total budget buster!!

[powellrj]

I just paid 4055.00 plus 678.00 for books and that is for tuition only at what is suppose to be the cheapest state school in the state. He is commuting this semester because room and board would have added another 4000.00 to his semester bill.

I know you about die when you see the bill, but at that price, you are getting a huge bargain! I can't believe I just told anyone that a 4000.00 bill was a bargain!

 

[SandrA9810]

Kari was an expensive one to put through college as well. She had several grants/scholarships, but of course she chose a private school, University of Miami. I think she told me her parents would pay about 10g out of pocket. She only lived about 50 miles away, but Miami traffic is horrendous on i-95, but there's been construction on the Palmetto for the past 20 years. So traffic except at like 1-4am on any Miami highway is just bad and could take more than 2hrs for a commute.

So her first year she lived on campus and hated it, then decided she would deal with the commute to be at home. She doesn't always do so well on her own...

Be careful of the meal plan though... campus food is not always the best options because of all the vendors they let in. And the competing restaurants right across the street. There's a reason why there's the "freshman 15".

 

[dis-happy]

I am a sophmore this year my books are $800 through the bookstore for my 4 classes. I could have gotten them cheaper at amazon (around $500.00) unfortunately they make it very very difficult at my school to find out what editions they are using and the full titles of the book so I found out that information to late to be sure I was ordering the right books from any other source. Next semester I will be bending over backwards to order from ANY other supplier! I am a Human Resource Major.

Oh and yes I am also part of the middle class that does not get 1 penny of financial aid. Even as a mother with 2 children.

Not sure if this will help of not but I'll throw it out there..... Wanting to save money on textbooks (and to not be left with a last minute scramble) I have my dd email her profs and ask what books will be needed ahead of time. Works great, they are very good about sending her titles, etc.



And here's another vote for using Amazon and Chegg. Today I was able to rent a $137 textbook for $9.99 for the semester--yay!

 

[StephMK]

I just used Chegg.com and it was easy & very fast shipping. Pay attention to the return date. They need to be returned by that date or there are charges. You can request extended times for the rentals if needed. I thought their site was very clear & answered all my questions.

bigwords.com was another site I found through a thread here awhile back. They were good to compare prices at sites but I found chegg.com to be the best value for books I don't think I'll need to keep.

My one ebay book got lost in the mail - I received the box w/a postal note saying it was received at our PO open & empty. Seller must not have taped it securely & now it's missing. Thankfully it was not expensive.

 

[Forevryoung]

I want to say that I am a new lover of Amazon. I went to college for 6 years straight, undergrad and then grad school. I needed many of my textbooks from undergrad for grad school and so I kept them. And some of them I simply kept because selling them back wasn't worth it... or whatever my reason was at the time.

So I'm trying to clean out the clutter in my life and I posted my textbooks on Amazon.com. Within the past week I have sold a little over $400 in textbooks even taking into account packing supplies and shipping.

While Amazon takes a large chunk (nearly 18%), they give you a shipping credit ($3.99, use media mail) and unlike Ebay, it's posted till it sells and it doesn't cost you a dime to post. You also don't have Paypal fees to deal with.

At the end of the semester, list the books on Amazon, I bet you will make a surprising chunk of change back.

 

[Debbie]

DD19 started at a new college this week. It is 2 1/2 hrs away, so she lives in the dorm, and has to buy the meal plan (required). The tuition, room, meal plan (10 meals a week), and assorted fees comes to $4100.00 for this semester. not too bad I guess... but books and supplies (she is an art major) is 750.00!!!! I had to run down to our bank and put money in her account so she could buy books. I thought she would be able to charge at the bookstore and us pay it in a week or two! Now I am flat broke this week! Good thing we get paid on Friday! And... we are in the lucky group of upper middle class Americans that get absolutely NO financial aid! If I thought it would help, I would quit my job... but it won't!

Post secondary is expensive. I just paid the first half of DD's first year (she's going 2½ hour flight away. ) I paid her first semester last week-tuition and residence with 19 meal, meal plan.....$7700, with the second semester due in December, and it will be about $8000. Add the flights to get her there, and then Christmas, this is an expensive adventure. Next year, hopefully, we'll be able to drive her back and enjoy a part of the country that I've never seen.

A bargain compared to my DD's bill for the first QUARTER (one of three she will attend this year....): just about $12,500.

I'm in the same boat with two dd's in college. What jumped out at me from your post, is that your dd will have TEN meals per WEEK. That's not a lot of food. My girls make a go of it with 17 meals per week.

Since DD will be full time, I figured that the 19 meal plan is good. We've checked the menus, and they look relatively healthy, too.

For some suppliers on Amazon it takes only a few days to get the books. I ordered 4 books on Friday and 2 arrived today. I try not to buy through the school but did have to buy 1 book through the school at $171 as it was not available elsewhere and I looked.

That's the problem with DD's courses. They are kind of specific to the school at hand, and the texts are published by the university. One good thing, the professors are using the same text for year 1 and year 2 courses. Wow! I've never heard of that, but it sure helps with the textbook buying.

Psssst......can I give you a tip? We paid our final college bill in January '09 and we "used" the system if you want to put it that way. We put everything on our credit cards and then paid it off the next month. We too were in the income bracket you describe so we had to pay the tuition as we went along (no savings due to a disabled child.....) and I realized I could either just write the check or put in on my credit card, earn the points, and pay it the next month! So that is what I did....and guess what? We did 8 nights and 9 days at WDW staying at WL for our 25th anniversary, airfare, dining, everything included for free on the points! lol If you gotta pay it anyway, get a benefit for yourself out of it!

Universities around here don't do the cc thing. I've managed community college fees, but for university, they just don't. Well DD's choice used to. They are changing to a no cc payment for tuition (books, extras, are okay) as of September 1. I was surprised having done 2 different universities that NEVER had that option. Guess whose first semester tuition/residence was paid early this year? My card is groceries, so that will help the budget!

 

[Teacher03]

That would work if my college accepted Visa for tuition! I cannot believe a MAJOR college (30,000 plus) does not accept the most used credit card.

My two attend the same college, a state university, and it doesn't accept Visa either! How crazy is that!

We've rented through Chegg for two years now without a problem. Saved a ton of money.

 

[hrslvr142]

Another vote for Chegg.com, great C/S and much less expensive then buying. The one book I couldn't get through them I bought at the college bookstore for $120 and just sold it on Craigslist for $65. I would imagine most of the colleges have a place where you can put a post up for used books but the trick is not to hold onto them too long as the profs are really good about changing them out just about every other year or so-even though not much changes. Of course if mom and dad are paying for the books there is probably less motivation to resell them. Of course if your kids are reselling on Craigslist make sure they know to meet someone is a secure open place so as not to put themselves at risk--not where they live.