Limo Driver – Buy yourself a 30 foot Lincoln and start charging folks! – or better yet find someone who already has a fleet of them
The Good: Fat tips! and the possibility of spending the evening cruising around with the ever important bachelorette parties.
The Bad: You work almost exclusively at night unless you need to drop/pickup some big shot at the airport or the occasional funeral road trip, and don’t forget the potential to end up cleaning puke at 3am.

Event security – Work Sporting events, Concerts, Rallies…all the good things in life!
The Good: Attend some of the sweetest events in town and get paid for it, you get to walk around acting like you actually have some authority for your entire shift.
The Bad: No cash tips (this may be over shadowed by the joy you receive by taking in fist fights for a paycheck). The potential to end up cleaning puke at 3am.

Bartending – You’ve been practicing making drinks for the ladies….now you can finally get something in return for you efforts.
The Good: Tips – lots of them if you’re any good and you get to spend your evenings flirting. The ability to hook up your friends when you’re working and cheap drinks when you aren’t working
The Bad: You get off after all the bars close, all your friends are already drunk and don’t forget the potential to end up cleaning puke at 3am.

So aside from cleaning up puke at 3am these may be some of your best chances to make some good cash without committing to some sad 40 hour sentence.

Written by financia @ www.FinancialFreakShow.com

I don’t know about your school but my school offered to all students a free semester bus pass. Well, it wasn’t an actual buss pass they would hand out to you. All you would have to do is present your ID card to the ID counter then they would encode the buss pass in your ID card. Your probably asking, “what does this have to do with not having to buy a parking permit”. Park your car near a bus stop which is close to your campus. Then obviously jump on the bus and take it to school. The reasoning for parking your car away from campus is because most places surrounding campuses doesn’t allow students to park. Taking the bus can be a pain in the ass sometimes but being a broke student you don’t have many choices.

Most of you college students either own a skateboard or a raggedy old bike that you got when you were 16. So why not use these transportation devises? Just park your vehicle a few blocks from campus and let the wind blow freely in your hair as you gracefully cruz to school. Not only do you save money but you get a nice little work out too.

My campus offered a discount on parking passes which were designated to students who carpooled with other students. The only difficult thing about doing this is making sure class schedules don’t conflict which each other. Not only did carpool students get a discount on their parking permit but they also had access to a up front designated parking area.

When my buddies and I would through the largest parties known to man, we would make a bundle of money simply by recycling all of the left over bottles and cans the morning after our party. The most we ever made was about $50.00. The only difficult part about recycling all the bottles and cans which were left over was collecting them while having a throbbing head ache and a sour stomach at the same time. The money which we received from recycling would either be used to finance our next party or to purchase Bloody Mary’s to help aid our gruesome hangovers from the night before.

Most people who live in an actual house have a recycling bin. These recycling bins are Jack Pots. All you have to do is travel to your relatives and friends houses with empty trash bags. Make sure you let them know what you are doing so they don’t mistake you for a bum even though you kind of are one. This can be source of weekly income that should no longer take a couple of hours to do.

I once saw on T.V. that this guy collected all sorts of recyclable objects raging from cans to moldy water heaters for 3yrs to help finance a certain something. This something was a future college education for his energetic three year old son. Try and make an educated guess on how much money he accumulated. His hard work and devotion to providing a college education for his son allowed him to earn over $30,000. Let me say that again, “$30,000″! I bet your educated guess was no way near this amount.

Don’t be afraid to go trash diving in public trash cans or searching through public locations for recycling objects. Don’t be embarrassed and don’t be ashamed because it’s not your fault that you’re a broke ass student. Make sure you are clean about it and were rubber gloves and wash your hands extensively after you are done receiving piles of cash from your hard work.

Now after reading through this article I am sure you are asking “where do I recycle”. Well, you could either take you recycling loads to Ralphs or your city operated Recycle Center. If you do not know where the recycle center is just go to your local city’s website and the location most likely will be displayed there. I’m sure there are other places to go but these are the places I go to.

Check out this site which has a list of what you can recycle and will answer any recycling question you may have: http://www.burrtecdesert.com/page81.html

If you live in or close to an area which is highly populated by a certain type of ethnic group, then my Hobo friends you are in luck. Most small authentic grocery markets sell good quality food products at inexpensive prices. They have to sell their products at a lower price than the big commercial grocery stores because of fierce competition. Another reason for reduce prices is the majority of their devoted customers are somewhat new to the U.S., which means it is more difficult for them to afford expensive groceries. The best part about shopping at these places is you will discover new types of excellent tasting food.

For all of you meat eaters, FREEZE YOUR MEAT! Meat is usually discounted when it is soon to be expired. People who are idiots never think twice about purchasing discounted meat. I have bought huge pieces of steak for around $1.50 and countless pieces of chicken breast as well. If you put any type of meat or poultry in the freezer the day before it expires, the meet will then last for a little more than a month. I would buy 3 to 5 discounted steaks, put them in zip lock bags, and through them straight into the freezer. So think about it, you just paid $1.50 for a nice steak dinner! If you’re a guy, you can tell a hot looking woman, “Hey, you want to come over for a juicy steak dinner at my place”. If you were to take this lovely lady out to a restaurant, you would for sure be paying over 20 bucks for a steak dinner.

