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So, I 'm aware that this is a situation that will need a herps attention, but unfortunately I'm not going to be able to afford a vet until my paycheck in two weeks, and I was wondering what I could do until then.

I'm not exactly sure how old he is (he's 3 inches or so) and he has recently taken to basking a lot more than usual, on top of not being able to sink at all. We feed him half a pellet in the morning and half at night and he's been eating regularly, and is very excited every time we offer him food. We have a basking spot at roughly 90 degrees, and a 40 gallon tank kept at 80 (as low as 75 on the far sides of the tank), as well as a 70 gallon filter. I suspect it might be RI, though I am not familiar enough to make a decision. Basically I'm asking if any of you have an speculation as to what it might be, and what precautions I can take until I can take him into a herp!

Thank you all very much!

you should probably feed him more than one pellet a day.

A 3 inch turtle, using Reptomin, should probably get about 6 pellets a day, HBH turtle bites, maybe 10? One pellet is way too little.

As for the vet situation, if you think it's an RI, get an appointment and talk to the vet about delayed payment. Most doctors understand the working class and will give you anywhere from 1 month to 3 months to pay. If it is an RI, you may not have 2 weeks.

Oh wow! I don't know where I got just 1 per day. Well if for around a month I've only been feeding him one (luckily every two weeks or so I go buy some guppies and let him go wild) should I ween him onto a larger diet? I wouldn't want to feed him too much and have him be overfed, right?

Overfed is when he just plain gets too much food. You could increase the pellets to a more sustainable amount and still not be overfeeding him. Try some other foods as well (look at the list for what to feed and info on the site if you're not sure what's good). Just don't go overboard.