How to SAVE MONEY in Nursing School
In this conversational video, the host and guest Matthew discuss a range of practical ways nursing students can reduce expenses and alleviate financial stress. They begin by emphasizing the importance of recognizing impulsive spending and establishing a clear budgeting plan, referencing Dave Ramsey’s principles. They advise students to create meal plans, prepare inexpensive crock‑pot meals, and bring food to clinical sites instead of buying costly café items. The discussion moves to textbook costs, recommending students borrow or share books, only purchase the newest edition of the essential Davis’s Drug Guide, and avoid buying every required text. Transportation savings are highlighted through carpooling for distant clinical rotations. Additional cost‑cutting ideas include limiting coffee shop visits, avoiding unnecessary purchases at stores like Target, and generally cutting discretionary spending. Throughout, the tone is informal, supportive, and encouraging, urging viewers to share their own tips and watch a related study‑tips video.
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In this video, we are going to talk about how to save money in nursing school. And guess what, friends?
Hi.
Matthew's here.
She asked me to join, so here I am.
So we're going to walk through some tips on how to save money. I know it's a tough topic. We're going to talk about it. Let's do it. So I wanted to bring Matthew on because I don't want this whole topic about money in nursing school to be like me telling you what to do, if that makes sense. So I wanted to bring Matthew on to have more have a conversation about it. And I know it's a really tough time for so many students, for so many people, for all of us. So money is a big, big issue right now, especially when our nursing students are going through nursing school. You are trying to manage your life. You're your family, clinical days, all the textbooks, you have to buy, the tuition. There's a thousand things that are pulling you a thousand different ways. Right. And so I think it's really, really important, though, to talk about ways to save money in nursing school so that you are not feeling so much of the pressure and the weight of the world on your shoulders.
All right. Yeah. So we'll just have a discussion.
Conversation.
A conversation on. Yeah. What we can do or what you guys can do to kind of take that burden off. Right. And, yeah, some tips and tricks that we learned along the way on how to save money and how to get through nursing school.
Hey, if we're gonna go with what, like, we learned, I think the first thing that we have to mention, of course, is Dave Ramsey. So we have followed Dave Ramsey for years and years and years and years and years and years. So that would probably be. Would you say, probably the biggest resource?
Probably. Yeah. I would definitely think that that had a large impact on how we did life and are doing life right now on just. Yeah. On how to make your dollar stretch as far as it can and how to just be more thoughtful, I guess, with your money. So definitely a great resource to look into, for sure.
Because nursing school is so tough because I. There's just so many different aspects to it where. When you're stressed all the time, at least for me, I want to shop when I'm stressed. And so in nursing school, I did that a lot. And then I, you know, you kind of catch yourself, right? It's like, oh, I need this for nursing school. I need this. I need this. I need this, like, these brand new textbooks or this Littman stethoscope, all these Things. Right. Like, there's all this stuff, and it can be very tough to tame that kind of. Or almost. It's a compulsive thing.
Well, it feels good. It feels good to shop and to click that buy now. And even, like, that one click that you don't even have to, like, click over and put out all your checkout stuff. Yeah. You just don't think about it, and it feels really good. So. Yeah, I get that.
And then to get a package at your door is so exciting. I know, I know. That's, like, my life. So taming that is very tough, especially when you're in nursing school and you're stressed and there's so much going on. So probably I would say the first tip is to recognize that. That that's happening when you feel like you want to spend money on random things without a plan. That's clue number one, that something's wrong. Right. If you don't have a plan for your money, plan for budgeting, that's a problem. You need to make sure that you, you know, we're. We're gonna put limits on, you know, like, we put limits on ourselves. We're gonna put these limits with what we have, the resources that we have, and we're not gonna go beyond those things.
And I know that sometimes it can be considered. Oh, it's a bad word. A budgeting word.
The budgeting.
Don't put me in a box. Just let me add it. But so instead of just a plan, have a plan of what to do with your money. Because when you don't have a plan, like we said, with all our other nursing school getting through studying and things, you have to have a plan for studying. Same way you have to have a plan for what to do with your money. Because if you don't, then you'll find that it just leaks and just kind of floats away magically away.
