Discounts for being a student? SWEET!

For my undergraduate degree, I went to school in a small town in the States. The biggest store was a Wal-Mart, and as far as retail goes we had a 5-store strip mall. Stores and restaurants handed out coupons a few times a year. When I went home I would sometimes remember to ask at the checkout if they had student discounts, but more often than not I forgot.

Cue: London, the Mecca of student discounts. Or so it seemed to a small-town-undergrad girl. There are SO MANY places that offer student discounts, companies that search for and advertise weekly discounts for students, websites dedicated specifically to telling students where to get the best deals, and on top of that there are almost always student “concession” prices for entry into museums, movies, venues, concerts, …basically almost everything you can imagine.

I try to take advantage of as many of these opportunities as I can. This weekend, that meant heading to the horse races at the Royal Ascot British Champions Day. Qipco offered free tickets for students, so I immediately reserved mine and began looking for cute hats. I’ll let the pictures speak for how incredible a day it was. I would never have thought about going to the races if it weren’t for the student-centered view that many companies take here, which in turn leads to some unbelievable experiences for the students in London. Just another reason studying in London is one of the best decisions I’ve made.

  Parade ring.

Betting on some horses 🙂

The queen was there too!

I found a cute hat..and had a cute date too 😉

Takeaway Tidbit: Find those student discounts and use them!

Thrift stores saved my (social) life.

London. Cosmopolitan city of dresses and posh, put-together outfits galore. Where seemingly no one walks outside without meticulously layering an outfit that could be photographed on a runway, coupled with perfectly-in-place hair and stunning makeup. The guys, too (minus the makeup, most of the time). Or at least that’s how I felt the first week here.

Now that I’ve settled in I realize the put-togetherness of Londoners isn’t as prevalent as I thought, but my first stroll around my neighborhood left me feeling absurdly under-dressed and out of the style loop. I bolted home to reassess every piece of clothing I packed, and realized I was sorely lacking in the one item which almost every female chose to wear that summery day: dresses. I only packed two. Ugh.

The next day was spent semi-frantically journeying from store to store, trying to find a decent dress that wasn’t £20+ over my seriously reduced college kid budget. It took me much longer than it should have to realize that regular-price stores wouldn’t cut it. Thrift stores, hand over those dresses. And skirts. Aaand since I’m here and haven’t quite grasped that I no longer have an income, let’s check out the jewelry too…right??

Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t find ANY thrift stores when I walked around looking for them. Which was weird because I had been advised to get as much as possible from the thrift stores in London. Then I figured out that in London thrift stores are called charity shops. Because they’re associated with a charity. Logical. Dang London phrases, throwing me for a loop again. Consequently, they have the title of the charity as their name. You sneaky charity shops…

There are   -count ’em-   5 charity shops in a 2-block radius of my apartment.

Now that I know my way around a bit better, I am continually amazed by the abundance of thrift shops everywhere. The great thing about London charity shops is that each shop is SMALL. Unlike cavernous Goodwills or overwhelming Thrift Worlds, I can browse each store in about 15-20 minutes (which means I can hit 3-4 instead of just 1…sorry, bank account). And the prices and lack of crowds are much more friendly than the Oxford Street shops. Plus, because they’re so small, inventory is rotated more often. Which means prices on current merchandise are reduced more often. Which means I buy dresses more often. Hey, it’s for charity.

…and they’re pretty darn cute. Because frumpy is not in a Londoner’s vocabulary.

I should probably start stretching out my suitcases for the trip home.

Takeaway tidbit #2: Charity shops will save your (social) life. And budget.