<p>First right off the bat, everyone entering McGill knows that Canada has a 15% (now 14%) sales tax on everything except essentials right? Good. Second thing you want to know is that Quebec has the highest income tax rates in all of Canada, possibly all of the North and South America.</p>
<p>Most expensive grocery stores are located in the downtown area (this tends to be true in any medium to large city) and tend to be independently owned. The "ethical" food market is also wildly overpriced. Take fair trade coffee for instance, sure the workers may be treated fairly for their labour, but the majority of the costs are added on from the transportation costs going from Europe to here. Actually, most of what you pay for anything is more due to transportation then actual labour. </p>
<p>All Canadians are allowed to pick up GST rebate forms from their local post offices. These forms when filled in and returned to the government gives you money back on the GST you've paid this year. The amount calculated is mostly dependent on your income, so since most of us are in the lowest brackets, we get a couple hundred. This is another reason why the recent GST tax cut by the Conservatives was a stupid idea.</p>
<p>Anyone who gets a student loan or grant will get it in cash. A dumb person will spend this on an iPOD or something stupid. The average person will spend this on their education. The enterprising person will invest it in a long term investment. A genius will put it in risky but high yield investments such as a risky mutual fund or stocks and make a killing. </p>
<p>Tuition fees can partially written off on your income tax returns. Lucky for you guys, McGill saves all your bills on your Minerva accounts.</p>
<p>Are you jealous and bitter that people from Quebec and citizens of countries where the official language is French pay $2000 tuition? Well now you can too. If you live in Quebec for three years you can start paying that low tuition. However, if you are a full time student, every year in Quebec only counts as half. Part time students live as per normal.</p>
<p>What is the best (legal) way to make money? Bartendering. Because everyone who goes to university is a borderline alcoholic and it's customary to tip in Montreal, even for crap service, you can make a killing if you work from Thursdays to Saturdays. Management kids and some Arts kids don't have classes on Fridays so their weekends officially start on Thursday nights. There are always ways to hide your income if you get it in cash like you do with tips. I think this occupation requires you to take a course though, not too sure. Barring that (no pun intended) Montreal has a lot of telemarketing firms that call exclusively to English Canada and the US so fluency in French is not required. Also, there are on campus jobs at McGill as well which are very flexible. Campus jobs tend to work like this: So you have a couple hours and nothing to do? Stop by your work and get paid to do something that is not physically demanding. </p>
<p>What is the worst (read: best, legal or not) way to make money? Selling drugs to rich kids, New Rez is great for this because they have the highest concentration of rich kids among the residences. Reasons: No gangs around university campuses and cops really don't pay much attention to the goings on around a school campus. You'll learn this by April 20th, guaranteed.</p>
<p>Another good way to earn some extra cash to to engage in some old fashioned piracy. Split the cost of a brand new textbook with one or several friends. Take that brand new textbook to a copy centre and copy it. Then hand over that copy to the copy centre and have them make several copies of that (copy centres cannot for legal reasons make a copy of the textbook, just a copy of a copy of a textbook). Sell any excess copies that you don't keep for yourself and your friends and return that brand new textbook to the bookstore (assuming you haven't worn out the spine too much).</p>
<p>When it comes to learning French, you can pay to take a French class at McGill (you guys do realize that tuition is calculated by classes right?), go out side and take a private one at the YMCA or something. Or, you can call up Canadian immigration and find out where the nearest FREE government sponsored FSL class is being held. </p>
<p>If you live close enough to campus, such as RVC or Greenbriar. Don't bother with the internet service provided by McGill, it's not crap or anything but you can just get it for free by turning on your WiFi and piggybacking off the McGill wireless service. If you live too far away, another alternative is to share an internet connection between several people, (one of the benefits of living around other students) via a wireless router. If you don't know how to do it, you can usually find someone who does, I mean you're McGill students for God's sakes.</p>
<p>This is for anyone taking classes that involve reading historically important books (Lolita, 1984, Communist Manifesto, etc.). You can download most of history's most influential books and some of today's best sellers online. Bit torrent sites and Emule are great resources for this. There are even some textbooks to be found online, I found the latest edition of the textbook for Math140 online for instance.</p>
<p>The more computer illiterate you are, the more reason you have to buy an Apple. I hate Apple Computers personally, but I find that people who are computer illiterate save a lot of time and money by using Apples. For PC users, I find Toshibas and Fujitsus really good. Thinkpads are a brand I'd recommend as well. If you're into playing computer games, you don't really need my advice as you probably already have an idea of what you want to buy anyways.</p>
<p>Theft. It's a big problem on university campuses. Bigger than you're led to believe. No cops around, big school. Perfect for thieves. Most McGill students sleep on campus in the Arts lounge, SSMU building or on the hill. These are awesome places to sleep on nice days but remember to tie your purse or bag around your leg or something so no one can steal your laptops. I walked into the SSMU building once and I found at least five people asleep with their laptop bags unsecured within three seconds of walking in. When I sleep on campus, I wrap all bags around my legs and I never bring my laptop to school (which kinda defeats the purpose of getting one doesn't it?). </p>
<p>Over a period of four years, you'll save a lot of money by buying a laser printer as opposed to an inkjet. Also, McGill allows you to hand in any written assignment to be printed on both sides. If you're REALLY cheap, you can get garbage paper with writing on one side and just print on the clean side as long as it's not wrinkled or anything.</p>
<p>Dumpster diving. Not as disgusting as it sounds. Fun to do with some friends. Probably really attractive to the ultra environmentally friendly people out there and the REALLY REALLY cheap.</p>
<p>Plastic bottles, beer cans, glass bottles can be reedeemed for cash. Good reason to save your empties.</p>
<p>Baking soda can be used as toothpaste. Seriously.</p>
<p>Last piece of advice, never ask a person how they know all this stuff.</p>