Yes, try to get your employer to pay for as much as possible. Even if an employer does not pay for the exam or other fees, they can justify purchasing some reference materials and will usually accomodate you.
Brand new, the best deal on the MERM will come from PPI, the publisher. Used, they will show up on ebay occassionally at a pretty good price (50-60% of new). There will be a rash of them right after people start getting their pass letters. You need to watch that you are getting the edition you want and it's in good shape. Also, a local university library may have some of the references you want without purchasing them; such as cameron, shigley's, steam tables, etc.
Regarding the steam tables in Crane or Cameron, they will probably work for the exam with a little interpolation or approximation necessary for some problems. If you get the Steam Tables by Keenan, you will never have to interpolate, just get your values and go. However, if you look at the NCEES "practice" exam, you will see that the answers are seldom close enough that you need to know the exact enthalpy (or energy, etc.) to the decimal place. So, yes you can probably use Crane but if you can pick up a cheap copy of 1969 Steam Tables (the newest version in english units is still for sale for $250 new!) from ebay ($5-$10) or a library, it is nice to have.