How to Make Side Money As a Broke Law Student

Welcome back everyone! I'm sure you're all killing it your first week!! I wanted to build off of my last post on saving money in law school and talk about how to actually make money in law school. In case you didn't know, I'm currently [f]unemployed so I don't exactly have cash flow coming in at the moment, much like most of y'all reading this. If you're seriously strapped for cash you can get a job if the timing is right, but if the timing isn't right then here's 5 ways I've actually made money this past year.

Related: How to balance law school and a job

Clothing resale

 

   

I've been using Poshmark to make a little extra cash since college because it's so easy! And I recently started using ThredUp as well and will list my stuff on both apps to get a wider audience. What you do is just go through your closet and sell what you no longer wear. If you don't know what you no longer wear, an easy trick is just turn all your hangers backwards and then as you wash and hang up clothes you turn them the right way. After a while, you can see which stuff you never wear and that's what you sell. 

It makes sense because those clothes are just sitting there useless to you, and if you're not going to wear them, you might as well make some money off not wearing them. The buyer pays for shipping so you get to keep all the proceeds. And if you get really good at it, you can even turn it in to a side hustle buying cheap clothes and reselling them on there, like the creator of Nasty Gal did. With these, you're organizing and streamlining your closet and paying for your bills while you're at it. Sign up for Poshmark with code brazenbrunette to save $5 and for ThredUp to save $10!

Item resale

 

This is a perfect time to sell all the crap you no longer need! Most of y'all probably moved this summer and during said move, I'm sure as you were packing you came across lots of things that you never use anymore. As they say, one man's trash is another's treasure, so go ahead and try. I've actually made quite amount of money here lately selling stuff since Ryan and I had to combine our whole lives and some stuff I just had to cut or no longer needed. 

I've sold everything from extra pillows to a table that no longer fits in our apartment and it's so exciting when a bidding war unexpectedly happens and you sell something for double what you asked! And for you lazy people out there, you can require that the buyers must pick up the item so you don't have to even leave your place to sell your stuff. And again, multiple sites means a bigger audience and more potential buyers so I always list my stuff on both 5miles and OfferUp. There's other apps, but I've gotten the best results through these 2 with selling household items. Use these links to sign up for 5miles and OfferUp!

Grocery rebates

 

I use both Ibotta and Checkout51 grocery rebate apps every. single. week. I mean you have to buy groceries so why not just be strategic about it and make money doing so?? Seriously it's like  throwing money out the window if you go buy your weekly or monthly groceries and don't even look to see if at least one item is featured to get you cash back. Plus, all the time there's specials where you can get 25 cents just for buying any item at all, so it doesn't even matter what you buy! Get $10 instantly when you sign up for Ibotta and get $5 instantly when you sign up for Checkout51. Bam. Hi, you're welcome for that $15 I just gave you. Will it pay your bills? No. Will it get you a much-deserved marg with your friends? Yes. Treat yo self.

Related: How to save money on food through meal planning

Store gift cards

Okay I had never heard of Shopkick until in college when I was working in a chain retail store and we'd always have these people just walk in, scan barcodes off clothes, and then leave. Like ??? But then my boss told me what's going on. See, that's all you have to do and you get points, and then after so many points, you can choose gift cards for places you already shop at like Amazon and Target! Admittedly, this isn't you making money in the form of cash like the first 3 things I've talked about, but hey we could all use a gift card.

So the next time you're wandering around the mall with your bestie or wandering around a store with your mom when you're helping her get Christmas presents, just get out your phone and go on a little scavenger hunt and get you some free gift cards. Oh and it works for online shopping too so you might as well do this when you're online shopping during study breaks. Sign up for Shopkick with code fun993020 to get started earning gift cards!

LexisNexis

I'll admit, I didn't really get on the Lexis train until the end of my 2L year because it wasn't really a big thing at my first law school, but I really wish I had. In case you missed the downlow, what you do is set a reminder in your phone every day just to log on to Lexis and do one search. For fun, I would just pick and random word and search it to see what bizarre cases mentioned words like "buttcrack" or "hippopotamus" lol. Anyways, each day you do this, you get like 10 points. 

And then you can earn even more points by signing in at the Lexis table (you should be able to easily identify it because it'll be the table with a big line wrapped around it). At the table, you watch a short video or demonstration and can get a couple hundred points, and one time I even got a free coffee mug and some snacks so do that. At the end of your 3L year, you can "buy" from the Lexis store using your points. 

They have everything from Starbucks gift cards to Yurman bracelets and wine fridges! Sure this isn't exactly money, but hey free stuff for looking up bizarre cases? Gimme. 

And there ya go, 5 quick and easy ways that you can make some cold hard cash (or something very similar) this semester, and no signing up for focus groups or taking surveys. Admittedly it's not exactly as lucrative as having a job, but $100 extra a month goes a longggg way when you're trying to minimize how much money you need to take out in student loans.

let's be friends!

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