The following is an actual conversation that took place between me and my stepdaughter the other day:

Daughter(calling from campus): "I need you to put some money in my checking account. I just paid for my books.GUESS how much they cost?"

Me(hopefully): "Umm … $300?"

Daughter: "I WISH! Guess again!"

Me(slightly concerned): "$400?"

Daughter: "NO! Higher!"

Me(bordering on alarmed): "$500?"

Daughter: "$573.19! And I didn’t even get the recommended books!"

Me(baffled): "You didn’t even get the books you were supposed to?"

Daughter(patiently): "No, there are required books AND recommended books. I only got the required books. I still have to buy recommended books."

Me (afraid to ask how many "recommended" books remain on the list): "OK, I’ll transfer $580 in your account right now."

So it wasn’t exactly as compelling as a 9-1-1 call, but I’ll bet more than a few of you can relate. College is obviously more expensive than it used to be. I just didn’t realize books had followed suit. I probably paid $200 at most for a semester’s worth of books when I was in college.

To look on the bright side, there were a couple things working in our favor in this little scenario. First, online banking makes it really, really easy to transfer money into her account these days—probably too easy sometimes! (While this is extremely convenient for her, there is a trade-off: We can also easily see every transaction from her account, so we know just what she’s spending on gas, clothes, fast food, etc.)

The other piece of happy news is that we could handle the expense because we’d taken out a Federal PLUS Loan to help pay for her tuition.

For parents who went to college in the 1970s and ‘80s, you might not be familiar with the Federal PLUS Loan—it was introduced in 1981 as a way for parents to help their dependent undergraduate students pay for college.

Back then, many students could still cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, etc. with just a Federal Stafford Loan. But today, with tuition costs so high, students often will borrow as much as they can through the Stafford Loan program and still find themselves short.

So, over the last 10 to 15 years, more and more parents have been looking to the Federal PLUS Loan to help out. The PLUS loan is government-guaranteed and has a fixed interest rate that’s a little higher than the Stafford loan, but still reasonable.

It’s worked out nicely for us as a way to help cover tuition costs—and amazingly pricey books—without having to tap into our savings.

How about you? Have you run into any unexpected expenses this school year? Are you using a PLUS loan to help pay your college costs?