Believe it or not, it’s actually not too difficult to make (and stick to!) a budget. You can make the most of your cash by simply figuring out how much you have and then deciding how much you can spend. Easy, right?

Start with income. Do you get an allowance? Have a part-time job? A scholarship that pays for living expenses? Calculate how much money you take in per month. Don’t forget to include your after-tax job income (you may make $8/hour, but some of that will be eaten up by taxes before you ever see it!) You may also be taking money each week out of your savings (from a Summer job for example), so calculate how much of that you can spend each week without going broke before May.

Now figure out how much you absolutely MUST spend each month–these are the essentials, like rent (if you pay rent, or housing fees), transportation, loan payments, etc. If you have a meal plan and never eat out, you can throw that in there as an essential expense. Once you see how much you have left, you’ll be able to decide how much you want to spend on groceries and how much you can afford to eat out. Read More »

If you’re like me, college has put a severe dent in your wallet. So much of a dent, it seems like the day you’ll finally pay back all those loans will be the day you check yourself in a retirement home.

When it comes to finding ways to make cash, my motto is “anything except prostitution and drugs” (I’d even strip, but sadly, I dance like a blind five-year-old and would most likely kill myself in five inch heels). I’ve worked a lot of odd jobs, and sometimes feel like I’d do almost anything for an extra hundred bucks.

That’s where science comes in.

Poor college kids all over the country have found a way make money fast, easily, and by doing almost no work: they become lab rats.

Log onto to your city’s Craigslist, look up at subway ads or even in the classifieds in your school’s paper–advertisements for “study participants” are everywhere. Research experiments usually need people, and who has time to take a few hours out of their day to watch simultaneous images of turtles and hard core pornography? College kids. Read More »