Transitioning SD17 to College on a tight budget....

[RetroMom]

My second son just finished his freshman year and lived in a brand new dorm on campus. Everyone has given excellent suggestions...every time I thought of something, another poster mentioned it.

What I can add is in relation to newer dorms. All the dorms at my son's university have the bathrooms in the bedroom suites. In his case, he shared a living space with one roommate and the bathroom was the hallway into his other roommate's single space. So, they needed bathroom items such as shower curtain, soap dispenser, etc. and cleaning supplies, along with toilet paper and so forth. Also, a broom and dust pan can be used on carpet and tile. An over the door rack that has several hooks can be very useful. I think I paid $3 at Big Lots for one. I also sent my son with a good amount of plastic hangers.

We found that Facebook was a blessing! I'm sure email would work well also. Once my son knew who his roommates were they all friended each other. Then whenever one of them (or parents) thought of something that could be needed the boys would coordinate who would bring what. It really split things up very nicely and saved the money that we would have spent not knowing and gave them a head start on coordinating together. To be honest, the things we needed to bring I either provided from home or bought at Big Lots/Dollar store etc.

 

[FINFAN]

I did not read all the repies so sorry if this has been mentioned, but my DD is a huge Goodwill fan! She waited until she got to school ( she attends in Sarasota, we are in Illinios)is in an apartment.... to get things like lamps, kitchneware, clothes,balcony chair you get the idea. She has converted all of her friends. They ove it becasue at the end of the year they take things back to Goodwill for the next crop of kids, and they start over the next year on the bargain hunt for what they need Honestly, it was a huge savings for us since we did not have to ship everything this way, the kitchen items were fine, and especially the lamps! Things I would take care of at home would be extension cords and surge protectors, or buy them at Target or wherever near the school. We also had gone to Bed Bath and Beyond DD freshman year, they will take a gazillion coupons all in one sale...she chose items she needed, then a BBB near her school had them waiting for her when we arrived. Saved a ton on shipping as well. Bigger items were good for that like pillows, drying rack for clothes, brita pitcher ( cheaper than buying water in Fl) all the best to your new collegiate!