There are multiple shopping complexes in Irvine, such as Fashion Island and Irvine Spectrum, which are almost expensive places for students to purchase. However, “The Outlets at Orange” has multiple brand stores with good quality and lower prices than the two above-store complexes. I have a personal tip: look at each store’s end for the clearance rack! And don’t forget about the first purchase account discount.
According to my experience, some brands have good quality and lower prices than others, such as banana republic and Old Navy. And also, Forever21 and SheIn are cheaper than even mentioned brands, but in my opinion, their quality is a bit lower. However, I recommend purchasing your needs from these two if your budget is low when you arrive.
In addition to all the above, some stores such as Marshalls, Ross, and Lowe’s are the outlet of all brands and are cheap, but you need to take time and find whatever you want. They have branches around all cities.
Furniture
One of the good stores for buying furniture when you arrive in Irvine is Ikea which has good quality and low-price furniture and will ship them for you for 50 $ which is worth. You can buy other things you couldn’t find in Ikea from Amazon and Walmart.
There are applications such as Offer Up and Facebook Market Place where you can buy an open box or used furniture, but it might not work if you don’t have a car to pick them up. They have a shipping service for small purchases.
One of the very beneficial vehicles in Irvine is a bicycle. You can buy it from mentioned stores, but UCI has a sale for bikes named “BikeFair,” which are left around the campus for an affordable price. The date is not fixed; you need to check your email or search about it.
Electronic devices
There are many places, such as Apple/Samsung stores, where you can buy electronic devices. In addition, BestBuy stores will have a significant discount on specific products. The other option is buying used products from stores such as Back Market, which has used refurbished devices and returns for damaged items.
For buying smartphones from mobile carriers, there are multiple offers to trade in your old smartphone or get new phones for new customers with specific mobile plans. You need to pay attention to the amount of money you should pay for the combination of the plan and phone and compare the total payments with the phone and a lower price plan. I hope these tips can help you during the first days of being graduate