It's just how it happens. Like, that is just the rules of the world, if you're not watching, is being wasted, I promise you. So that is really tip number one is just to recognize that that's happening. Now. I think that that really goes into another big tip that I had, was that you need to make a plan for your food. And I was gonna say food and textbooks. I think these kind of go hand in hand. So, like, food, make sure that you are making a plan for your food.
Okay.
Because what happens in nursing school when we don't make a plan for. Okay, what am I gonna eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Well, you go out and you buy stuff. When you're at clinical, at the hospital, you go down to the cafe, grab a coffee and a muffin, and that stuff adds up. Like, if two or three clinical days a week and you're just hitting the cafe every time you need a snack, that's a lot of money wasted. Rather than if you just make a plan. Yeah, bring food along with you.
And I think it's really interesting too, because it doesn't seem like a lot. Oh, a muffin from a vending machine one time isn't gonna break the bank. But if you say that one time every single time, that's not just one time anymore. And it really does add up pretty quickly.
It does so fast. I mean, like, we were. Okay, we were just at the hospital cafe. How much was that?
Oh, yeah, yeah, that was a lot. A surprising amount, actually.
I think that was like 14 or something.
And it just. It just adds up really quickly and I know. Yeah, it's easy, right?
Yeah, it's easy to run down, easy to do. But like, take out pizza, right? If you don't plan for something for dinner, I take out pizza. It's so much easier to do that than plan for dinner. But if you make a plan for, okay, this is what our family's gonna have for dinner, then it's just, you have a plan and you can follow it, and you're not scrambling at the last minute trying to, you know, think of, oh, what are we gonna. What are we gonna do? Are we gonna do pizza? Are we gonna, you know, do, you know, take out hamburgers or whatever? And so it really will save you a whole lot of time, a whole lot of stress, and a whole lot of money if you make a plan.
And just because we're saying make a plan doesn't mean that, like, it has to be overly complex or anything too. I know that we. We did a lot of crock pot meals, and that's really easy to do and is pretty cheap, too, to go ahead and throw a bunch of things in a crock pot and let it go, and it will cook by itself. So, yeah, you can save a lot of time. You can save a lot of money doing it that way as well.
Yeah. Chili. Crock pot chili. The best.
Don't overthink it. For sure. Make a plan. Stick to your. Stick to your plan. And yeah, don't go over too overboard making it overly complex. You can. There's a lot of really good things to do.
Yeah, that's a huge, huge tip I had, you know, didn't even remember that from nursing school. But yes, we did crock pot meals so much in nursing school. So much, just because it saves so much time and so much money doing it that way. So, yeah, I mean, try to not eat out every night genuinely now with that as well as textbooks. So I know that your school is going to tell you that you need all of the textbooks and all the new editions and everything, and it's just not true. I know that. You know, I know your school is going to tell you to have the newest editions of all of the things, but try to tame yourself. Okay. I would definitely talk to upperclassmen or students who are in like one term ahead of you, maybe two terms ahead of you, and ask them what textbooks did they actually use. Because I friends personally have a whole stack of textbooks that I never opened in nursing school that your school requires you to have. Right. And you just never use them. Or maybe you use them once, maybe twice. And if that's the case, if like you need it for one thing in one term of nursing school, then just borrow it from a friend or borrow it from someone who's one term ahead of you because they're no longer using it. You know, you don't need all of the textbooks and you certainly don't need the newest editions of all of the textbooks. I would say probably the only textbook that you need the newest edition of. Right, Matthew, is the Davis's Drug Guide.
Yeah, Davis's Drug Guide.
You would need the updated version as much as possible just because those meds, man, those meds change.
Yeah. But other ones, I mean, I don't know. Yeah, I'm sure the official, the official line that people draw is that you always need the newest one. But yeah, double check. I like that upperclassmen or maybe even some of your teachers will tell you too.
Maybe they'll tell you the truth.
Maybe. Maybe they will. Yeah, that. Maybe one or. Yeah, a couple additions older and really the only thing that would change is maybe some, some of the page numbers will not be the same. Like if they reference a page number, you just have to be aware of that. But I mean, to save quite a bit of money.
Yeah, like half.
I think that's a fair trade. I think that is by far a fair trade. Yeah.
Yes, that's a good point with the page numbers for sure.
Yeah. So just, just be aware of that. Know, know how to work around it and. Yeah, I think that that would be great. I like the idea of, yeah. Borrowing or, or going halfsies or even more so with friends, get a halfsies. Get a group of your, your. You're going to have a study group, right? And you're going to study as a group all the time. So you guys will always be together. So you can all share a textbook if it's one that you don't use a lot.
