the most important stat to manage is control. low control means higher trauma gains and uncontrolled bad perks from it. every non-con encounter drains a quarter of it. successfully taunting an opponent about his insecurity restores that quarter (but you can never restore more control than you started encounter with). another quarter is drained if you get penetrated anywhere (or if you have a penis and someone decided to use it as a dildo against your will). once your control is below 2/5th of max - you're in huge trouble.
starting payments are quite manageable even with low-income jobs, but you have to abandon any job that takes too much time while not allowing you to improve your skills until later in the game. basically, your goal is to use money to buy enough time to go out and improve your grades and skills to a level where you can either earn more of fight better, or both. swimming and athletics are all great for avoiding trouble and improving physique, which affects all your combat damage. science improves your resistance to pain. math improves your income. history allows safer and faster travel around town and beyond. english powers up the "apologize" combat action, which at high levels can turn a very angry mob that's about to give you a mean beating into a relatively peaceful gathering. sex skills can help you finish combat faster and keep unfriendly penises from stealing away your control.
alternatively, you can unlock a different safehouse to sleep in and escape from bailey to. since you're a cow now, you've probably met eden during the second bailey punishment, cow jail being the third. eden's cabin is actually one of those safehouses, it can be unlocked through getting the stockholm syndrome, by choosing not to escape when you break the leash. you can sleep there and do many other things, but it's quite a bit away from civilization, so getting back to school in the morning might be a bit troublesome until your history grade is high enough.
all tfs are completely reversible. you can speed up the reversal by gaining tf points in any other tf. as long as you don't wear something that stops reversal, like a cow bell for cow tf.