Though a night on the town is fun, your bank account doesn’t always agree the morning after. Going out is a big part of life for college students, but with increasing loan debt and rising rent prices, most struggle to make ends meet at the end of the month. Even if you’re not struggling financially, these tips won’t break the bank.
1. Student Discounts: Number one is using your trusty student I.D.! All different shops, clubs, and museums have discounts for college students. Go to Student Activities on the third floor of Campus Center to buy discounted tickets for Red Sox games, the Franklin Park Zoo, and more. The Museum of Fine Arts, right off the Green Line, is free for all UMass Boston students. The MFA also offers free admission to all on Wednesdays.
A. Boston’s Museum of Science is also off the Green Line, and though you can get cheaper tickets from UMass Boston, your local library also offers extremely discounted to free tickets—depending on the library. On their website, the Museum of Science states, “Visiting the Museum late in the day? Visit a second time on us! If you are purchasing a full price Exhibit Halls admission ticket at the box office in the final two hours of the day, we will stamp your ticket for a second return visit within the next six months.”
B. Into body mods? Lucky’s Tattoo and Piercing in Cambridge is a few minutes away from Central Station on the Red Line and they offer discounts to students as well. Student Day is every Tuesday with a piercing only costing $15, jewelry not included. Along with Student Day, they have ‘Buy One Get One Free’ with a student I.D. for you and a friend. A $15 piercing sounds sketchy but from first hand experience, their piercers are clean, as well as professional.
C. You need to look your best of course and all sorts of retail stores offer student discounts on and offline. Amazon gives six months free of Amazon Prime for students; after the six month period, students only pay $6.49 a month—a 50% discount from the usual $12.99. For other shops I use the link “https://www.bradsdeals.com/blog/student-discounts” to help me find student discounts. It’s worth pulling out your laptop or phone and typing it in.
D. To pump your day off, Spotify Premium and Hulu teamed up to give students both streaming sites for $4.99 a month. Separately, you’d be paying $5.99 for Hulu and $9.99 for Spotify Premium.
2. There are free events happening around Boston all the time. From free concerts to trivia nights, look up free events in town! Many things are posted online, you just have to search for them. UMass Boston is only a few stops away from the entire city.
3. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is the cheapest way around the city, even if you didn’t buy a semester T-pass from UMass Boston. However, driving services such as Uber and Lyft occasionally offer deals too.
4. Cutting down expenses in general is hard—especially when it calls for going out to eat. To put it bluntly: alcohol is not cheap. When going out with friends, don’t spend $13 on that margarita. Eating out can be expensive too, so choose between an appetizer and an entrée, don’t get both. If needed, skip out on dessert too or go somewhere else for a cheaper option, if feasible.
Live frugally and have fun!