Surviving as a Full Time student Tribe?

[ewp11100]

My dh is getting laid off and we have decided to send him to school full time this semester (usually he only has 1 class a semester and works ful time+). I would like to start a tribe to see how we are all handling fiances while we or our SO or both are part/full time students. Here are some of my personal thoughts:

Has anyone gotten around the fact that they don't give food stamps to full time students?
Cheap packed lunches that can be eaten on campus. There are some good resources or Hilly billy housewife, but I find that most of it is pretty high in calories.
Resources that you have utilized as a student or beacuse you are a student.

Thanks!
Erin

[Alyantavid]

My dh's in school full time, working very part time and I'm working full time.

I haven't tried for food stamps so I have no clue, but I really wish students in our position could get unemployment. Dh is just starting to pack his lunch (dinner technically) this semester so that'll be interesting. Probably alot of sandwiches and wraps. Mine can eat a anything between 2 pieces of bread. I don't have any tips on that.

The best part is that we find out about a ton of events/activities that the college puts on and we can usually get in free or cheap.

[ewp11100]

Well the unemployment we can get around sort of. My Dh is being laid off so we just apply for the unemployment and say that his classes don't interfere with getting a job (they are mostly night classes because that is when they are offered). As long as he puts in one resume a week, he fulfills their need for "looking for work". We have had this happen before.

My hubby's lunches mostly consist of sandwich, fruit, baked goods, with an occasional leftover thrown in. But he is detoxing from his soda (coke zero) and I've been trying to give him sweetened (majorly) tea in a mason jar. He knows the budget so he puts up with it but he's not happy. Any alternatives? I was shopping sales + using coupons + stocking up, till we had to cut back even further and just can't afford the luxury anymore.

[HappyLittleHouse]

Have you heard about Independent Development Accounts? I posted about it on my blog the other day. http://thesavedquarter.wordpress.com...08/i-love-ida/

For every dollar you save, they match it with two, so if you save $2,000 for school, they'll match you with $4,000 so you have $6,000 to use for school expenses. I just signed up.

[ewp11100]

Wow that's cool I'll check into it!

ETA: well it seems there is not one in my state

[jessaroo]

My husband will transition from being our "bread winner" to being a full-time student this summer. I will be looking for work.

I would love to see this thread grow. We have been using the past year to live simply and stock up on some items when our income plumets.

[jessaroo]

lunches

My dh eats left overs, boiled eggs, salads etc.

[zersha]

Are you sure they won't give FS's to students? I thought the rules changed last year. I'm a full time student, but dh works FT, and last year when we applied they told me they changed the "able-bodied adult" work rule for FS's. Maybe I misunderstood and it was only ok because we have a child under school age.

I know they won't allow childcare assistance unless I work, but at least we get FS's and it helps alot.

Otherwise we really only get by because I get every last cent of available financial aid, even the loans.

[nolansmummy]

My husband and I are both full time students and we receive foodstamps.
As for lunches, we just eat at home because our schedule allows it, lots of sandwiches and cheap tv dinners.

We don't get child care assistance which would be really nice, so dh and I have alternating schedules.

We do take out a few loans and we get a lot of grants and dh works two part time jobs during the semester and that is how we survive. We pay rent 6 months at a time when we get our f.a money and then his paychecks pay our bills.

[spring978]

We just finished doing this for 5 years. If DH is working at least 20 hours and a student you can get foodstamps. If not you can still get foodstamps for the kids but the student wont qualify.

Budgeting on 4 month paydays is the hardest we spent the first year or so doing the feast or fammin thing but finally got really good at stretching that money.

Apply for every scholarship you can find.

take advantage of the schools mail system we found lots of GREAT bargains on computers and bikes.

Offer to babysit for other students.

Join the married club if your school has one we went to a few really nice dinners and movies for very little money. The country club on valentines day for 20 bucks

[jessaroo]

Has anyone taken out private loans to live on? Is the interset rediculous?

This does not add up to much but I have been doing Swagbucks. I redeem my bucks for $5 Amazon gift cards which I then use to purchase used boods for DH. AMazon also has grocery sales that could come in handy with the cards. Swagbucks is a search engine. You earn bucks for searching. If you are interested visit www.swagbucks.com

[nataliachick7]

Originally Posted by ewp11100

Has anyone gotten around the fact that they don't give food stamps to full time students?

Erin

What?! This is not true in illinois. Myself and many people i know are on food stamps. Why wouldnt they give ft students food stamps? These are the people that prob need them more than anyone!

[Ianthe]

I'd like to join.. dh is unemployeed and I am almost a full time student

[Hey Mama!]

Dh is employed full time and is also a full time student. I quit my job this summer to go back to school full time. We take most of our classes online but this semester he has one class on campus and I have two. I get out of school at 12:15 so I'm planning on keeping a sandwich or something in my car and eating it on the way home (1.5 hour commute.) Dh works at the college he attends so I'm sure he'll continue to take leftovers to work and eat it for lunch and dinner on the night he has to stay for class. Afaik MO does not let college students receive food stamps.

[ewp11100]

Originally Posted by nolansmummy

My husband and I are both full time students and we receive foodstamps.

