<p>Hi - I'm a newbie on this site & having a little trouble navigating, so pardon if I'm duplicating other threads. Any good tips on where to research the cost of shipping my daughter's gear out for Freshman year? We are on East Coast, she's going to school in Midwest, and current plan is to ship her stuff & fly, but I want to compare with the cost of driving.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Best option…Fly and Buy.</p>
<p>Fly Southwest - 2 bags/person fly free. Order stuff at BBB online and pick up locally.</p>
<p>The problem I’ve found with fly & buy (and I understand this is the Mom talking) is that student arrives with almost nothing, maybe a change of clothes, deodorant & toothbrush, and a very busy arrival day on his/her plate.</p>
<p>All I can think of is clean sheets, matress pad, pillow, light blanket, change of clothes, soap & shampoo, etc. etc. Tough to get all that in a carry-on bag, and tough to arrive on campus for first day of orientation and have to take a couple of hours (and find a car) to go pick up said linens, etc.</p>
<p>I suppose a compromise could be worked out…ship the “first day–open me immediately carton” to arrive same day as student, and combine with standard fly & buy methodology.</p>
<p>Makes sense - if cost of shipping is more than cost of items bought out there, makes more sense to buy, certainly. I just priced hotels & gas, etc for driving trip & definitely cheaper to fly! </p>
<p>BUT - any place on the web to estimate shipping costs? Buying a few items is one thing, we can’t afford to completely outfit her but need to use what we’ve already got!</p>
<p>[ShipGooder:</a> Courier Rate Search, Shipping Rate Search for FedEx, DHL and the United States Postal Service](<a href=“http://www.shipgooder.com%5DShipGooder:”>http://www.shipgooder.com)</p>
<p>Plus, you can ship things via Greyhound, too.</p>
<p>For the first of 3 kids moving to the Midwest from NY area for school we shipped whatever we had purchased in advance via UPS Ground. Relatively reasonable and waiting for him in the dorm on move-in day. S2’s school, Wash U, had a student-run moving/delivery service which we used. They were actually more than UPS. Having done it now 3 times I’d say fly Southwest (if you can) and have each person traveling check the maximum number of bags, take advantage of BB&B pick-up for much of the bedding necessities and plan on a trip to Target. For D, (child 3!) we actually went out the day before move-in and did the Bed and Bath and Target runs and left all in the car. Ready to move-in the next morning.</p>
<p>We flew D from SoCal to midwest, and each of us (H, D, and I) checked two bags/duffels. We’ll do the same with D2. If you’re flying an airline that doesn’t charge for bags (Southwest; or elite status on other airlines), this works great, because you can carry on your own stuff and your son/daughter can carry on clothes, etc., or what they need for the first night. (Bedding is the trickiest thing if you need it right awway. Some airlines give you one free bag, or the first at low cost, and this is a good option for carrying that.)</p>
<p>What we couldn’t fly with, we simply bought at Target, BB&B, Staples, etc., once we got there. The only thing we paid to ship was a carton of books.</p>
<p>Terrific! Lots of good ideas - thanks! No SW to where we’re going, but we have enuf FF miles for 1 free ticket so can pay for another and fill up bags w/her stuff as much as possible. Going over the list tonight to see what we have, what we need, etc.</p>
<p>from the midwest to the east coast, i shipped via UPS ground. very reasonable and we timed it to arrive the same day as my son. much easier than packing and driving.</p>
<p>Don’t send anything you’re not absolutely sure will be needed and used. </p>
<p>My son went to college with three large duffle bags, each weighing fifty pounds. He came home after four years with three large duffle bags–and sent home three book boxes using media mail.</p>
<p>There’s a lot of stuff people think they need–but they don’t. Really. And if they do, UPS still works two weeks later.</p>
<p>The trick we used was to vacuum bags (BB&B) and to suck the air out of the bag after you put it in the box or suitcase. That way it conforms to the shape of the container and you can fit a lot more. Boxes of a certain size can weigh up to a certain amount and sometimes you lose if the stuff is bulky but doesn’t weigh too much (winter gear, towels, bedding, etc.). We shipped UPS because a friend has a factory and they get a cheaper rate. It was there when we arrived for orientation.</p>
<p>Remember the affects of freshman15. New wardrobe by Thxgvg.</p>
<p>dmd77-
Key word in your post-‘son’ 
Raesmom has a daughter!</p>
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<p>The weird thing about the freshman 15 is that it can go either way. Some kids gain 15 pounds; some lose them. It depends on the exact nature of the lifestyle change for each individual.</p>
<p>But in either case, by Thanksgiving all of the kid’s jeans don’t fit.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone this is really great! We have close friends 40 minutes from the college so they can be counted on for a shopping run if necessary.</p>
<p>She’s not going to be happy to hear about freshman 15 - but given what a picky eater she is, may well go the down way - we’ll see! She has Aunt Trish (close family friend) 40 mins away if she’s desperate for a home-cooked meal.</p>
<p>So glad to have found this site - you guys are great - it’s very reassuring. I’m busy planning and getting weepy over every silly little detail (only when DD can’t see me!)</p>
<p>Perhaps we made it more complicated and for us driving coast-to-coast wasn’t an option but I think the same principles apply:</p>
<p>1) Create a spreadsheet containing everything she will need
2) Group items by category
3) Perform triage: bring in luggage/ship/buy
4) Printout spread sheet of “Buy” items and run around like mad after arriving. (Keep other spreadsheets for reference. As in, “Did we remember to account for X?”)</p>
<p>For D’s list, there was no “one stop” option like BBB for everything she needed. For much that you will have to buy anyway, such as pens & notebooks, you might as well buy on-site and save room in either luggage or shipping. Iirc, items were grouped into “large store” (Target, Wal-Mart, whatever), office supply, drug store, book store. Plus the mini-refrigerator that was cheaper to buy than to rent for four years. Changing climate zones, there was also clothing to buy, but we put that off until the first family weekend…not a good selection of winter coats in SoCal.</p>
<p>Shipping costs do add up and there was a lot that it just didn’t make sense to ship.</p>
<p>From college to first job, D shipped something like eight boxes via UPS but that was virtually everything she owned at college and hadn’t “willed” to underclassmen upon graduation. She had only one suitcase plus instrument allowed on the plane. (Of course, the cost of UPS was trivial compared to getting the stuff boxed, taped, and to UPS in time for her to make the call time for her plane.) </p>
<p>For parents who look back with nostalgia on the “Shipping Stuff to College” and are looking for new adventures, consider the eventual advanced “Assembling the Additional Inexpensive Furniture for Their First Apartment” seminar. I think that maybe now I could look at one of those IKEA wrenches without twitching.</p>
<p>When our kids started school in LA, we flew & each of us brought one carry-on piece for OUR luggage & checked extra pieces for the student @ $15 apiece (we would each pretend it was for us). We purchased whatever didn’t fit when we got to campus. Since there were 4 of us for each move-in, it worked out fine & in fact we didn’t need to bring all the much luggage. When D joined S on the same campus, he gave her the things he no longer needed from when he had been on campus–XL twin bedding, printer/fax/scanner, and other misc items. We really were able to keep things manageable this way instead of things that expanded to the space we had available.</p>
<p>Linking the old with the new:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/703741-what-least-expensive-way-send-belongings.html#post1062418840[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/703741-what-least-expensive-way-send-belongings.html#post1062418840</a></p>