College students are poor. College students are stressed. I am a college student, and when I get stressed I like to shop (retail therapy is real, y’all). But there’s a problem…college students are poor.

There is a reason why so many flash-sale websites have emerged over the last few years: people (not just stressed college students) like to buy things. And people love to buy things when they’re cheap. As much as we love these sites here at STITCH, doesn’t the idea of a flash sale kind of stress you out even more? There have been many times when I have gone on Gilt thirty minutes after a sale has started and found that many of the items are not just out of my size but sold out completely. And as much as I appreciate a good deal, I can’t always just see, want, type in my credit card information, and—boom!— buy something in the span of just ten minutes.

Enter Refinery29 Reserve, a Gilt-meets-Groupon extension of one of the web’s best fashion sites. Like many flash-sale websites, Refinery29 Reserve offers discounted prices to some of fashion’s best brands, shops, and labels. Rather than having sales with a limited inventory and that only last for a few days, Reserve offers coupons directly to a brand’s website. The discounts they offer are pretty great too—I recently bought a deal offering $150 worth of Gorjana jewelry for $75. That’s half off! While each deal is offered for just a week, the great thing about Refinery29 Reserve is that you do not have redeem it right away—giving you more time to make a decision about a purchase—and your offer is usually for an entire line of goods, not simply one specific piece. And whereas I have seen seasons-old pieces sold on sites like Gilt for prices that really aren’t that much cheaper, Refinery29 Reserve allow you to buy current, new items for less. So let’s recap: discounts on current fashions redeemable for whatever you want, whenever you want? Speaking as a poor, stressed college student…that’s a pretty good deal.

-Erin Ku

Graphics by Rosalind Mowitt