showertile
Getting ready to tile my first shower. Planning to start at the bottom and work up. Do I place the bullnose trim alongside the courses of tile as I go up? Or finish the big pieces then place all the bullnose pieces around the edge last?
While on the subject, is it ok to finish a few courses then come back the next day to finish, or should it all be done at once to avoid the thinset from drying out between courses?
Shower tiles are not a place to cut corners. If they are porous then you will have a host of issues. Basically you will breed mold faster and the tile install won't last as long - mold gets in cracks and pops tiles out or at least loosens bonding. You need to get a non-porous stone, plastic, glass, or porcelain.
If going with 12x12 tiles you will need at least 1/16th of an inch given they are uniform - and perfectly cut 12x12 are not cheap. So you are looking at 1/8-3/16. Which means you need sanded grout.
For cheap I suggest you go on craigslist or whatever is equivalent locally (even try job leftovers at tile store). The bottom 3 feet of your install needs to be a good tile - you will need about 34 sqft. You can get decent porcelain for $2 a sqft and even cheaper if it is a job leftover or end of stock. You can still use your ceramic up top. And when switching tiles I usually put in a narrow trim of glass mosaic in between - will need 3-4 sheets.
Joe, sorry to use the "answer" function again instead of adding another comment, I wanted to attach more pictures.
The tile I used was not available with a bullnose so I finished it flat on the sidewall. The edge cant be seen normally so I did not spend time making it perfect, but for your situation I retract my note about never finishing an edge with caulking. If you end flat to the wall around that corner it would be perfectly fine to use caulking for aesthetic purposes, use paintable caulk so you can paint a straight line down the whole side when you paint the wall.
Sorry I misunderstood your question, my situation was similar to yours and wrapping the tile around to the outside seemed like the best solution for me, and it looks pretty good that way (at least my wife did not complain, that's all that really matters). 
Best Answer
You can indeed do a few courses per day.
Just make sure that there is no tile adhesive left on the wall in between tiling sessions or else it will harden and be a nuisance.
On the other hand, in my experience, the grouting should all be done in one go on a wall as otherwise it is a bit difficult to get it to join up again nicely.