How to Get Student Discounts Forever

Holiday discounts be damned, nothing saves you money like an old fashioned student discount. Here's how to continue making use of those discounts long after your time as a student has passed.

Before we get started, let's considere the ethical implications. Using a student discount when you're not a student is a little dishonest, so if you're a sparkling example of morality you might want to forget this method and keep paying full price. If you live life in the more common moral gray area, you might want to consider the following excuses. First of all, student discounts are most commonly awarded to college students who either are wealthy enough to afford college or are able to incur a massive amount of debt (scholarship folk—congrats, but you're a rare breed and therefore do not count). The idea here is that college students aren't necessarily stricken with poverty or will be more so after finishing their education. For that reason, the student discount might actually be better applied after a student has graduated. If you agree with this reasoning, welcome to the forever student discount club.

The Sticker Method

Some colleges update their student ID cards every year with a date as proof of current enrollment, but that's an added and unnecessary expense for most. Some just don't bother with dates at all, but a more common compromise is the sticker. Many colleges will provide a dated sticker each semester so students can prove they're up-to-date on their tuition and prove enrollment to companies offering discounts. Fortunately, these stickers are incredibly easy to forge after you've graduated.

If you just need a digital photo of your ID (for online shopping), Photoshopping a forgery is pretty simple. The example above is just a simple Photoshop forgery. If you need the actual ID card in all its physical glory (for in-store shopping), you can easily take your Photoshop forgery and recreate it with a regular inkjet printer and some sticker paper. You can get sticker paper in all colors and finishes at your local office store, and if you find it's too hard to recreate a sticker you can just remove the existing stickers to make your own version.

What if my ID has no sticker?

Maybe your student ID doesn't use a sticker at all. If this is the case, you're actually in a better situation because you can design your own. The important thing is to make a few fake stickers so it looks like you've been using them for awhile. Put one on, rub some dirt on it, wipe the dirt off with water, add the next sticker, do the same, and then put the clean one on top. Make it look used, and whatever sticker you design with be as believable as a real one.

The Unofficial Class Schedule

Some retailers require a class schedule or other proof of enrollment, or there may be situations where you just can't or don't want to use your student ID as proof. In those cases, it's incredibly easy to fake a class schedule. The best way to go about this is keep a copy of your class schedule when you're actually in college so you can refer to it when making the forgery. Most times it's nothing more than a text document and a college logo in the background (which is something you can easily acquire via Google image search). If you're sending the schedule via email and it needs to come from your school, it's pretty easy to spoof an outgoing email address. Overall this is a pretty simple undertaking, but, in general, you'll be fine with just an ID card.

Enlist the Youth of Tomorrow

Just like underage kids try to get older folks to buy them beer, you can enlist the help of college kids to get you a student discount. If you haven't made a little student of your own yet, or have relatives who can help you for free, you can often find students on Craiglist who are willing to loan out their student ID for a small fee. For $20 (give or take), you can get a college kid to accompany you to, say, the Apple Store, to pick up a new laptop. If you can't find such a posting, post yourself. Chances are you at least know a friend of a friend who knows someone in college, so if you ask nicely you should be able to get this service for free. Unlike the other suggestions, this tip will work for the rest of your discount-necessitating life.

Go Legit On the Cheap

If you feel bad about getting a student discount long after your time has passed, maybe it's time to become a student again. You don't have to go back for a degree, but local community colleges offer a lot of night classes you can take. If you have time, it's a chance to learn something you've always wanted to learn and you will—in most cases—wind up with a student ID. When you go to get a student discount you won't have to cheat the system because you're technically a student, even if it's not a full-time gig.

Got any other tips to prolong the life of your expired student ID card? Let's hear 'em in the comments!

Send an email to Adam Dachis, the author of this post, at adachis@lifehacker.com.

As 2010 winds down, your April 2011 self will thank you for making some moves to lighten your tax bill and set your finances in order for the year ahead. Decisions you make in the next few weeks will have implications that last for months.

Yahoo Finance dishes up some savvy choices that will pay off as Father Time finally pulls the plug on the tortured year.

The article recommends maxing out charitable giving and contributions to retirement accounts in order to decrease your exposure to higher tax brackets, as well as maxing out tax-free retirement contributions and taking any vacation days that won't roll over into the next year.

Perhaps the most valuable piece of advice is to get organized. Culling together appropriate receipts and statements and setting them aside so they aren't mixed with stuff from next year will pay off when the tax crunch arrives.

What will you do the rest of the month to make sure you get off to a great start in 2011?

Smart money moves for the end of the year [Yahoo Finance]

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Wednesday, 8 December 2010

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