Yep, absolutely. Because they're so expensive. Those textbooks are so expensive and we just don't need to be buying all of them. The next tip is to just cut wherever you can cut. Anything that you can cut out, cut it out.
It is really surprising when you try and make it a challenge or make it a game. What we talked about earlier, if you don't have a plan for your money, it just kind of evaporates. So, yeah, just pound yourself and maybe make a list of everything. Surprise yourself. Everything that you're spending money on. And just what are ways that you can do things differently or cut back or substitute things for other things? A carpool or. Yeah, just what are the ways out of the box, ways that you can eke out every little bit?
Yes, carp. Well, carpooling is huge in nursing school because so many clinicals are so far away. Why are they so far away? The clinical that I had, we. I mean, we carpooled constantly. But do you remember the one that I had that was like an hour away, literally in another state? This is. Those can be so, so long commutes. So, yeah, for sure. Carpooling with students to clinical, to class, saving money on gas because gas is so expensive right now. Any way that you can cut things is going to help, like, genuinely. Are you finding yourself spending too much money on clothes that friends you're never gonna wear? Cause you're gonna be wearing scrubs for the next years of your life, you know, spending money on, I don't know, random trips to Target or Walmart. We've all been there.
Again, it's that, it's. It feels good. Like I. We get it that you.
It's like a decompression, right?
Nursing school can be very stressful and a great way to decompress is to go window shopping. Except it doesn't just stay at window shopping. It never stays at just window shopping.
They don't have windows anymore.
So, yeah, we're just walking around and just, oh, I'll just take a look and, oh, I'll just buy this, this one thing and all of that.
So, yeah, next thing you know, you've spent $120 at Target, plus the Starbucks. And whoever decided to put Starbucks inside of Target. That was a brilliant strategy.
So again, out of box thinking is exhibiting, limiting how often you go to those places maybe because knowing, knowing is half the battle.
Knowing is half the battle. Being aware.
Being aware that if you walk into those kind of stores that it's really hard to say no to some things, then just stay away from it as much as possible and then use that time for other things.
So yeah, it's like you're talking drugs. I'm totally fine with that. It is very, very difficult. It can be very difficult to obviously look at what we're spending and where we're spending it and not get overwhelmed. But try not to get overwhelmed. Just take a look at where your money is going right now and then try to cut that starting today. And like Matthew said, you know, it really adds up. It all adds up. So make coffee at home. You don't need to go to Starbucks every day or Dutch Brothers or whatever other coffee place you have. It adds up. That adds up so, so much. And then just make sure that you are. Well, like we say with textbooks too, paring down your resources as well. Make sure that you are, you know, not trying to do all of the things and get all of the things and you don't need all the supplies, you don't need all the study guides on Etsy, you don't need like to buy all of this stuff for nursing school in order to pass. You just need a few concise resources to help you pass. So you need a stethoscope, obviously like you need your scrubs. If whatever textbooks that your school absolutely wants you to have and that you've talked to upperclassmen that yes, they say you need to have those, like, yes, get those things. You know, you don't need a thousand different things in order to pass nursing school.
And I am actually curious because we're a community here. So go ahead and comment below.
Yes, please.
On what are some of your biggest money pits and how what you did to solve that and what are your money saving tips too? Because at the end of the day, that's really what it is. We want to help you guys with the stress and we know that money is a big stressful part right now. So.
Especially right now. Yeah, so, so tough.
So how, how to decrease that so that you can focus on nursing. Get a plan together. And once you get that down, then it gives you the mental capacity to really study on nursing school and the things that are important and you'll find that it, it goes a lot better for you.
Absolutely. We are here to help you pass nursing school. That's what we do. And to do it without all the stress and all the overwhelm and just all the chaos that oftentimes comes with nursing school. So let us know your best money saving tips for nursing school where we can help you the best. And like Matthew mentioned before, there are some really, really great study tips that we have for you to help you pass nursing school. Like we said, without the stress, without the overwhelm. So click on this video that's going to show up right in front of Matthew's face. Check out that video with our best study tips to help you pass nursing school. My friends, you are going to do amazing and go become the nurse that God created only you to be. And I'll see you in the next video.
Take care. Bye Bye.
