September always gives me back-to-school vibes, even though it's been a while since my student days. Luckily, these days no one can make you learn the periodic table by heart anymore and you get to pick the subject yourself. Some ideas from this issue: a yoga/pilates course with 80% of the cost covered by your health insurance, German classes with up to 35% off if your German has been stuck at genau, and my stationery picks because buying new pens in September is a pleasure we don’t have to give up just because we’re not in school anymore.
Note: this article contains affiliate links, which are marked with *.
🧘 Tip of the Week: How to Get Yoga Classes Almost Free
If your employer doesn't subsidize a fitness app or gym membership, studio classes can get pricey, especially in big cities. If you're insured with TK, though, there's a benefit a lot of people don’t know about: they subsidize health courses, which covers things like yoga, pilates, and some other fitness classes.
TK reimburses 80% of the course fee – up to €150 for a single course, or €300 for a combination course – and you can claim up to two single courses or one combination course per calendar year. That adds up to a real saving: a typical yoga course in Berlin runs €120-150 for 8-10 sessions, so with 80% covered, you end up paying just €25-30 yourself. And this isn't limited to some dusty community-center classes – plenty of nice studios take part too. I've seen a couple of fancy yoga studios in Berlin Friedrichshain offering TK-eligible courses. Courses run by TK directly are reimbursed in full.
A couple of things to check before you sign up. The course needs a fixed start and end date, so ongoing membership or drop-in classes don't qualify, and it has to be certified by the Zentrale Prüfstelle Prävention – most proper course providers are, and you'll find eligible ones through TK's health course search. Once you've finished, you upload your certificate of participation via Meine TK or the TK app and get your money back. That's a few minutes of paperwork for a whole yoga course – definitely worth it.
🔥 Hot Deals
🍽️ Two Free Months of Restaurant Deals with NeoTaste
Of all the apps on my phone, NeoTaste* is probably the one that has saved me the most money. It's an app that gives you access to restaurant deals, and I've used 27 of them so far, saving €242 – and I just got an annual plan because I'm planning to keep going. At first, I had a prejudice that restaurants offering big discounts wouldn't be the best ones, but NeoTaste quickly proved me wrong. The app has plenty of good places – the kind of restaurants I'd happily visit even without a deal.
Here are the types of offers you'll find on the app:
2-for-1 offers – usually on the main dish or the signature item a place serves. Examples in Berlin include poke bowls at Maloa, burgers at Hans im Glück, coffee at Starbucks, croissants at Croissant Couture, coffee + cake at 19Grams, and cocktails at Zu mir oder Zu dir.
€10 off >€25 spend – a discount that works out to up to 40% off. I usually use it for sit-down lunches or dinners for two. In Berlin, you can get this discount on Thai food at Hangmee, tapas at La Peccadille, Middle Eastern plates at Ali Baba and many other places.
€1 dishes – time-limited jackpot deals that sell out quickly. Examples in Berlin have included fried chicken at Mmaah, a burger at Peter Pane, and cookies at OOH! Cookie.
NeoTaste is now in 53 cities in Germany and a few other European countries, with the biggest presence in Berlin (1600+ deals), Hamburg (730+ deals), Munich (650+ deals) and Cologne (620+ deals). You can find the full list of cities here.
If you haven't used NeoTaste before, you can try it free for two months with this link* or the code SMARTLIVING2m (advertisement), up from the usual one free month. After the free trial, NeoTaste costs €3.99 per month with annual billing (€47.88/year) or €6.99 if you pay monthly – but you can cancel anytime before the end of the trial to avoid getting charged. Start your free trial here*.
My NeoTaste subscription paid for itself many times over – the deals in the app are great.
💶 €170 Bonus from 1822direkt
1822direkt* is paying a €170 bonus on their GiroDirekt account, and the application deadline is August 31 (which is next Monday). You then have until September 14 to actually open the account.
To get the bonus, you need at least €700 to arrive in the account in each of two consecutive calendar months, any time up to December 30. The money has to come from salary, wages, pension, civil service pay or BAföG – transfers from your own accounts or from other private individuals don't count. The offer is for people who haven't had a current account with 1822direkt or Frankfurter Sparkasse in the last 12 months.
The account itself is free if you're under 30 or have €700 a month coming in (which you'll need for the bonus anyway); otherwise, it costs €4.90 per month. It includes a Girocard, and the linked savings account is currently giving 3.20% interest per year, which is well above what most banks are paying at the moment. Sign up for your account here*.
🛒 Amazon Corner: Back to School Edit
After years of doing everything digitally, I've been drifting back towards pen and paper – writing things by hand, keeping a paper planner, that sort of thing. We're all about the analogue life now. Here's a stationery edit for the back-to-school mood, whether you're buying for your kids or just for yourself.
Let September be your excuse for buying new stationery.
Pens, pencils and more:
Faber-Castell hexagonal coloring pencils, box of 60* (€14.90) – the gold standard of coloring pencils, and 60 of them will cover every shade a school project could demand.
STABILO swing cool pastel highlighters, pack of 8* (€9.79) – slim pocket-sized highlighters in muted colors that don't hurt to look at.
Japanese-style liquid gel pens, 0.35 mm, 12-pack* (€13.96) – very fine tips that glide much better than a regular ballpoint.
