I spent over 600 dollars on textbooks and supplies

[NurseLoveJoy88]

yes, you read right ! i spent over 600 dollars in books for only two classes.long story short: for the spring semester i'm taking medsurg and ob. last year i didn't qualify for much aid because fafsa considered me to be rich, just because my mom is a lpn, so because i'm under 25 and considered a dependant i hardly got any money for school.

[color=#483d8b]last semester i had student scholarships and a student loan that covered my classes only. the student loan didn't even go through until the class was over. i didn't have any money for books last semester. i managed to buy the main text, book and another student bought me another required text book. i was still missing a very important text book, but i had to rely on others to copy out the pages. i envied the richer students who could afford all of the other required and extra fancy helpful books.

[color=#483d8b]well this semester is all different ! surprisingly i received a 600 dollar book voucher from my cc to pay for my books. i was completly stunned:d. i had already bought the main text book, and i decided that i'll just have to manage like i did last semester, but thankfully i was able to get my required text books and so much more !

[color=#483d8b]so, what did i spend the money on ? i bought all required text books, a care plan book for mother/baby, a new updated drug book, a study guide for one of the required text books, mini versions of two of the main text books( they are pocket size), a bunch of pencils, pens, highlighters, index cards, notebooks, post its, binders, dividers, a flash drive, and rings for the index cards. when the semester is done, i plan to donate my books to a needy nursing student. i just really thank god for my book voucher. it was a total shocked. i can't wait to give it all back to a nursing student in need.

[color=#483d8b]so how much did you spend or will spend on books for the next semester ?

[Nursetastic]

I SAVED $280 by purchasing my books from Barnes and Noble. I went to the store and had the clerk look up my books by ISBN and/or Author and title. I was able to have them shipped to my home for free (free shipping on orders over $25) and I used my membership card for 10% of each book. Total, I spent $400 plus $150 for supplementals like a HESI/NCLEX review and 2 "Incredibly Easy" books. My first semester, however, was over $1400 so this is a drop in the bucket. Thank goodness I'm a single mom and qualify for tons of aid.

[sh1901]

I am completely feeling your pain.

Books $750 (That's for 1 class)

Shoes $55

Stethoscope $35

Pen Light $12

Uniforms $250

Child Abuse Clearance $10

Drug Test $55

Criminal Record Check $10

Physical $15 (insurance copay)

I had all my immunizations, but had to have 2 TB tests and they were $20 each with my insurance.

This is all besides tuition, which went up thank you very much and at my school you pay an additional $16 per credit for nursing courses to cover the additional costs associated with them. My NRN101 class is 8 credits. Plues the extra ATI testing fees and the malpractice fee.

Ugh...I've been told by others that this semester is the worst in cost, but goodness, I thought I was going to have heart failure when I saw the total on my books.

[Byaggha]

Pretty much all of my three semesters so far have cost me the same - roughly $550-650 in books. Next semester - my last - should finally be the cheapie. I think I only need one new book for that, for a writing course. The up side is my starter nursing book library is freaking awesome now - I'm about one book shy of my goal for a good starter set, and I might be able to get that tomorrow. I can pretty much look up anything I need now! It's great. Expensive, but great!

There was another chunk in uniforms and supplies - $150-ish for lab materials, and whatever my pen light-stethoscope-BP cuff-white shoes-uniform-bandage scissors deal cost (which I can't remember anymore), but hey - I need that stuff, right? And most of it can stick with me past just school, like the books. So I will sink the cost on that stuff this one time, and be prepared! :3

I do wish there was some massive textbook discount for us though. The textbook window people at my school always feel sorry for the nursing students. >.> Always the same story for us - huge piles of expensive books!

[ErinJane]

I would heavily suggest never buying the books at the school. You will overpay like you don't even know. I would try bigwords dot com. It compares all of the prices on albris, amazon, barnes and noble etc.

Good luck girls.

Oh, and allheart.com has good deals on scrubs and clinical supplies.

[truern]

FYI: try half.com for those text books....and order the PREVIOUS edition. You'll save a LOT of $$$ and there's usually very little difference in editions.

Also, try looking in your school library. I had fellow students that NEVER bought text books because they simply couldn't afford them and they used the school library exclusively.

And it pays to make friends with students ahead of you that will let you borrow their books. I've helped a young girl throughout NS by loaning her whatever books the program was still using (even though I've been out of school over 2 years now, they still use some of the same books we used).

Oh, and a little secret: don't buy those pants unless they're some weird obvious color. You can buy generic basic uniform pants for much less!! I promise CIs have more on their mind than checking pants At my NS the graduating class always donated their uniforms to the incoming classes. Check to see if your school does something similar.

[RhodyGirl, RN]

Don't feel bad, you got off cheap!!

Last semester: $750 for books only

This semester: Books = $250; supplies including steth, pda +software, scrubs, etc etc...$965!

Yes.... almost $2000, not including tuition, fees, etc.

[Galore]

I think the most I ever spent on books was around $400, and that was the first semester when I had to buy many of the reference books. Make sure you are checking prices for used books online and asking professors if you can use the previous edition, I saved tons of money that way.

[melmarie23, MSN, RN]

I spent about that...for just this semester. I am taking 19 credits

I suspect I will pay about the same for summer and Fall as well. My course load will be about the same for these semesters as what it is now.

Books and supplies are very costly. :-(

[virgo star]

1st semseter here, so far I've spent $265 on uniforms, $45 background check, $330 for books (but i havent got them all, i need 3 or so more), $65 on shoes, $25 for what my insurance didnt cover for the physical and titers. I have yet to purchase my $130 nurse kit from the school, my cpr cert, and im sue theres more i'm forgetting.