We finally made it to Purdue to move S23 into his dorm in the morning! Flew down from Alaska on the redeye to Chicago Thursday night, did the obligatory shopping in the suburbs (including IKEA and Trader Joe’s so I wasn’t complaining ) on Friday and today we played tourists in downtown Chicago before picking up a couch in IKEA and cramming it into the rental car for the drive to Purdue! It was quite comical seeing S23 and D24 squeezed into the back seat, practically on each other’s lap to make room for the box o’couch. Adding to the laughs….I got a bloody nose as soon as we get on the toll road and no one can get to a bag that has tissues or napkins! (Foruntately it was a very minor bloody nose!). Trying to enjoy a glass of wine in the hotel lobby, but alas, no wine bottle opener !
So we move him in in the morning. We’ll walk around campus. See if he needs anything and then we’re headed to University of Findley (Ohio) where D24 is touring Monday. We’ll be back Monday night and check in on S23 to see what he might need. He starts orientation Tuesday afternoon and we fly home out of O’Hare. (We bought our plane tickets—and made hotel reservations—before we knew his exact move in date because they didn’t tell him until mid-July and that is too late!). It’s fun to have the “whole” family here (minus D19) to see Purdue and experience this with him. S23 is really excited to be here and is so ready to get started!
Many people like a physical bank. I’m not sure why - but they continue to open them and when I go in every three months, there’s always several employees and a line of five people.
So totally understandable someone would still have a bank. The demand is clearly there.
When every study I’ve ever seen shows that more money gets spent by credit and debit cards v. cash- keeping the kids to a physical bank as they learned how to save and spend seemed wise.
Heck I still pay out allowances in cash, lol.
What I find funniest is that if it is my money being spent, my kids are expansive with their idea of budget. When it is their money, they are prudent lil Scrooges.
Lots of pre-move in (one week from today!) jitters here too. I’m trying to communicate both “I know you’ll be fine, you’re well prepared!” and “We’re only 30 minutes away if you need anything, you can text/call/visit anytime!”
Some of us have somewhat complicated situations that mean that having people at a financial institution who you have a real face-to-face relationship with is sometimes useful.
With kids being online 24x365x7, the bank will maintain the checkbook register free of charge, always up to date
Also, chances are most of their expenses will be through Venmo, just occasionally pulling or dropping money back into checking account.
I can’t remember the last time I wrote a paper cheque where I could fill in the paper ledger. Instead most of it are online bill-pay, automatic ACH payments, Charge Card bills, and Debit Card uses - all of that is recorded real-time in the “online ledger”.
And I’m a Dinosaur — so I imagine it’s even less an issue with kiddos for their less than a handful of payments a month?
Good news: Kids dad/my ex filed for divorce from the monster of a woman who has created so much drama and separation in the kids immediate and extended family for over a decade. She is a lying, manipulative psychopath.
Bad news: Fingers crossed my ex holds to his promise to pay a third of s23 and d25 college expenses.
For those who have kids headed to the southern schools from the NE, (or anywhere that is more than a one day drive) are you driving with your car all packed up? Flying and renting a car and buying once you are there? Flying and shipping everything? S24 has pretty much only schools from the south on his list and curious what you decided to do for move-in.
our kid went to college 14 hours away. we rented a mini-van, filled it with his stuff and drove him down the first year. Since then, we’ve let him drive (everything fits in his car), and one of us has gone with him and flown back. We did buy several things there; but i will say i’m so thankful for those rooms that come furnished that he’s leased the last few years.
We’re flying cross-country, bringing most of the stuff with us as checked bags and then renting an SUV.
I don’t want to spend the last few days together shopping at Target, Walmart. Ikea etc with thousands of other families, so we’ve been accumulating stuff D needs over the summer.
We’re in the PNW and D23 is heading to Texas. We’re flying and shipped a bunch of stuff, she’s already popular with the mail room!
