Looking for suggestions for how to make some extra money. My cat is on a prescription food that costs around $120 a month, and I'm finding myself in a position where he gets food but I can't afford to do anything other than pay bills. I work 10 hour days and am going to school for my master's degree, so getting a second job really isn't an option. Any ideas?

Look at the things you do and try to monetize them.

1. Are you a good photographer? If you have lots of good quality photos, you might be able to make money off selling them. Google it.

2. In your copious spare time (yes that was sarcasm) do you do crafts or other activities? There's places on the web to sell that stuff.

3. Do you have stuff you can sell?

Basically you want to look at your life - you obviously don't have a lot of spare time so anything you do to earn extra cash will have to be based on something you already spend time on.

Example if you like to read, try to make money from it - outside link.

I'll totally look into the photography thing. That sounds awesome. I do sew, but materials to make things to sell is also expensive. I have a lot of craft project kind of stuff that my mother has given me, and I am going to try to start working on that stuff. Some things I can potentially work on while I am at work, so that may work out. I unfortunately don't really have any stuff that I can sell. Thanks for the help and the link. I think I'm going to look into book reviews, since I read a lot at work.

- I apologize in advance if I come off as rude. I'm kind of blunt - I promise I don't mean anything (especially by some of my suggestions in the third paragraph).

A swap on the selling thing - donating stuff to charity is a tax write off. So that's not really a short term benefit but in the long run it could help out a little. If you ever make any kind of donation make sure to make note of it. If it's under a certain amount the IRS won't even bother you for the receipts. Sticking to the selling idea, if it's not outside of your morals sometimes you can sell 'gently used' stuff on ebay to fetishist (you just have to make sure to be very careful and follow all their rules). Some people actually make a full on nice living doing that.

Also a note on the sewing: If you have a fabric store near you, a lot of times I've found them to have scraps at a cheaper price (like the last bits of fabric from a roll) that you could turn into little things. I've known people who will pay $10-20 a pop for a good fabric hammock or play tube for their small animals (think hamsters, mice, and rats). Hell when I had pet rats I paid up for some of those. OR if you have old clothes that aren't too tattered but aren't wearable anymore (like I have a t-shirt that has a super huge hole in the armpit - I still wear it to bed but I can't wear it in public) and there's good amounts of fabric on that, you could probably make something out of that too. And also also depending on what work you do, maybe learn knitting? I work at a call center and during slow times I see people knitting all the time. It's not super difficult to learn how to knit something like scarves and a pair of knitting needles plus a ball of yarn can be pretty cheap.

On the flip side, is there any way to save money? You know, the whole 'if you can, cut back on coffee and make sure to always turn off unnecessary lights and unplug electronics' type deal. Unplugging things you aren't using may only save a dollar or two but sometimes every little bit counts. On a somewhat anecdotal note, my roommate used to be (still sometimes is) really bad with using paper towels once then throwing them away, no matter how unused they were. Or using too much detergent for the laundry (literally twice as much as the instructions said to). Or throwing out food because it was the day of the sell-by date whether it had actually gone bad or not. Now, I know literally nothing about you, but if there's anything you notice that you're going through a lot of I highly recommend re-evaluating it. He easily saves 30-40$ a month now from what he used to spend...mostly in food bills.

Thank you for the suggestions. It never occured to me to make stuff for rats/ferrets/other small animals, but I'm sure that I could whip some stuff like that up with no problems. I should start looking around for some fabric remnants. I am learning to crochet, so maybe I'll be able to make some things with that. I am also starting to do some embroidery. As far as trying to save money, I do try not to buy unnecessary things, and I try to keep lights off and things unplugged when they aren't being used. My husband tends to leave every light in the house on when I'm not home, and it drives me nuts. I turn all of the lights off before I go to bed, and will wake up in the morning to find that he has turned everything back on. He doesn't think that it's costing us all that much extra money to have lights on 24/7. The food wasting thing is something that I'm really bad about. My fridge is where leftovers go to die. I need to work on that.

