School is so close to starting! College is such an awesome and exciting time. But it’s also such an expensive time… You can save money to put down on your education, you can receive scholarships, but you also probably need some extra cash while you’re in school. Whether this money is for fun spending money, or to put toward tuition, check out these tips on some ways to make money in college!
Sell Textbooks
In my previous post Saving Money In College , I talked about finding cheap and used textbooks rather than new. Once the semester is over, turn around and sell those books! I would recommend keeping books that may be more applicable to your major. For example, I kept my huge accounting book (it was quite expensive I might add), but since it would be a useful resource for my major, I held onto it.
When you take those gen ed classes, sell those books back at the end of the semester. Hit up classmates first. If you can sell it for a couple dollars less than Amazon, people will definitely buy them from you. In many cases, I only spent a few dollars on each book from buying them on Amazon and then selling to a friend who would take the class another semester.
Get An On-Campus Job
On-campus jobs are great because of their convenience. It’s great to be able to work a few hours in the bookstore and then rush off to make it to class in 5 minutes. Universities can offer a wide array of positions. From library to admissions, bookstore to cafeteria, coffee shop to department admin-there are many different on campus working opportunities! Find a position that might interest you. I worked as a campus RA (which was paid in the form of a scholarship), but I was so excited about the opportunity of this position that I still would have done it if it wasn’t paid!
You don’t need to work 40 hours or anything like that. 10-20 hours a week is a perfect amount of time to work a week. This will also help you learn more about time management. You will have to balance work with school and fun, but there’s a lot of life skills that you will learn with this. Having that extra cash will be helpful with spending money, or just stash it for your next semester of college!
Become A Tutor
If you are great at a particular subject, consider becoming a tutor! Many schools will pay students to tutor other students. This is great too because the hours can be flexible. Depending on how long you tutor for, your pay can vary. If you have an easy week, you can tutor a lot of students, and in busy times, you can pull back on hours. Talk to your student services department to get into a tutoring program. Other students will also appreciate your knowledge and expertise. 🙂
Sell Things On Ebay
I had friends in college who bought and sold things on Ebay as a way to make some extra cash! Some were very successful at it. This could even be a fun hobby if you are interested in some sort of product to begin with! Now I am not super familiar with this and didn’t do it in college, but I just wanted to throw this idea out there. 🙂 I’m sure someone has some sort of guide to Ebay that you can find on Google!
Get A Summer Job
Now when you’re off from school, it’s very important that you take a summer job! You’re off school for months and are able to work full time, so take advantage of this opportunity! My first summer I worked at the frozen yogurt place I worked at in high school. I was also taking a few online summer courses so I could graduate early, but I worked about 20 hours a week. This was helpful in generating an extra little bit of cash.
My second college summer before my senior year, I worked full time as an intern! I interned for the company I am with now and it was a great opportunity to learn more about accounting, and getting paid to do so. I worked all summer long and brought in a bunch of cash that I threw to fall tuition. Therefore, I didn’t have much to take out in student loans that year. P.S. You can even get school credit for an internship so that’s a second reason why you should consider an internship of some kind.
Whether it’s an internship or a random job, definitely work during the summer. It’s a great time to make extra money, it gives you more to add to your resume, and takes advantage of your free time.
Work is Work
When it all comes down to it, work is work. It’s not easy and you will have to sacrifice things to make extra cash. There is no “get rich quick” scheme that will make you thousands while you watch YouTube videos all day. It takes effort, determination, and willingness to work to avoid debt and make money. So get working and stash that extra cash!
Marissa
YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXq-IZooHOSL8KCC2_7OcPQ