Senior discounts for all ages

And without eating dinner at 4:30

Moira learns that no one has to pay full price.

When you turn 50, you start getting membership pitches from the AARP. I never joined. My husband did, for a while, but he let it lapse due to super annoying/dangerous magazine articles (e.g., Sheryl Crow and Melissa Ethridge talking about beating breast cancer with diet. Not chemo, not radiation, not surgery, not the work of countless medical workers and researchers, but diet.) Also, the discounts weren’t very good.

Are you surprised?

AARP membership costs $16 per year. In exchange, you get the organization’s lobbying muscle, the magazine, a bunch of discounts, and local events. The lobbying is controversial; on the one hand, work by the AARP helped turned retirees from the poorest demographic group in the US to the richest. Beating poverty is good! But now children are the Americans most likely to live in poverty. That’s a problem.

The local events vary from place to place and include talks and movies. You don’t have to be a member to attend them.

Then we get to the discounts. Discounts are a commodity. The AARP discounts are good and membership probably pays for itself if you don’t have access to the discounts elsewhere. And, fun fact, you can join the AARP at any age.

However, you may already have access to the same discounts. For free.

I had to join US Sailing to compete in sail racing. Membership includes access to PerkSpot, a company that aggregates discounts for employers and organizations to offer them to as a benefit. (The AMC Theatres discount is sweet! It’s also the same one I used to get at Costco.) ADP, the big payroll processor, has a discount program that its customers can offer their employees. AAA members get discounts. I’m guessing you have access to a discount program already.

And, if you shop online, you can get discounts through Rakuten (affiliate link) and Honey (affiliate link), both of which are free (in exchange for your data, of course).

So go forth and save money. Join the AARP if you want to, but you don’t have to. Finally, don’t try to beat cancer with vegetables. See a doctor.