total budget buster!!

[scanmom]

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!

 

[threeboysmom]

Next semester (or year), try ordering the same books through Amazon. Last year I bought the books for my freshman (not knowing any better) directly through the college bookstore - about $550. This year, I grabbed the list off the college site, then went through Amazon - I spent $175 for all his books!! MUCH better!

Two and half hours away... I'm jealous! My son is 19 hours away (sniff sniff) and I didn't even get to spend his first summer home with him because he spent it down south as a camp counselor.

 

[msmayor]

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!

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

 

[madge]

I went through every used bookstore online resource I know of .. and DS book bill was still over $400. crazy.

 

[scanmom]

I found out about Amazon too late. She has to have most of her books by tomorrows classtime. No time for shipping.... but maybe next semester! Thanks

 

[dawson5]

I went through every used bookstore online resource I know of .. and DS book bill was still over $400. crazy.

I'm almost at that amount for book rental through the high school. Now you give me something to look forward to, at least with college we can keep/sell the books and possibly recoup some of the money. *sheesh* I was dreading the college bill but now it almost seems worthwhile

 

[Shmily1]

I've bought DS19s books from half.com and that worked great! DS19's bill was right at $5000 (after the HOPE grant) and DD18's bill was right at $2000 after the HOPE grant. Yep, I'm broke!!

 

[mikkishelles]

There is a website called Chegg that allows students to rent books for much cheaper than buying them...check it out..

 

[disneyfan007]

You can also rent books from Chegg.com if you don't want to mess with having to resell them. They are very reasonable. My son's mathbook would of cost $153 just for that one book. Rented it for one semester for $25.00 do not have to pay for return postage either. You have 30 days to return the book in case the professor changes his mind or if my some chance it is the worng edition.

 

[bzkds]

DS' tuition/room/board is $13000 per semester, after scholarships and his student loan! We just rented his books from Chegg for the upcoming semester (starts next week) for $160. Haven't used it before, or known anyone else who has, so I hope it works out well.

Beth

 

[mistysue]

Unfortunately as an art major, you are going to be stuck with most of her supply bill. As an early warning, she is very likely going to need more art supplies as the semester goes on and higher level art classes require more expensive supplies if she isn't just sticking with drawing.

Another one to try, when starting a semester check if the course book is available from the library. These books very often are there and free to check out. DH did that a lot in grad school especially. Of course when she does literature or writing classes those are also great to get at a library.

Even though they say it isn't negotiable- at some universities you can actually get the meal plan waived but it ends up actually being a good value when you consider she probably has no way to prepare meals herself. My roommate got an override to get off of our meal plan, but then found out it was a really bad idea. It cost her more and unless she wanted to eat total crap she had to order out.

 

[phred52]

so she lives in the dorm, and has to buy the meal plan (required). The tuition, room, meal plan (10 meals a week),

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.

I am going to be checking out Chegg.com...sounds like a winner!

 

[wdwmom0f3]

I have a Jr. in high school and now the panic has set in after reading this. Oh my, it's expensive.

 

[4HppyCamprs]

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.

 

[bigdisneygroup]

I've never tried them, but I've heard of a website called textbooks.com that supposedly has college textbooks at a discounted price.

 

[Leajess99]

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.

 

[Leajess99]

Textbooks.com will also buyback books so before selling at your school check there to see what they will give you. My school would not give me anything for a couple of books and Textbooks.com bought them back.

 

[mskayjay]

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!

 

[chisnpeke]

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!

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.

 

[madge]

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!

how I wish we could pay that way .. DS school charges a fee for using Visa to pay tuition. offsets the 1% rewards dollars. hmph.