Thanks for replies.  I'm sure this is a common problem indeed.

I came across this website if anyone is interested, but i don't know how good it is: (hopefully mods won't remove the link...)

http://www.usefulstudents.com/

Also, i got a tip off that they need temporary staff for the Census in 2011 - easy work, flexible hours sort of affair. They start hiring next week for work around February next year.  Thought that might be useful for some of you.

Depending on where you live you can make £20-25/hr tutoring GCSE/A-level students and helping with uni applications. My sis is doing it during her MA. There are lots of agencies looking for folk and it's extremely flexible. Might not be totally immediate tho.

Good luck.

Medical trials? :-(

Participating in medical trials is a really good suggestion, I think. They pay really well and, despite what the media says, they're actually quite low risk. There's websites you can go to to register for them. However, before applying for possible recruitment to a trial you need to pay close attention to the inclusion and exclusion criteria as they can be very particular, as I once found out.

======= Date Modified 18 Sep 2010 18:43:59 =======
hehe Sneaks.  My uni has a good Food Biosciences department: their experiments are usually much safer than medical ones. You have to eat chocolate or beetroot or something, and you might have to develop an intimate relationship with a jar, but you can get ~£150, so i might consider it.

i've checked the Psychology department too, but they pay a pittance!

I have Pfizer near me - maybe I could pop along. Although my friends who work there say they mainly test on beagles which is horrible :-( :-( poor beagles :-( test on PhD students instead!

hi Sim
do you know if sperm donors are paid?
or donate blood?

just wondering.
love satchi

Hi Satchi,

Hmmm, whenever i've donated blood, they don't pay. Not sure about sperm...

...come to think of it, i don't know anyone who has donated sperm. maybe it's one of those things people don't talk about.

I think they only pay for blood donation in America. I think you probably do get paid for sperm donation, and they were talking recently about paying women £1k for egg donation, but not sure I really like the idea of lots of little Sneaks's out there running about without knowing who they are!

======= Date Modified 18 Sep 2010 22:45:53 =======
There's some deal advertised on the tube where you can exchange eggs for IVF but I don't think money passes hands.

Become a drugs lord perhaps?

I did consider James Bond style villain, but i need more flexible hours

I think they currently pay £250 for egg donation, my understanding is that it only really covers the costs incurred i.e. travel, having a medical procedure, testing, having a psycho couple follow you about trying to work out your eye colour etc etc. But they were talking about increasing it to £1k although it says £800 here...

http://www.figo.org/news/donors-could-receive-payments-eggs-002770

Maybe you could be a surrogate for a few £k, but the hormones would probably make finishing the PhD take longer (?)

My plan was winning the lottery, but it isn't going well, I keep on forgetting to play.

sorry sim now we are talking about eggs; hope you're ok
hi sneaks so the truth is that if we donate an egg, the baby is actually half-ours, even if it is fertilised and then planted into the receiving mother. I don't think I can cope with that..

oh yes sim I just remembered. Another way to make money is to become a movie extra. I used to see webpages advertising for students. Like you could get some cash for just making up the crowd on a movie set. Have you looked into this yet?
love satchi