Overdrawn at the Bank of Dad

[hinakiba777]

Alright, so because I made too much money working at WallyWorld I got a very, small student loan for this semester. The irony of that stings so much. As I was barely making ends meet when I was home, because i had to to pay off portions of my student loan since I wasn't in university during Fall Semester.

Anyway, the Primary loan was for X amount of dollars plus another thousand that would go directly to me. Sadly the X amount was still 700 dollars less than my tuition. My plan was to get a job, and use my earnings from that and a portion of the 1000 in my account to pay for groceries and such, while paying the 700 off with the majority of the 1000. Sadly, I had a string of rotten luck that kind of sapped me for money. Plus, despite my best attempts, I couldn't find a job for Winter Semester. I had no where near enough money to pay my tuition, and if I used what I had left to pay part of it, then I wouldn't have money for groceries.

So I was forced to utilize my final option, ask Dad for money. Now, DaddyKiba had already sent me money to pay for my surgery in January so I really didn't want to take more money from him. I mean, the man works really hard and he bought me a car. But, being the great Dad that he is, he agreed to send me money biweekly to pay for groceries and my tuition.

After this week's installment I only owed 350 more on my tuition. Due to these extra costs, my parents can't afford to pick me up from university. They are sending my brother, and he has to sleep on the couch of my apartment so we can afford to bring me home. Today, I went grocery shopping. Normally my grocery bills is about 25 to 30 dollars a week. I have most of my staples stalk piled, so I only need bread and milk. Unfortunately, as the semester is drawing to a close, I had run out of veggies and meats. My section of freezer was empty. So I went grocery shopping and ended up spending 100 dollars.

That's a month worth of groceries for me. So now instead of needing 350 for my tuition I need around 450. So what should I do? Do I tell my dad that my groceries cost more than I thought, and I need more money? Do I just not buy groceries for the rest of the semester and try to live off what I have left in the cupboard? Or do you have a better suggestion that I haven't thought of yet.

I feel really guilty about this. My father works really hard, and he has to support my whole family since my brother doesn't work and my mother can't work. I really hate being in this position.

[csquared]

Remembering my days back in college, rice & ramen.

What other resources do you have? Aunt/Uncle? Grandparents? If they loaned you the money, how soon would you be able to pay them back?

If you are going to ask for money, do so with a loan agreement in hand. This is how much I need. This is the time table for paying you back. Don't forget to include a good interest rate.

Also, how long until you graduate and have a chance at full time employment? Maybe someone will give you a deferred payment. That was the deal my father made me. At the time, it was 5% interest.

Good luck.

[Taboo]

Rice, beans, and pasta are your new best friends. =( I know it's not as healthy, but can you divide up the meat and veggies you bought into weekly amounts? Spread it out so that you don't get sick of pasta, and buy some bulk pasta or rice, and try to keep the rest of your groceries as minimal as you can.

Unexpected expenses suck. It sounds like you just got hit with too much at once.

Is it possible for your parents to either loan you the money or take out a loan for you (assuming you've taken the max you can already)? Have you talked to your school about your payment plan? They might not be willing or able to do it after already giving a payment plan, but you could tell them you had unexpected expenses because of the surgery and ask if you could spread the remaining payment(s) over a slightly longer time frame. If you do either, then draw up a clear plan beforehand like csquared suggested.

Also, you may have thought about this already, but do you have things you could sell? Old textbooks you no longer need that you could sell online, for instance? This isn't quite as immediate, but could you babysit or tutor someone (since it is close to finals)? If you look at getting a little bit of money from multiple sources, it's not as bad as trying to borrow the whole thing.

[hinakiba777]

No, none of my family will loan me the money. My mother's family don't like me, and my father's family all have kids in university currently so it's a little much to ask.

I could only get a bank loan this semester if I could prove I couldn't get a student loan from the government. So, since i have a government loan-even if it's not enough- I can't get a loan from my bank.

csquared- I owe 50, 000 dollars in student loans right now. I will not be getting full-time employment until I finish my B. Ed in 2015. Once that starts, I will owe probably 1000 dollars a month to the government in monthly payments. (It was 600 a month for the semester I was off, and that was only after 4 years of school. It will be someone between 8 or 9 years of debt when I graduate) This of course is not including the money I owe on my bank loan. So there is no way I can borrow money from anyone. They wouldn't see it for a VERY long time. So while it's a good suggestion, I can't have money loaned to me.

