The start of my senior year brought about a lot of new experiences for me, like writing for Her Campus at FSU, becoming an ambassador with the Career Center, and interning with the Kudzu Review and the DeVoe L. Moore Center. With these new experiences, I’ve gained skills, met wonderful people, and learned how to develop myself as a professional. However, while participating in all these activities, I’ve had to seriously work around the weird hours to find time to go to my job on campus.
While I’ve done my best to work around my schedule, most jobs aren’t okay with employees coming and going mid-shift, so my hours have taken a sizeable cut. As such, I’ve had to pick up a few small ways to stretch my budget each month. So, without further ado, here are five uncommon ways I’ve made ends meet as a college student.
- Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT)
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At the start of the fall semester, my friend came to me and told me I had to apply for EBT because, as a full-time student who also has paid employment, I should definitely qualify. True enough, after some trouble with the website and receiving my mail, I acquired my benefits!
The money only goes toward food, and it can’t be used on anything warm (Pub subs included, sadly), though it will work on sushi and already-packaged poke bowls. It has been invaluable for making sure that I eat balanced meals since the price of meat becomes a little less daunting. I also get to experiment with recipes and flavors more.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has a Q&A on its website detailing what would allow someone to qualify. Even if you’re not sure you do based on their criteria, it can’t hurt to apply.
- Prolific
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Prolific is a website that allows you to participate in studies conducted by universities and organizations for small amounts of money. For me, signing up for Prolific was as simple as turning 18 and creating an account. Once approved, I had to enter some of my demographics, but nothing too personal, and then I was free to start participating. The amount of money earned depends on how long the study is, so in my experience, they can range from anywhere between 20 cents to $8. The currency is in euros, but once I had cashed out through PayPal, it was easy to make sure everything was in dollars.
It takes me a pretty long time to make income off of this website, but it has been a nice thing for me to just do in my free time. Every little bit counts.
- Upside
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Upside is an app that allows you to earn cash back on gas and food purchases. I’ve only used it for gas, but I do see the option for fast-food restaurants near me, too. All I have to do is go to a gas station that is offering a deal, and they usually offer more during the first couple of times you use it and claim the deal. They’ll either ask for a picture of the receipt to see or track the online transaction. The deals are usually around 11 cents for me now since I’ve been using it for a little while. I’ve noticed that I get the most out of it when I wait to get gas since the more money spent, the more cash I can get back.
This route is also not a way to “get rich quick” or even a way to make big money, but I like to think that it’s something I have to spend money on anyway, so I might as well get a little back from it.
- Fetch
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Fetch is an app that allows you to earn points for your receipts. Points add up and can be used to earn a gift card. This is another app that will take a while to gain a profit from, but I know if I’m out buying things anyway, it really can’t hurt.
- Donating
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I donate blood with OneBlood pretty much every time I’m eligible and get a nice $20 gift card each time. Blood is done every eight weeks, and platelets are done every seven days. I’ve also been looking into donating plasma, but there are so many different centers to check, and it’s been a strangely complicated process.
There are probably many other little ways to make the budget work each month, but these have worked great for me so far. Even though most of them take a while to really turn into anything, I believe that every little bit counts.
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