Students are notoriously short of money. In these difficult financial times, it’s even harder for students to make ends meet. People are not drones – we need entertainment, but entertainment costs money. How do you save money on both basics and entertainment?
Get free books
Bookworms don’t need to spend a single penny. There are many ways to get your hands on free fiction and non-fiction:
- Your app store will have (legitimate) book readers such as Kindle and Kobo with plenty of free books. Anything out of copyright should be free – and this should count for both eBooks and audiobooks
- Want to read books before they’re released? Sites like Net Galley are free to use! Just sign up, find books you love and apply to review. But what is the catch? You need to review them in a timely fashion, or you’ll find the site stops sending you books
- Also look out for free trials for Kindle Unlimited and Audible, or your preferred alternatives
Get new skills for free
YouTube is and always has been the best place to engage with independent creators. With the proliferation of cheap high-quality video technology and software, now almost anyone can be a creator. You can find almost anything on there and one of the most popular areas is learning new skills. There is no need to pay for online learning as people love helping others out for free (paid for with monetised advertising rather than subscription).
Learn languages for free through DuoLingo
It’s the app that’s taking over the world and what’s more, it’s completely free unlike many other such apps which have a limited number of lessons for free. It’s called DuoLingo… maybe you’ve seen friends show their progress on social media?
The founder’s vision for DuoLingo is that learning a new language should be both free and fun and many report that it does just that. With gamified learning, it’s fun as well as educational – also possibly a great distraction from your other academic work.
Free trial meal services
Hello Fresh, Gousto, and a few others are typically considered expensive for what they are, even though they introduce people to dishes they may have never previously considered. However, don’t completely ignore them. Many offer a free trial period, typically one week of three meals for the cost of delivery (around £5). This can be a significant saving if you do your research and find the best current deals.
Shopping cashback
In the last year or so, most major supermarkets have relaunched their loyalty schemes. Out go the old cards and vouchers in favour of apps – and they’re more rewarding than ever. It’s worth signing up to get cashback because you will buy food every week regardless.