Pilot FriXion Clicker erasable rollerball pens, set of 5* (€11.59) – this is really cool, how did I not know that these existed?
Faber-Castell Leo "Sugarspots" ballpoint pens, pack of 2* (€16.95) – leopard-spot design in a metal gift case, my teenage self would have been very happy with these.
Scriveiner fountain pen* (€48.99) – the splurge of this list, for anyone who wanted to be a writer when they grew up.
Pencil cases:
Brown vintage leather pencil case* (€17.99) – very stylish, and one of those things that looks better the more worn it gets.
EASTHILL large-capacity pencil case* (€13.99) – a bigger one for anyone whose pen collection has gotten out of hand.
Notebooks and journals:
Moleskine Classic Notebook, XL, Hydrangea Blue* (€18.19) – you can't go wrong with Moleskine notebooks, and I absolutely love this color. The pages are plain rather than lined, which is worth knowing before you order.
Moleskine Weekly Planner 2026–2027* (€23.79) – an 18-month planner, so you can start now instead of waiting for January.
A5 notebook in dark green* (€9.99) – a more affordable minimalistic option.
Tivoli recycled-leather journal, A5* (€33.95) – handmade and vintage-looking, and it comes in a gift box, so it's an easy present.
Hardback journal with an embossed celestial cover* (€19.80) – If you're not into Moleskine-style minimalism, here is a very pretty celestial design.
Paper&you dotted journal in Pink Flowers* (€7.99) – for those who prefer florals to moon and stars.
Folders and desk organizers:
A4 expanding document folder with 8 labeled compartments* (€10.99) – do you also get a ton of paper mail, hidden in a pile somewhere in your cupboards? (It's a rhetorical question). Here's a folder to keep it in instead.
360° rotating desk organizer in light pink* (€10.99) – spins around so that everything is reachable without digging through a drawer.
Leather pen organizer* (€22.99) – a smarter-looking organizer option if your desk is also in your living room.
Mesh metal desk organizer* (€16.99) – simple, sturdy and an easy way to get pens off the desk surface.
If you have any favorite Amazon products (from any category) that you love and want to recommend to people, don't be shy and share them here – I will be running more Amazon roundups in the next issues and would love to include your favorites.
💰 More Deals
Lingoda up to 35% off: German is the obvious subject to pick for your self-imposed back-to-school moment this September, though Lingoda* also teaches Spanish, French, Italian and English. They run live 60-minute classes on Zoom in small groups, and their Flex plans let you decide how many classes you take every four weeks. Until September 30, the code MYLINGODA35 (advertisement) gets you up to 35% off the first two months, with the biggest discount on the 40-class plan (€272.99 instead of €419.99, or €6.99 per class). There's also a 7-day free trial if you want to test it first. Sign up here*.
eismann €15 off: eismann is a company that does frozen food, and does it well. New customers can get €15 off a first order of €35 or more with the code AFFNK15 (advertisement) until September 30. I ordered a few things and my favorites were the potato dishes* and the vegetable mixes*, which are better than what I usually find at supermarkets. One quirk worth knowing: eismann runs on a "milkman" model, so a few weeks after you order, a driver may stop by or call ahead to take future orders – if you'd rather not be contacted, you can ask to be taken off the list. Order here*.
Allmobil 45 GB for €5.91/month: This is one of the best-value plans I've seen in a while. It runs on the Vodafone network with 45 GB of data at up to 100 Mbit/s, unlimited calls and texts, and no activation fee. The base price is €7.99 per month on a 24-month contract, and bringing your number over from another network gets you a €50 switching bonus, which works out to an effective €5.91 per month. Sign up here*.
Germanpedia is a weekly newsletter that breaks down German systems in clear English – taxes, pensions, healthcare, renting, bureaucracy, legal topics and more. Each issue goes into the details with practical examples, step-by-step guidance, useful tools, templates or calculators. Even after many years in Germany, I still learn something new about how things work here from this newsletter. You can subscribe here.
🎁 Freebies
OnThatAss boxer shorts: This reader-beloved promo just got even better: get two free pairs of boxer shorts instead of one (sizes XS–3XL or boys' 104–152) when you sign up here* by August 30, shipping included. After the 14-day trial, the subscription continues at €12.99/month for a new pair each month, but you can cancel before the trial ends at no cost.
Nutella biscuits: My favorite freebie is back – I've been obsessed with these cookies ever since I tried them because they are absolutely delicious. Buy a 304 g pack by September 13 and upload your receipt to get your money back. I already got mine.
Sensodyne ProSchmelz Clinical Zahnschmelz Protect: Buy an action pack with the promo sticker by October 31, then register and upload your receipt along with the packaging showing the sticker to get your money back.
Lipton Sensations: Three flavors of iced tea – Strawberry Swirl, Watermelon Waves and Peach Paradise. Buy a 1-liter bottle by October 25 and upload a photo of your receipt and the bottle by November 8 to get up to €2.99 back.
Money-back grocery and household product promos are one of the easiest ways to cut everyday costs. A lot of promotions from previous issues are still active – you can find them all here if you'd like to try more. For more free grocery products, Rewe product tests are worth a look as well.
Two free pairs of boxer shorts, delivered to your mailbox.
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