Should i shoot in raw or jpeg?

So tomorrow is my birthday and i'm getting the nikon d3200 (with 18-55mm kit lens), the camera has a 24mp sensor so the files will be large anyway. I know the quality is better and the flexibility of a raw file is greater however a raw file of 24mp will take up a lot of memory (around 50-60mb i think).so should i sacrifice the quality and shoot in jpeg to allow more photos. Or should i buy an external hard drive/usb to save raw files onto instead. And could someone also tell me what the difference is as well.

As you have stated, the raw pictures are so more bigger and better but to be honest, a printer can only do so much.

Unless you have a professional printer, go with the jpeg pictures.

Happy birthday, and congratulations on getting such a fine camera.

You appear to be new to DSLR photography, so I would suggest you start off using jpeg. Also, unless you plan to print poster size pix, you can use Basic. It will be more than enough resolution for a computer screen.

As you become more sophisticated with the use of the camera, you will want to explore raw and higher resolution jpeg.

The difference is compression. Raw files are not compressed, they are exactly what the sensor on the camera saw. JPEG files are compressed to various levels, Basic, Fine, etc. If you calculate the total pixels on your computer monitor, you will come up with a number of around 2 million, maybe a lot less. So if your camera records 24MP, how can the screen show them. It can't, so they must be compressed, either by the display software, or in the camera. So there's no loss in letting the camera compress them before you display them on your monitor.

Since you mentioned the camera is 24MP, I'd shoot in jpeg. After you've learned how to use the camera, then think about shooting in raw.

All Raw files require at least some post production work, so unless you already have a good post-production software, you are better off shooting JPG for now.

Once you get Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop, you can then start working with RAW files.

Jpeg will give you perfectly good quality.
RAW is used mostly for professional work or by those who prefer post photo tinkering.