I looked it up again and found this:
102.3 Eligibility Requirements
The student must meet one of the following requirements to be eligible. If the student
does not meet one of the requirements, the individual is a non-household member for
program purposes. (See section 102.6 for treatment of income and resources.) The
student must:
A. Be employed for a minimum of 20 hours per week (no averaging) and paid for
the employment or, if self-employed, be employed for a minimum of 20 hours per
week and receiving weekly earnings at least equal to the federal minimum wage
multiplied by 20 hours; or
B. Participate in a State or federally financed work-study program during the regular
school year. To qualify, a student must be approved for a work-study program at
the time of application for the Food Supplement Program (FSP). The exemption
begins with the month the school term begins or the month work-study is
approved, whichever is later. The exemption continues until the end of the
month in which the school term ends; or
C. Be a recipient of Temporary Cash Assistance; or
D. Be responsible for the care of a child when:
1. The child is age 5 or under;
2. The child is age of 6 through 11 and adequate child care is not available to
enable the student to attend class and work 20 hours per week or participate
in a State or federally financed work study program. (A statement from the
customer will be sufficient to verify that adequate child care is not available.);
3. The child is age 11 or younger and the parent is a single parent enrolled in an
institution of higher education on a full-time basis. (This provision applies in
those situations where only one natural, adoptive or stepparent, regardless of
marital status, is in the same household as the child.); or
E. Be assigned or placed in an institution of higher education through a program
under the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), or Work Opportunities, or a
Program under Section 236 of the Trade Act of 1974.

This is a better explanation I think we quilfy being that we have two kids 5 or under. I'm wondering if he can not be considered "responsible for the care of a child" when I only work 10-20 hours a week?

[Ianthe]

We get full FS too, and I am a student.

We will likely be moving to another town because I believe I will be getting a full tuition scholarship starting next fall. I've been going to the community college for the last 3 years. The university I will likely be going is very family friendly (this is Utah, after all ) so we should be able to get family student housing pretty easily (covered by grants)!

Thanks for the great advice Spring!

[sunanthem]

My dh and I are both full time students. He started last semester and I started this week. I lost my full time job (and our only car) in October. We get full foodstamps right now. We have one child under 5, and we recieved one tanf payment in september.

We have to bring lunch with us to school, as we do not have $ for meals there.
I was hired for seasonal work in Nov. was trained, and then never put on the schedule, so we have no income right now. I am babysitting and making and selling toys for basic $ right now that mostly covers our bus tickets to school, and not much else. We have gotten help with a few bills from the local charities, but it's not enough. Just trying to make it through this last month before our fin. aid comes in.

We are planning on paying off rent for a few months when we get our aid, it's the only way our landlord has let us stay for dec. and jan. We tried to get some assistance for rent, but there was too much red tape it was silly. We'll try again, though.

I'm hoping I can find some kind of part time work that fits in with my school schedule.
I'm also looking into low income housing, but not the projects. Some apartments around here will give you rent based on your income, etc. and they are much nicer then the projects. When we both switch from our 2 yr. community college to a Univ. to get a B.A., we are definately going for family student housing. In fact, it's one of our major searching points for schools we want to go to.

I am glad you started this thread and I hope to learn how families make it through!

[sellendie]

My DH is a full time student and I work full time. We are on a very tight budget and use the Mvelopes software online to manage things. It is like a digital version of the cash in envelopes system and really helps us stay on track.

As far as lunches, I usually make some sort of cold salad (either quinoa, barley, or whole wheat pasta) at the beginning of each week for lunches. I find that it is easy to have a lot of variety and complete nutrition and each day you just need to fill a small container and go, no assembly necessary.

We don't eat lunch meat, so sandwiches can get pretty boring after a while. I would love any lunch meat free sandwich suggestions. If I do make sandwiches I usually do mixed veggies with some sort of spread like hummus, olive tapenade, or some sort of pesto.

[Ianthe]

Originally Posted by sellendie

As far as lunches, I usually make some sort of cold salad (either quinoa, barley, or whole wheat pasta) at the beginning of each week for lunches. I find that it is easy to have a lot of variety and complete nutrition and each day you just need to fill a small container and go, no assembly necessary.

We don't eat lunch meat, so sandwiches can get pretty boring after a while. I would love any lunch meat free sandwich suggestions. If I do make sandwiches I usually do mixed veggies with some sort of spread like hummus, olive tapenade, or some sort of pesto.

I do the same thing for veggie sandwiches. -- I like the cold salad idea. I did that a lot over the summer, but I haven't in a long time.

I take online or evening classes (until next fall they will be regular ones), so the lunch doesn't really apply to me.. however, we usually always have leftovers for lunch, and I could just put them in a to-go container to take with me.

[ewp11100]

Originally Posted by sellendie

We don't eat lunch meat, so sandwiches can get pretty boring after a while. I would love any lunch meat free sandwich suggestions. If I do make sandwiches I usually do mixed veggies with some sort of spread like hummus, olive tapenade, or some sort of pesto.

I generally try to make one big roast every other or every week (lamb leg when is season, whole turkey/chicken, beef or pork roast). Day 1 we eat fresh, Day 2 is soup and we try to slice "lunch meat" from it. My DH will not eat PB+J for weeks at a time and we don't do lunch meat either, way to expensive for all the nasty chemicals. If we have a lot of "homemade lunch meat slices, I'll freeze a batch for later (on a flat cookie sheet, then once frozen in a bag).