My father doesn't Loan me money. He gives it to me. Invests in my future so I can care for him and mom in their old age, and get me on my way so he isn't supporting me.

Taboo= I don't be buying anymore meat or veggies. It's just that I spend 25 dollars a week on milk and juice. I need the milk for cooking, so I can't really go without. I am already living on Peanut butter and pasta. I have meat and veggies maybe once a week.

There NO jobs, not even baby-sitting available to me in this town. And the book buy backs happen only at the beginning of the semester and the end of exams. And only certain specific books are wanted. Since I'm not a science major I don't have any books anyone really needs. And if you want to tutor on campus you need special permission from the school, from the beginning of the semester, which i don't have.

Rock-Hina-Hard Place

[ShadowBall]

Ugh, I hate lenders sometimes. I'm back in school again, and because I owe something like $70K to my last school, I did not qualify for a single loan or grant for grad school. Meaning that, when I make less than $10K a year, I need to pony up $4700 out of pocket every four months. And the scholarship application on my school's website glitches and never actually sends the information...which is why I didn't get any need-based money last year.

Would you consider selling stuff on eBay? Have you anything to sell, like old junk at home of yours that might be of interest to someone? It sucks trying to find even tiny bits of work to get you money little by little.

If your parents are going to give you money, why not ask for it? If you can't afford tuition and they want you to get an education, I'm sure they'll pony up. It's how my mother is...in my first school, she'd tell me how she would go without and be late on her bills so she could send me money to live. I wasn't "allowed" to get a job because I was expected to focus fully on school since I was there to learn and not flip burgers.

I know this isn't exactly a shit load of money, but I know a lot of people in college would donate plasma when they needed grocery money. Go to the blood bank, surrender some plasma, get twenty bucks. I know being broke sucks - all my money goes toward school too (fucking cocksucker lenders).

Sorry I can't offer much of anything constructive, but I do hope things begin to look up. (hugs)

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Yeah, the husband used to sell plasma all the time. Easy way to make a few bucks and pay a bill.

[surreal20]

I second Plasma donation.

[trailerparkmedic]

Look for research studies you can participate in. Psychology departments usually have some. Large hospitals or medical schools also usually have a need for healthy volunteers, and not all of the studies are scary. I'm in the control group of a research study where I got a flu shot (for free, which was awesome because I needed one) and some spending money for getting the shot and 3 blood draws.

I've done plasma before too, and I really suggest it.

[hinakiba777]

I'm not sure how it works here in Canada, but I'm pretty sure you can't sell blood or plasma here. Even if we could, I have anemia so I'm not allowed donating blood. don't know if that applies to plasma as well, but I'm rather sure you can't sell blood in Canada.

There are is no paid research at my school. There is nude modeling for art, but again you have to be with that since the beginning of the semester.

I tried selling stuff. But the only stuff I can afford to part with, isn't worth much. Like my video games, I can only get like 2 dollars on them. They are so old.

I suppose I will just have to tell my dad I need him to give me more money. I would feel a lot better about asking if he hadn't bought me a car, paid for my surgery, and then replaced my laptop this year. My computer broke in January, like right after I had my surgery. So yeah, I guess I'll talk to my dad.

But any other suggestions?

[tollbaby]

Where are you in Canada that there are no jobs anywhere? I look around here, and everyone's hiring. I recently managed to get a job working from home taking orders for a pizza chain to supplement my daytime income (since I get paid crap for my day job). If you're in my area, I could send you the link to apply, since they're still hiring. Talk to the school about how to pay off your remaining tuition - usually they'll work with you. It sounds as though some lessons in budgeting skills would be useful.

Have you thought about using your local food bank?

[Rapscallion]

Your father, from what you say, is very much a workaholic. Maybe you could ask him for advice on where to look or what places he knows of that are hiring.

Rapscallion