We add our kids on to our AAA membership when they get their licence. Just add ds18 last week and when I called I was told that because of a promotion there would be no extra charge for him until our renewal date (April 2017). I thought that was a good deal:-)
DOLLAR STORE. Wow, I simply couldn’t read all of this thread! Made it about halfway… maybe will pick it up again later. Anyway, I searched this thread and didn’t find any results for this, so at the risk of repeating something already said, let me add these 2 words : Dollar Store. I went in one the other day (the true “Dollar Store” where everything in there is really one dollar) and found great kitchen supplies that would be very appropriate for a boy in a dorm. DS is going to an expensive school in an expensive city and his meal plan is most likely not going to last the semester. He will HAVE to eat microwave or other food in his room and as such, may need some basic kitchen utensils. I got a cutting board, chef’s knife, small strainer (for noodles (or washing fresh fruit/veggies – oh I crack myself up)), can opener, oven mitt, serving spoon, chip clips, tongs, large bowl, for-- you guessed it – under $10. He may never use them, but it’s worth the “investment.”
1 Like
A passport - This is an excellent idea for the summer prior to senior year of HS. There are so many to-do-lists why not spread out the expenses & valuable time and complete this early. You may want to plan a trip out of the country as a graduation gift.
Open an banking account in HS freshman year. Wells Fargo has an account just for this age. This gives them an opportunity to learn expenses, pin, transferring money via app, automatic deposit for summer jobs in their junior year. Do you really want to save EVERY life lesson for the summer before college?
A Passport Card or another government issued picture ID for your non-driving students going away to college.
Electric blanket is an idea.
Biggest recommendation is a mattress pad + topper. Near impossible to sleep without it. Ask me about how old those college mattresses are
tonymom I live in CT. I would suggest a North Face Jacket which is a very popular brand. Most guys will just wear boots like Timberlands. I doubt he would wear thermals. I see the guys wearing shorts even when the temps drop they are pretty tough.
This is really helpful! Thanks! I just showed my parents 
I wanted to add a note about the timing of shopping for dorm rooms. My d went to an early Freshman Study Abroad program over the summer. I delayed shopping until she returned because I know from past experience that if she does not like something, she will not use it and it is just a waste of money.
Also of note is that her start date at an out of state university was about 2 weeks later than the start dates for universities in our state. So, by the time we started shopping, merchandise stock had been somewhat depleted for various items. I reviewed some very helpful recommendations on this board, but found a list posted by Target by category to be the most helpful; I found the item breakdown by category very helpful when shopping.
Since we are Prime members and I like the convenience of delivery, I wanted to use Amaz** for the more basic things like mattress pad, duvet insert, sheets, surge protectors, extension cords, space-saving hangers, etc. So I started a cart and went through my list, reading reviews and selecting about 5 items/ day. After about 6 days, I noticed several things had increased in price. I was notified that a couple of items were “no longer available”. Some of the things increased in price by about 20%. However, some Linensp* bedding items I had selected had nearly doubled in price. At this point, I became very frustrated. Furthermore, I checked on the “no longer available” items and found they were available- but the Marketplace seller had re-listed them at a significantly higher price.
I did more research and found a website with the word camel in its name and it showed the price of an item over approx. a one year period. What I found was that prices on many back to school items increased markedly in August from this retailer. I also was watching a few items from another retailer and found some of their prices increased for back to school items in August. Sometimes, they even had the nerve to increase the price and then claim it was a “roll back” price.
I just thought I would share this info for those who are starting the dorm shopping. It appears the prices increase in August and may even perhaps increase if you ad something to your cart and wait a bit to purchase it. I think there might be some tracking mechanism whereby merchants can see what is in your cart and what you plan on purchasing and then increase the price on it. Regardless, I would recommend shopping throughout the spring to get the best prices on items and not waiting until August. Because my d is going to school pretty far from us and also due to the small size of her dorm room (needed more space-saving solutions than larger rooms), we ended up spending more than I thought we would. Total cost came in around $1300.00. I did go back into my cart and select different items for those prices that had increased because I am stubborn about not being taken advantage of. Of note was that this added even more time (and frustration) to the whole process.
Yes, we did our purchases over the course of a lot of months. I have found that the kids take less with them to school each year. Neither of mine has ever requested a thick mattress cover, though many on here claim they are vital. We do have the dust mite type with minimal padding. We don’t really unpack their things when they come home, so that it’s easier to send them back. We do a quick unpack and re-pack each August, deciding what they still need and what might need to be bought. The challenge, is finding room for each kid’s college things in the house, keeping it all separate from what they have at home. I keep a checklist/spreadsheet ready to go for each of them, too.
My daughter (a 2015er) loved the matress topper and said that her friends were jealous. We bough it on Amazon. D15 is at a school across country, so she put everything into storage over the summer in a space shared with other kids not from the area. This year she didn’t bring much back with her except for some kitchen stuuff that she didn’t need the first year.
My kid loves his mattress topper. Other things that have been vital - oscillating tower fan, first aid kit with added OTC drugs , extra band aids etc, noise cancelling head phones. Loved this idea of a care package too. Send your kid 3 batches of cookies or brownies. Too many for them to eat so they are forced to share throughout the dorm. Great way for them to meet some new friends.
Best purchase so far has been the extra long phone chargers and the 10-ft chord on the surge protector! It’s nice to be able to reach the top bunk with some extra give.
I will ditto artskids. Additionally, we bought a bunk bed cell phone holder from Dormco that holds her cell phone and her glasses.
One of the cool things I have seen for college students are the night stand lamps with built in phone chargers. Those are great ideas and they can be purchased at Walmart for less than $15.
I made an upholstered headboard for my D’s lofted bed which she really likes. This is what I used to make it:
5/8" plywood from Lowes; they cut it down to size for me to 38" wide and 28" tall for about $15.
higher density 2" foam from Hobby Lobby (they were the only craft store that had this in a 40" width) @ approx. $30.
thin cotton batting by the yard @ approx $4
Waverly twill fabric at Walmart in neutral grey for about $6.
I cut the foam with a serrated knife, placed it on the board and covered it with the cotton batting (that was 4"-6" larger on all sides than the board). I turned it over and used a staple gun to secure the batting to the back. I then cut the fabric larger than the board (like the batting) and covered the foam/ batting and stapled it to the back. I did not attempt to give the back a finished look because it is against a wall and you can’t see it,
The whole thing took less than one hour to put together. I thought we would have to add legs to the headboard to help hold it in place once we got to the dorm room. My plan was to tie the legs to existing bed posts with zip ties and screw them to the upholstered headboard frame I made, with another trip to Lowes to get them cut to length. (Brought a drill with us.) However, since I used the thick foam, the headboard was very tightly wedged between the mattress and the bed posts, and with the bed posts extending upward from the bottom of the mattress by about 10", there was no way the headboard was going anywhere. So we got to skip that step.
Although I have seen websites that sell these, I wanted to do it myself since I don’t know how sturdy they are and I knew the method/ design to attach the legs would be dependent on how the bed was constructed and wanted to design it so it was very safe.
So- D has a very comfortable lofted bed with cushioned back rest for studying/ reading in bed :).
Collegereadykid.com has some good resources. They give away a lot of free content.
Given recent weather: Raincoat, umbrella (or 2!), water-proof shoes or boots.
don’t forget a proper talk about protection and stuff (if yours still needs one lol)