Paying for college- it’s a thought many students try not to think about. With the national average student debt rising, many students are finding ways to help pay off their tuition. Some work full time or part time jobs, others find “odd jobs” like Uber or Doordash. But what about spending money to earn money?

It’s called thrifting. A process where the shoppers visit resale stores, such as Goodwill or Plato’s Closet, and buy unique items to re-sell to their consumers. Depending on the rarity or uniqueness of an item, the shoppers can make almost double in profit. For example, a $4 IU t-shirt at Goodwill in great condition can be resold for $10 during a thrift sale.

This is exactly what two students in the Bloomington area are doing to help pay off their tuition bill.

One of these students is Indiana University senior, Brian Sullivan. When Sullivan isn’t spending his time in the IU Media School working on his Sports Media, he can be found at the SLCT Stock store, located on Indiana Ave., right next to Buffa Louies. As a sales associate, Sullivan can spend an hour or even an entire day searching resale stores for local goods to sell. From sporting attire, to merch from celebrity tours, he can find it all.

“I found when I was about 16, I found out that going to a Goodwill could make me a lot of money and just having that uniqueness or finding something that nobody else has. Finding stuff from Nike and Adidas or your favorite band or a rapper and stuff like that has made it just really easy to do it religiously,” says Sullivan.

Since his freshman year, Sullivan has already paid $15,000 towards his tuition bill.

One of Bloomington’s residents is also preparing for the cost of a degree, and is using social media to boost her business.

Macy Lowe graduated early from Bloomington South High School in October, and has since been working 2 part time jobs to keep up with preparing for the transition from high school to college life. As a high school student, Lowe knows most of the ins-and-outs of social media, primarily Snapchat and Instagram.

She began her interest in thrifting through some friends, who would ask her to check on certain items at Plato’s Closet.

“I started out just doing it for my friends. Since they were in school and I graduated, it was easier for me to snag whatever they were looking for right away, whereas they had to wait until school ended. Especially with Plato’s, you never know how long an item will be there.” says Lowe.

These transactions helped Lowe create her own thrifting account on different social media sites.

“I started, like, selling things online, um, I started selling things on Poshmark and different things like that and making money off of it.”

Currently, Lowe has almost half of her tuition saved in her savings, and plans to continue thrifting while in college. Lowe will be attending Huntington or Ivy Tech in the fall for a degree in Student Ministry.

As for Sullivan, he doesn’t plan to stop thrifting after graduation in May. He says he’s enjoyed it too much to stop now.