P (peanut butter) and J (jelly) sandwiches are very inexpensive to make. You can buy jelly, peanut butter and a loaf of bread for under $10.00. You just supplied yourself with a week in a half worth of lunches for less than $10.00. You are easily able to spend that amount of money with one stop to a bacteria infested fast food place for lunch.

Don’t be a snob and by name brand stuff. Just because mommy and daddy would buy it for you while you were growing up doesn’t me you have to. There is a certain marketing technique marketers do to get you to buy the same name brand stuff your parents bought you. I know this because I have studied it; some marketers call this a nostalgia marketing technique. Store brand products and name brand products are almost identical. You will save a ton of money by simply buying store brand products. So once again, DON’T BE A SNOB!

Don’t buy cereal it is way out of your budget. I know it is easy to make but it’s just too expensive for a broke student. The amount you spend on a dozen eggs and a loaf of bread is about the same price as one box of cereal and a gallon of milk. If you don’t believe me go see for yourself. Yes, I know your lazy and don’t want to take the time to cook up some eggs and make toast. Make time and do it because would you rather have a full belly in the morning for more than a week or for three days because that’s how long especially for guys a box of cereal lasts.

Instead of buying those expensive cartons of juices buy the cans of juice powder instead. All you need is water, juice powder and your set. A carton of juice is expensive and it doesn’t last long. If you go buy one of those juice powder packages you will be good for at least a whole month.

Shop smart, don’t be a snob, and be open minded. Do these simple things and you will never have to look at an empty refrigerator for the rest of your college career!

How do you obtain a tasty ice cold beer with little to no money?

There is a very useful website called http://www.thriftybeer.com/. This website was created by two broke college students. The site allows you to locate the stores which are currently selling beer at discounted prices in your local area. It will give you detailed information about what type of beer, quantity, price, and location of store which it is being sold at. I have came up on $15.00 30packs of beer because of this site. I always use this site before I decide to go purchase beer.

If you have not one dime in your wallet then my Hobo friend, it’s time to go hunt for treasure! The first place you should look is obviously under the cushions of your abused couch. I guarantee, you will at least find a shinny dime in there. If you are fortunate enough to own a car, go dig between and under your seats. Another place is to go in your messy room and search through the pockets of your shorts and pants. If your roommates aren’t home, search through their pockets of their shorts and pants too. They most likely will not notice if a dime is missing and if they do just tell them, “It wasn’t me” with a promising look on your face. Many locations including college campuses have fountains. Go fountain diving and collect as much money as you can but be sneaky about it. After you have accumulated around a $1.50, STOP! Go to your local liquor store and pick up a 40oz of freedom and ENJOY!

Many people are willing to help college students out! Go to a bar which is not frequently visited by college students. Sit next to a person who at least looks over 40 and isn’t dressed like a dirty bum. After presenting your I.D. to the bartender ask, “what is the most inexpensive beer you sell”? After the bartenders reply say with a frown on your face, “damn I hate being a college student, I can’t even afford the cheapest beer sold at a bar”. If you’re lucky the person next to you or the bartender will buy you that beer. I have done this and it worked 3 out of 8 times. This particular idea might sound a little crazy but if you really want that refreshing beer you will do it.

CHEERS!

We also did something similar to the “Costco Buffet” article. We would take a backpack with containers in them inside to Costco. We rounded the freebie stands and placed the food in the containers to be heated up for lunch and dinner. Of course, we did this in the bathroom where no one could see. We would also take our back pack filled with containers to Grand Openings of various stores. We would always receive a belly full of free hotdogs, hamburgers and sometimes even steaks. Lastly, we would hit up fast food places for condiments such as; creamers for our coffee, salt, pepper, ketchup, and BBQ sauce. We would also take toilet paper from public bathrooms and paper towels from This saves big bucks believe it or not.

I hope this helps all of you broke students because it did for me.

I’m soon to be a graduate, but in the mean time, here’s the one tip that saved me a bundle in my first few years of college. Even the green/eco-crazy folks out there can appreciate this one because it’s all about recycling. The only cost is the elbow grease required to rinse out a cup. Once you buy your first drink at whatever fast food joint is nearest to your place, you have infinite free refills. It helped that my roommate was as addicted to Mt. Dew as I was to Orange Fanta, but no joke, we were drinking 2-4 cans of our preferred beverage per day. Needless to say, our wallets were getting hammered by the habit. The idea came from a TV show that Comedy Central ran for a few episodes called “Con” where the host had several fast food cups in his trunk that he’d just walk in and get “refills” of whatever he wanted completely free after he’d gotten the cup with a meal. The problem we both had with it is that the slightly waxed cardboard cups that you usually get with a meal fall apart relatively quickly.

