SOS and like, help! Start of second semester and I don't think that I have enough for books. My student loan won't kick in for a few weeks and I need the books ASAP.

I figure that if I use the combined wisdom(snicker) of all of the SP members, I might be able to scrape by.

So, how do I gather the several hundred dollars(Canadian) in a week?

Rob a bank.

Aren't there job boards at your school? Where locals post ads for things they need done? I was in the same spot as you when I was in my freshman year. I found a posting on a job board outside my school's financial aid office from an old lady who needed weeds pulled and general work done in her yard. She paid me like $50 for 4 hours work. Not very glamerous, but 3 or 4 little jobs like that that pay cash and you should be home free.

It all depends on what you're willing to do and important it is to you.

Quick! Go to the university library and check out the books you need. Quick before the others get there before you!

- Strip for rich old ladies
- Offer to be a practicedummy at martial arts clubs
- Quit school and start a job as a garbagetruckdriver.
- Sell videotapes of you and your ex on Ebay.

What? It'll work, trust me! :grin:

@Faragorn, do you speak from experience? Have old ladys seen your big axe?

If the text books are commonly assigned than looking for second hand copies can really save you some serious money. At my university there was a second hand shop where the books were about 50% of new prices but you could often buy directly from an upper year student for even less than that. Try looking for used text books for sale ads on the bulletin boards in student lounges etc.

Another somewhat practical suggestion would be to sell some type of cooked food. In my experience, many students were more than willing to pay good money for home made desserts, BBQ dinners etc. I know a guy who made nearly $200 by organizing a huge residence BBQ. He didn't make much of a profit on the food itself but he made a killing by buying cases of pop and selling individual cans at vending machine prices.

Running movie nights, video game tournaments etc. where everyone is supposed to put in a few bucks to cover entertainment and possibly snacks can produce huge winfalls if you can book a large enough room. Again, pulling the old buy cases of pop and sell individual cans trick works well at such events.

One friend of mine found a trick to get free food from the school vending machines by swiping his meal card and then pulling the machine's power cord out from the wall when the dropping mechanism was half way through its cycle. The machine continued to cycle the dropping mechanism when the plug was put back in and didn't charge his meal card. This could either save some money on food or make selling snacks highly profitable.

Trust me, that one works: Get a job ... wait ... maybe you should have gotten yourself one a month ago :shake:

Borrow your parents' credit card. Schools often let you use their cards as your own to purchase books.

I have a job, it just doesn't pay enough. Money needed, no jobs available.

Be a gigolo/rentboy! Works for me. ;)

:p ask a US resident for a couple bucks :p

Sell the books you used for the first semester if you no-longer need them.

Put the library books you need to one side in the library so that no one else checks them out. The top shelf of the Polictical Studies section is always a good place to hide them as Political Studies students don't use library books, they know it all already.

Check other public libraries in town for copies of the books. Previous students may have ordered a copy of the book to be bought by these libraries. If not, the library may be able to transfer it in from a different library in the area for you.

Check if your college has any Hardship Grants going. Student Welfare Officers, Studies Advisors and Chaplains can have access to discretionary funds.

Amazon sells secondhand books also.

Alot of books on the reading list are completely unneccessary and are only an indication of the lectures well-read vanity.

Never buy books off lecturers, it is always a scam (may affect your grades if you don't buy the books though).

You can photocopy a certain percentage of books for research and study purposes without infringing copyright (or you could wait 120 years for the book to go out of copyright and copy it all. :mad: )

Form a study group with other people in the class and share resources (and copy assignments, it's good practice for the real world. The third level education marking system is based on the understanding that everybody cheats and will therefore be able to cope with an otherwise unreasonable amount of assignment work. This is also the reason why exam questions come directly from past papers, the lecturers don't expect you to actually know the subject, just the examination protocol).

Sell your computer games and game consoles. Harsh, I know, but you won't have time to play them now and you can re-aquire them in the future at a fraction of the price.

There is lots of other stuff you can do but mostly its illegal everywhere except Korea.

Watch Animal House (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0783229321/103-1113383-8864602?v=glance) for more hints on how to make a little go a long way.

[ January 06, 2004, 09:47: Message edited by: Bluin ]

ask a US resident for a couple bucksNah, we US citizens are too greedy to give anyone money. I will make you a $5000 loan at 100% APR, though.