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If you missed me this morning on Martha Stewart Living radio, I talked about reducing overall expenses and deciding what is a “need” and what is a “want” item.
Absolute necessities – Send your student packing with basic toiletries like shampoo, deodorant, and toothpaste. Basic bedding and clothes are necessities, as are a few notebooks, a pencil, and a pen.
Bedding – Use sheets and pillows you already have (no one sees them, anyway) but look for a sale on a new comforter or quilt to make everything feel new. If extra long sheets are needed, send your student to college with an extra flat sheet and they can fold the corners themselves. Or, head to Target for a $10 extra-long Jersey sheet set.
If you are worried about bedbugs, buy a mattress protector but skip a pricey mattress enhancer. If the bed is not comfortable, pick up a piece of egg crate foam, which is super cheap.
Computer – Wait to buy a computer until your student arrives at school and finds out if the college has specific computer requirements. Some schools, like Wake Forest in North Carolina, give each student a free computer and color printer/scanner/copier. Wow!
Textbooks – Your student can download a free eReader app to their smart phone or computer and find free copies of classics by Jane Austin and others in the public domain. Borders alone has more than 1 million free eBooks.
Buy used textbooks – and not just from the school bookstore but on Craigslist, eBay, and Amazon. Amazon offers students get a free Amazon Prime membership, which comes with free 2-day shipping. A Prime membership usually costs $79.
Rent a text book from Chegg.com, which has a 30-day “any reason” return policy. You’ll pay about 50-70% less than buying a book outright, and you don’t have to worry about selling your books at the end of the semester.
Try swapping for textbooks on sites like BookMooch.com, but don’t expect many textbooks.
Go digital by checking the distributor’s website to see if you can purchase an electronic copy of the textbook. They save on ink, paper, and transportation, so the cost goes down significantly. A friend once got a $115 economics textbook for $40. If you can bring it on your laptop to class, then you’re set.
Kitchen – Most frosh are on a meal plan, so they don’t need anything but perhaps a coffee maker (which every garage sale across America has). For students not on a meal plan, stock up on silverware, plates, cups, appliances at the nearest Goodwill for $15-$20.
Furniture – Are you kidding me? Dorms rooms are teeny tiny and students are required to keep in their room any furniture provided by the school.
Humidifier – Send a humidifier when temps drop (assuming your student lives in a cold, dry climate). It is hard to sleep in super dry conditions and lack of sleep may make them more prone to colds and missing class. (Just a hunch on that last one.)
Buy used – Avoid getting sucked into the mentality that everything has to be new. Going to college is a special experience, but spending a lot of money outfitting a dorm doesn’t make it so. Before you head to the store, raid the attic, go to garage sales, and search Craigslist.
Let them decide – Another strategy to save is to give your student a budget and let them prioritize what to buy. Putting them in charge – while still helping find deals to stretch their dollar – may well motivate them to become savvy shoppers and help them separate “needs” versus “wants.”
Shop the dollar stores – Your student is not going to cart a lot of this stuff home every summer so there is no point in spending money on items that don’t have a lone lifetime, like a plastic shower caddy.
Create rewards for luxuries – Reward student for good grades and similar achievements with luxuries they want, like a mini fridge if they earn straight A’s.
Use coupons – But of course! Check the retailer’s website for coupons before you shop and save the ones you receive in the mail. Make sure to get toiletries on sale and use a coupon whenever possible!
Remember, if a student really needs something s/he will keep asking for it!
Welcome to Niconail! I’m Niko, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price.
If they are taking a bike, make sure they have a good lock. Also, get a lock for the seat of the bike. I had my bike seat stolen several times and it’s a bummer to replace! I had a car at school, and if I wanted to drive home for a weekend, I would see if anyone else who lived on my way, would want a ride and we would share on gas.
@Heather Great tip – I didn’t even think about bikes and locks. A good lock is super important.
Check with your local library to see if they have a “Friends of the Library” organization which sells used donated books and uses the proceeds to meet needs that the library’s budget can’t accomodate. (Ours buys books, DVDs, furniture, electronic equipment, books to be given to elementary students who may never have had a new book of their own before, etc.) The Friends group where I volunteer has books available from “free” to maybe $5-6 for a coffee table art book. 90% of our books are $0.50 or less and they are split about 50/50 fiction/non-fiction (including classics, dictionaries, textbooks, biographies, etc.). People buy books and pass them to friends or donate them back to be sold again. We have paperbacks, hardbacks, audiotapes, DVDs, etc. Check with your local library to see if they have an active Friends group and book sales in your area (or consider starting or supporting one).
I would add to check with the dorm rules before bringing a coffee maker. Some dorms don’t allow them – the first dorm I stayed in didn’t!
Also, I would add on your list a small fan. Its cheaper than an air conditioner, and you’d be surprised how much better the heating systems in the old dorms will work with some additional air movement. I still have my fan from my freshman year and its been nearly 10 years – and I only payed $10 for it at Walmart!
The other item I would add to your list is some roll paper to line the shelves and drawers with so your stuff doesn’t get dirty. You can use real paper but in my opinion, a roll of paper from Ikea that’s like, $2, works just as well.
For my daughter heading to a college apt. I just bought a nice twin bed with storage headboard and storage drawers at the bottom ($150), and also a nice student computer desk ($39) at walmart.com.
Also, check out Big Lots-they have lots of cheap furniture. I’m finding really ugly, banged up things on Craigslist unfortunately. I’ve also been stockpiling from my weekly supermarket shopping all summer for her. She’s got enough cereal, juice and nutrigrain bars to get through Christmas!
I have a couple more suggestions for textbooks on the cheap. Textbookrevolt.com is even cheaper than Chegg, they have more options for how long the rental period is (for example, I’m taking a 5 week summer class and was able to rent a book from them for 45 days, while my only options with Chegg were 30 and 60 days).
Also, here’s an idea for getting your textbook for super cheap that I learned from my classmates. Many times the school library has a reference copy of each and every textbook that can’t be checked out, but you CAN make copies of the pages on the library’s copier. Obviously it takes some time, but it’s a much cheaper option if you’re seriously low on cash. Maybe you could even find other students willing to go the same route and split up copying duties. Also, if you have the syllabus and know only specific chapters/sections of the book will be covered, you could copy just those pages instead of the whole book.
@N. Davis Thanks for the tip on Textbookrevolt.com. The site rings a bell so I must have heard about it somewhere.
This is great for first year students, but higher level students often times live off campus in the area. It would be great if you provided money saver tips for them.
Your reader KC recommended searching library sales, but how about the actual library catalog?
In my experience, some of my college textbooks were in my college library system, so I could check them out for free. Others were part of the local public library system, also free. Here in San Diego, we’ve got both a county and a city library system: twice the possibility of finding a book. For free!
I second the fan tip, and my best tip is that when you first move into that first freshman dorm room, it usually smells stale! Open the window, put the fan in the window, and put a sheet of fabric softener behind the fan. It really freshens up the new room while you move in.