Any thoughts on how to save money? These probably need to be big ideas. I've been trying for two months to find a job and I can't find one. I haven't worked since my DD was 3 and she is now 11. It seems nobody wants to hire someone who has been out of work so long. So I'm going back to school in January. We really need to tighten our belts. Your help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Janice

I don't have any tips but I'm also going back to school in January and will be watching this thread. We'll be having a lot more expenses beginning that month.

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Vicki
Mama to Princess, 5 and Wild Thing, 3
Progress Since 1/6/09:

I was going to suggest nanny work for a job - I misread your post. LOL I'm awful tired. Um, do you use Angel Food Ministries yet? It is a box of food that values around $50 or a little more that costs just $25. Also, I'd pick up some things now that are on sale - stuffing, flour, sugar, etc. They'll help you when you're really tight (you can make bread with the flour, toss stuffing on top of a bunch of mixed up leftovers for casserole, etc). Try to find coupons or order them (I use Coupons & Online Grocery Coupons | The Coupon Clippers and like them a lot) to get the best savings. When ham goes on sale for Christmas, buy an extra if you can (or even just a bigger one than normal and freeze leftovers). You can get a lot of meals out of ham - breakfast, casseroles, soups. Do you have an Aldi foods nearby? I save tons of money by shopping there for most of our groceries.

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If you have to buy books for your classes, my biggest tip is to take your school schedule to the school bookstore, and find the books for your class, and write down either the ISBN number (ont he back of the book, above the bar code....if they see you doing this, they will ask that youd on't because they dont' want to lose money) OR the title and author and edition of the book (3rd edition, 8th edition, etc...)and the price for a new and used book (i used to just tell the bookstore people that i needed the info to get my money together for my books). Then get on either amazon.com and/or half.com and find those books....you can find most, used, for almost half of the price they charge you there at the bookstore. And then, when school is out and you don't want those books anymore, you can sell them back on those websites....NEVER sell your books back to the bookstore, you are better off burning them in the street...because they give you about 10% of what they charge for the book....that's it. That's been my biggest money saver throughout the years.....trust me, you will pay $300 for $600 worth of books.....seriously.
Other than that, if you have friends that are going there as well, carpool.
Bust your hump in class and do well, nothing sucks worse than having to drop a class that youaren't doing well in and losing that money for the class.....
you can do it! Good luck!!

This is the plan here too. Im also going back in Jan. I don't have much advice since Im still learning how to make it all happen myself. I just wanted to say good luck.

I am going back in January too, hopefully! I only have like a year and a half to finish my bachelor's degree for Accounting. We are going to have to buckle down quite a bit, but it is doable. Especially when you think about the benefits you reap when you get the degree and hopefully the great paying job! Where there is a will there is a way!

It may be too late for this coming semester, but in the future I would apply for as much financial aid as possible. Depending on the size of your family, and the loss of income from you not working/going to school, you could qualify for subsidized loans, where the government picks up the interest while you're in school, and grants. I'm in school as well, and usually I qualify for enough to have everything paid for as far as classes and books, and have at least $2000 left over. It depends on how you feel about a little bit of that coming from loans though..

Buy your books on amazon.com or half.com, and resell them at the end of the semester to go towards your next semesters books.

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