It seems that most colleges will allow you to start sending things a few weeks before school starts and at least in D23’s case, there isn’t any restriction on number of packages or size, so we’ve just bought a lot on Amazon and sent it. She’s mostly packed clothing. We’re planning on a Target or Walmart trip once we’re there this weekend.
We’re an extreme case of this, having just moved our kids into their colleges in Texas (new student) and Mississippi (returning student) from our home in Alaska.
While it would technically have been possible to buy everything here, pack up the car, and drive them to campus, both the distance and the fact there’s two of them made that an unworkable proposition (and really, not both/and, it’s either/or).
So we flew down a couple days in advance, rented a minivan (better cargo capacity than any SUV ever made!), and bought everything we needed that didn’t fit into two suitcases. (ETA: Ordering stuff for curbside pickup from a local Target/Kohl’s/Staples/everywhere else makes the process easier, too.)
Over summers (for the one in Mississippi and the as-yet-unmentioned one who went to college in Pennsylvania) we stashed some stuff at the houses of extended family, and where necessary short-term rental of a small climate-controlled storage unit is way more inexpensive than shipping stuff back and forth.
Yep. Minivans are almost magical in their storage capacity. I dumbly bought one of those large storage coffins that sit over your car thinking we would need it for big trips and have literally not used it once because no matter how hard I try we can never exceeded the internal capacity of our minivan. That’s why we have held onto it for over a decade despite disliking it in almost every other regard. With the last kid heading of the college it’s days are numbered…
Like @dfbdfb I also had the fun of moving kids to college OOS from Alaska. D19 was unique—she had 2 bikes that had to make the trip as well so we could only check 2 bags. (Fortunately, we were able to deliver 2 of her bikes earlier in the summer!). So we did most of the shopping when we got there. As an athlete, she was able to move in early so the stores weren’t quite so picked over but I did try to get her to order as much stuff ahead of time so we could do an in store pick up (this was before anyone knew what “curbside pick up” meant!). With S23 who we are just now dropping off, my DH, and D24 came along so we had plenty of luggage allowance. I did order some of the bulkier items ahead of time and had them shipped to a friend I knew we’d be seeing. We rented an SUV—it was tight but the IKEA couch was the real problem. We bought a few things here but he brought most down with us so we are headed home tomorrow with a suitcase filled with empty duffles and IKEA bags!
D24 looked at a school today for their equestrian program. While we don’t have to worry about getting her horse to college next year , the list of tack she has to bring is huge and includes a saddle (which she doesn’t own!). It could be worse than the 2 bicycles!
S23 still has 5 weeks to wait. But he registered for classes today and got into all the classes he wanted. Better yet, the earliest start is 11.40am (he is not a morning person)!
S23 moves into his dorm tomorrow. I feel like he’s treating packing like he’s going on vacation and not like he’s moving. I’ve gone into his room several times to check on his progress and assess what he’s NOT taking with him to school. We’ll see how he feels tomorrow, but I’m afraid he’s got a bout of home sickness coming. We’ve got visits set up about once a month, so hopefully that helps him feel less adrift.
I’m going to be left with a big house full of empty bedrooms and one last kid here. Boo.
) on Friday and today we played tourists in downtown Chicago before picking up a couch in IKEA and cramming it into the rental car for the drive to Purdue! It was quite comical seeing S23 and D24 squeezed into the back seat, practically on each other’s lap to make room for the box o’couch. Adding to the laughs….I got a bloody nose as soon as we get on the toll road and no one can get to a bag that has tissues or napkins! (Foruntately it was a very minor bloody nose!). Trying to enjoy a glass of wine in the hotel lobby, but alas, no wine bottle opener 
!
We bought a few things here but he brought most down with us so we are headed home tomorrow with a suitcase filled with empty duffles and IKEA bags!
, the list of tack she has to bring is huge and includes a saddle (which she doesn’t own!). It could be worse than the 2 bicycles!