If you have any old tvs or entertainment itemsike game systems or laptops w.e or video games or cds take them to a pawn shop see what you can get for it

If you need money but are already working full-time and have little to sell, you will unfortunately need to be strict with yourself about saving money. There are a lot of ways to save money that add up. I would not worry about lighting tbh because it uses relatively little energy, though it's a good habit to turn them off when not in use.

It can be helpful to sit down one day and try making a list on paper of where your money currently goes each month. How much is on utilities and bills, how much on food, clothes, etc? That way you can identify which areas you need to cut down the most.

My boo and I don't spend much on food - the large portion of our food budget is from the times when we eat out. Eating out is always expensive so definitely avoid it. But otherwise, our secret is rice and pasta. Every meal is mostly rice or pasta. They're cheap and easy to make.

The other secret is that, well, we actually just don't buy too much. I think everyone has this problem at some point, where they overestimate and buy too much food that ends up rotting in the fridge or not getting used. We definitely had this problem too and ended up throwing stuff away because we just bought too much. Especially since you say you have a leftover problem, I'd try to buy less food since you are buying too much right now since you often have leftovers. And never, ever go food shopping when you're hungry! That has been my downfall in the past :P

Finally, we make our own food as much as we can, because it's usually cheaper to make from ingredients than to buy food already made. Of course, ordering food is fine on occasion and really nice sometimes, but it's always very expensive. And even a lot of storebrought ingredients could be made at home for a little less.

Unfortunately I don't have any of that kind of stuff. We have a tv and game system that we use, and we've already sold all of our old games.

I have tried to make a budget before, but I just end up getting really depressed about it because it seems hopeless. It doesn't help that I live in a really expensive area that I can't afford to move out of. My car insurance alone here is almost $300 becuase I live in the city, not because of anything on my record. It's kind of ridiculous. I'll have to try again with a budget though and see how it works out. Eating out is expensive. I can normally make two meals for the cost of one time out at a cheap restaurant. My husband has this thing about how he wants to go to this certain place every Thursday instead of cooking and that ultimately isn't going to work out in the long run I don't think. I like the idea of doing pasta and rice dishes, that seems like those kinds of things would also take up way less pantry space and make things more streamlined and easier to work with. I've done the shopping while hungry thing before. It didn't work out well. :P I'll have to start paying more attention to what I'm buying, becuase chances are I'm buying things that I could make for less.

I know you said you don't have a lot of free time, but have you considered doing Uber or Wag? You can set your own hours, so it's pretty flexible. Other than that, I would just suggest selling anything you can that you don't want/need and being REALLY tight with your money. See if you can carpool with someone to save gas. Buy off-brand.I know what's like being in a super tight spot, so I know your pain. But I hope things look up for you soon! <3

I got my insurance adjusters license. A lot of adjusters are going to Texas and Florida because of the recent storms so they're needing some locally. You can do that on your own time. I guess the only issue is that it takes time to get a license and depending on your state it might be a while. Still! Something to consider?

Maybe talk to your vet about switching to a comparable but cheaper food, if it's possible and you haven't already. $120 seems like a lot to pay for cat food, so I imagine they'll understand.

As for saving, maybe try finding recipes similar to what the restaurant your husband likes serves, instead of going there every Thursday. Otherwise, maybe try and work with what's on sale, if you're not already doing so - figure out what's cheap or on sale at the time, and then plan your meals around that. Also, if it's an option, maybe see if there's a farmer's market near you. In my experience, it makes buying produce a lot cheaper. You still have to compare prices with some things, though.

I hope things start working out better for you soon!

1. If you shop online, use Ebates.com, and use it everytime you check out anywhere. You get cash back! It's true!

2. Sign up for coupons! http://thekrazycouponlady.com/

3. Sign up for store mailing lists that you shop at a lot. (PetSmart, Grocery Store, CVS.. they usually have deals and mail you coupons!)

4. Local babysitting/dog walking/eldercare. Some people pay $10-20+ an hour! Care.com, trustworthy site! Used it for years! You can create your owns schedule and what works for you!

5. Personal tutoring! You can charge $100 an hour for a specialty you are good at!