Our solution? We’d up-size our meal to get the huge plastic cups. Yeah, it cost a little more, but we’d never need another cup. The perk? No need to keep up with lids because they had those and straws readily available right by our new free cola. This was fine for a while, but we’d end up drinking a cup there, and taking one with us to go. It didn’t solve our morning cola problem, because we couldn’t leave a cup unenjoyed in our refrigerator overnight. So we decided to make an investment. We each bought 2 nalgene bottles from the outdoors store in town. Yeah, 8 bucks per bottle can have a toll, but after a week off from buying a few 12-packs of cans, we had a few expendable dollars. Now, instead of only drinking a cup, refilling and leaving, we’d come in with our backpacks, complete with our 2 nalgenes. We’d still enjoy our cup, but we’d walk out with that cup refilled and 64 additional ounces of soda. I’ve since transferred schools and laid off the cokes, but I still have those nalgenes for water consumption (which is far more readily available and way less hassle). This saved my roommate and I about 15-20 bucks per week apiece for a year and a half of college. It might not be super-savvy or even all that clever. But extra money in hand is always a good thing.

Cheers,

Cory

Spending money on utensils was NOT AN OPTION! My friends and I searched around our hotel room for a knife substitute. All of a sudden the greatest idea ever popped into my imaginary brain. I came up with the wonderful idea to use an unused tampon applicator. I just slipped the applicator off, flattened it out and started digging in both jars. The applicator spread the peanut butter and jelly nice and evenly. I could not believe how great it worked! They were the best P and J Sandwiches my friends and I have ever had.

P.S. I love this site, keep the funny articles coming!

Contributed by Alyssa Medina, CSUF

Behold, the gods of alcohol have heard my desperate prayers and sent down an angel that blessed me with the ultimate gift any poor ass student would cry like a girl over. My cousin from Europe was visiting us in California and as a sign of her appreciation for giving her a place to stay, she brought us all gifts. Well mine turned out to be the Holy Grail, the flask. As soon as she pulled it out of her purse and the shimmering of chrome hit my eyes as if I had just stepped out into the open and looked directly into the sun, I dropped to my knees, looked up at the ceiling and had a premonition that would soon change my drinking days forever.

I had ultimately found a way to get drunk at the bars without spending a dime, so here it is but please pay close attention:

• First of, you obviously need a flask in order for this to work
• Next, fill the flask in with your favorite alcohol, preferably a bottle from last nights party
• Head over to your local bar district, make sure your with a decent size group (special note: if they are searching people at the door, hide the flask in your pelvic area or ask one of your lady friends to hide it in their purse)
• Hang around the bar area so the bartender notices your group, once he does and sees all your friends drinking, call him over and specifically tell him that your are the designated driver for the evening and you should then receive your free glass of coke
• Finally, take glass of coke over to the bathroom, pull your flask out of your pants and PRESTO, you just made a jack and coke in a stall that has poop floating in the toilet.
• Special Note: after your 3rd or 4^th bar, try not to looked too blitzed outta of your mind when telling the bartender you’re a designated driver or else it won’t work.

Now you necessarily don’t really need to do this if you just want to drink straight out of the flask, but if you don’t want to look like to much of a broke ass fool, then I would highly recommend doing this. I can’t stress to you guys how well this technique has worked for me over the last couple of years. I have literally saved hundreds of dollars by using a flask and not mention, woken up in alley ways and have gotten familiar with the most wretched females around the Southern California area so definitely give this money saving method a shot.

Before I leave you to your debauchery and beer drinking, check out this website (http://www.gunthergifts.com/) if you would like to purchase a flask, or just head over to your local liquor store.

Cheers!

]]> http://hobostudent.com/2009/08/the-all-mighty-flask/feed/ http://hobostudent.com/2009/08/poor-mans-treasure-chest/ http://hobostudent.com/2009/08/poor-mans-treasure-chest/#comments Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:11:02 +0000 Justin http://hobostudent.com/?p=161 Your room can be a treasure chest! Don’t you hate those damn days of the month where you absolutely do not have one penny to your freaking name. You know every month has them, but you just don’t know when that hellish of a day is going to take place. FEAR NO MORE, this simple easy hustling tactic will fill your empty ass pockets.

Pretend you are a treasure hunter. Go explore your living quarters for items which you have not used within the past three months. The items which you collect can be anything from an old raggedy paperback book to a used snowboard. Take your treasure which you have found and sell them on craigslist.com. Also, consider using Ebay.com as well because you can get a wider range of exposure for yourself.  You will definitely second guess your self in deciding to sell the items which you have chosen. But trust me you hobos, if you have not used something in the past three months than it is a guarantee you will continue not to use it.

I remember a time, when I was having one of those broke ass days and I needed to purchase something for school. So I decided to hunt in my room for potential treasure. It took me an hour of hunting and low and behold I struck gold. I found this old snow board hiding in my closet.  I purchased it about two years prior to this particular day. I sat there debating with myself if I should sell the snowboard. I have only used this snowboard a few times each boarding season, so I made the decision to sell it. I thought to myself, “ if I’m going to only snow board a couple of times a season, then I might as well barrow one of my buddies boards if I decide to go.” I am so glad I sold that snow board. I made BANK on it. I actually sold it for more than I bought it, even though it was a couple of years old. I guess the pro model was rare and so that was the reasoning for me making more money than what I bought it for. I ended up making enough money to purchase what I needed for school and to buy a nice refreshing six pack of beer.