Since entering college, I’ve learned that the “broke college student” sentiment is not far from the truth. I began to learn easy ways to save/earn money without too much of a time commitment as that would take away from my schooling. Here are 6 of the easiest ways to earn and/or save money while being a college student!
Amazon Student
This is a super publicized one, however, it’s extremely helpful as well. With any .edu email account, you can get a free 6 month trial of Amazon Prime. This gives you free 2-day shipping on most anything AND Amazon Pantry. If you don’t know what Amazon Pantry is, it’s basically an online (super cheap) grocery store which is awesome for college students! Check it out here!
Scribie.com
This is a quick and easy way to make some spending cash. Scribie is a website that hires people to transcribe audio clips. These clips are usually 6 minutes long and pay anywhere from $5 to $10 for each audio hour you transcribe. After earning $30 you can transfer the money for free to a PayPal account, and if it’s below $30 its a 2% charge! This is an easy way to get some extra cash, especially if you’re a fast typer. Sign up here!
UniDays
This website is super unique and a must have on your bookmarks tab! What you do is enter your .edu email, from there you see all the deals that stores have for college students. You can enter whatever store you are interested in and it’ll tell you if they have a deal for college students or not – online or not. Sign up here!
Recycle
In most states, you can bring your empty bottles/cans and recycle them for about 5¢ each. That party you threw on Friday night? Save the cans/bottles and recycle them for cash!! You will not be making a boat load of money off of this, but you can make some extra cash while also helping save the planet. **Note: you pay 5¢ extra cost for each bottle/can you buy, you get this money back when you recycle them. However, if you recycle ones that you did not buy, this is how you earn money, not just break-even.
UserTesting.com
Here’s another website to make some quick and easy cash! You will need to have a laptop/phone/tablet that has microphone capabilities, though. What you do is sign up on the site and then they will have you do a trial run. On this trial run, you will be given an app or website and will be told to vocalize your thoughts on the site/app out loud for the creators of the website/app. For each ‘review’ you submit, you will earn $10! Sign up here!
Selling your old stuff
This one may seem like an easy one but not many use it! Most universities have a “free and for sale” FaceBook page, where you can sell stuff on for free and with no shipping! If this isn’t for you, or your university does not have a page like this, check out eBay or Amazon. You can sell your stuff on there; however, they do collect a portion of the profits.