Discounts, Freebies & Competitions | Tips for making the most of the web

There's no denying we all love a good discount nowadays to make our money go farther. It's such a good feeling to purchase items for a fraction less than what they are on the high-street or other stores for example, and with social media, emails and other online tools it's so easy to find discount codes and deals, not to mention freebies too! Yes that's right - there is such a thing as freebies still in this day and age. 

I myself when shopping online regularly use discount codes if available. And how do I get these you wonder? Well, if you're a student I cannot stress enough how you should be signed up to Unidays. It's the most fantastic student discount website, with over 2 million users, and discounts across a huge number of online stores such as Urban Outfitters, Asos, Apple, Topshop, Miss Selfridge, Lookfantastic and many many more!

It's free to signup and all you need to do to get saving instantly is verify your student status, and away you go.

Even better, Unidays has recently enabled you to get amazing, and exclusive discounts on the high street  by simply downloading their app, signing in and showing cashiers your Unidays verified ID to redeem offers that are available.

If you can't find the right discount with this site then needn't worry as there is other websites such as StudentBeans and also most online stores allow you to get discount by signing up to them using your college or university email, rather than entering a discount code at the checkout through a normal account. 

Now, don't worry if you're not a student as there's still plenty of other ways to finding great discounts, and I've listed some of these ways below.

1. Sign up to email alerts from you're favourite stores; they often send out discount codes, alerts of flash sales and also free delivery at times. 

2. Register with stores! It can often lead to receiving offers and discounts on your first purchase. For example I recently signed up to JustFab and after taking their quiz to find my perfect pair of shoes I was offered my first pair for half price at £17.50. 

3. Social media - Follow shops on Twitter, Facebook and  Instagram! This is such a good way of finding out about flash sales, discounts, and also competitions, which I will talk about a bit more further down. 

Freebies & Competitions

As I mentioned before freebies are still available in today's modern, money driven age. I myself I have occasionally received free gifts through following brands online and liking their Facebook pages. 

If you didn't know,  a lot of brands, especially those selling beauty products, offer free samples to customers. These are usually found through visiting their websites and official Facebook pages where simply by giving your details you can be sent free samples . Look out for new products released, as this is what's usually given as samples. 

Other freebies I have received have been found through using StudentBeans. This student website sends me emails with a list of free things I can obtain through doing questionnaires or simply giving my details etc, all great ways to receiving free stuff. Although take caution of giving too much personal information!! - That's not always a good idea.

Again social media is fantastic for the chance of getting free gifts, be it by simply liking a brands tweet or entering their competitions. 

A year ago or so I used to twitter to enter competitions and it worked great! I followed magazines, brands, shops, you name it. They often run competitions to win stuff and I successfully won two prizes, one by telling a magazine about my favourite celebs outfit and another just by simply retweeting a tweet to be entered. 

I won London Fashion week tickets (so chuffed!) along with some jewellery from Lola Rose and the other prize was two massive bars of Toblerone - Win!

So, there's just a few of the best ways of making use of the internet to get discounts and others nice things! I hope it's helped for any of you bargain hunters out there, feel free to comment with any other suggestions or what you think