I'm afraid I don't have any spectacular wisdom, and apparently neither does anyone else since you haven't gotten replays for a while. But maybe we can revive your thread (and I can put the "thread-killer" appelation behind me).
With your gpa you should look into scholarships. There are a bunch of obscure ones out there (designated for single-mothers of Italian heritage studying the history of dairy farms south-west of London and that sort of thing) What field are you in. It cold make a big difference. Sciences usually have money to work on a project in someones lab. Humanities have no money, no labs, so you have to find money on your own - but you get more freedom on what you work on. If you have people you are interested in working with, contact them and see if they have any ideas. Their university may have something. When I was interviewing they all discussed how I would finance and they had suggestions (not always applicable suggestions, but they were trying to help) so don't be shy about talking about money. They know its an issue (schools like foreign students, they bring in more money).
I'm mostly relying on my wife's income, plus a few odd jobs now and then. So I can't provide much of an example to you.
Good luck to you.
