Having a minor shopping addiction on a college budget is not great for me or my bank account. As much as I like to shop, I needed to compensate for the financial damage and strain on my finances. I try to look for any rewards a particular store may offer or any discount codes for online shopping. Here are four tools to help you save money while online shopping.
- Drop for online shopping
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Drop is a point-based reward app in which you shop online, and in return, you receive gift cards for previous purchases. When you first sign up on the app, you link your debit or credit card and choose five in-store or online stores that you frequently shop. The chosen stores cannot be changed, so pick the stores you love in order to receive “supercharged” rewards. The app has a high number of different brands that range from Urban Outfitters, Sephora, Nike, Colourpop and Glossier. You shop through the links and earn rewards to redeem $5-$100 gift cards from Amazon, Chilis, Whole Foods, Nordstrom and more.
- Honey extension for online discount codes
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Honey is a browser extension on your laptop or desktop. It scans the internet for applicable promo and discount codes for the websites you want to shop from. The extension works by using previous codes that other Honey users have used before. This is a great way to search for promotional codes.
- UNiDAYS & Student Beans
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UNiDAYS has exclusive deals and discount codes solely for students. You can save money, online or in-store, by signing up with your student email address. Offers include 10-50% off of various brands. My personal favorite is 15% off of Dr. Martens.
Similar to UNiDAYS, Student Beans also offers discounts and deals up to 50% and free shipping for certain purchases. The website also requires a student email address for verification and use of the website. Both websites have an excellent selection of beauty, fashion, travel and fitness brands.
- Reward programs
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If you are loyal to a certain brand or store, then you should check if the store offers any reward programs. For example, Sephora has a massive rewards program called Beauty Insider. The program has three tiers of membership: insider status, VIB and Rouge. You can get free samples, exclusive deals and free shipping depending on your status. Pacsun and Urban Outfitters also have reward programs that give you points for your purchase and offers for exclusive deals and giveaways.
College is expensive and budgeting is sometimes difficult to manage. Shopping for essentials should not be stressful, so using promo codes and rewards can ease the stress of high costs. Even if you only save $5, the money saved is always beneficial.