<p>Regardless of where my S goes it's going to be a fly there thing. Figured we would travel light and just leave early enough to buy stuff there. But then I found out about stores that let you shop where you live and pick up where the kid is going to be. Know that Bed, Bath and Beyond is one of them. Any others I should know about?</p>
<p>I believe Target is another.</p>
<p>For BB&B, start now to save up all those coupons they send in the mail and print in the newspaper circulars. For some reason, when you do the college pick and hold thing, they let you use all your coupons - including expired ones - at the school-location store. They told me some folks show up with a pile of coupons an inch thick.</p>
<p>you also can mail books to yourself at book rate which is fairly cheap.
BB&B will also wait for shipping till you tell them- you can have it just be sent to your school mail room</p>
<p>Linens N things, as well.</p>
<p>Best Buy also...we ordered a tv online and arranged for pickup at the store closest to the college.</p>
<p>Most any catalogue outfit will let you order from home and have it shipped directly to your new college address.</p>
<p>Check with your school before shipping to your S's new school address--at my D's school there is a delay of 3-5 days after the start of school before they can start getting their packages. They are apparently overwhelmed with deliveries during the move in period--but they did notify us of this prior to move in. So don't ship anything that might be essential for him to live for the first week. Picking it up at a local store works out better for those items.</p>
<p>Our offspring moved 1300 miles to a rural college that was 50 miles from the nearest BB&B or Linens & Things. To further complicate matters, her college operates on a quarter system, and started in mid -Sept - most of the college stuff had been packed away at our local BB&B, in favor of Christmas merchandise, by the time she was actually leaving.</p>
<p>We did a little bit of everything - shipped some, bought some there, did the pick-up at BB&B. BB&B in our town messed up our order, and nothing was ready for us when we arrived (after the 50 mile drive) to pick it up. We were able to get most of the things on the list, but BB&B missed out on a few sales because of the error.
If at least one parent is flying with the child or to meet the child, by far the cheapest thing to do is max out the airline allowance. Also if the child needs to ship some clothes (likely for daughters), then it was cheaper for us to shop the markdown aisles at TJ Maxx and the outlet mall, and have things shipped in the box that was going anyway. Bulky items, the frig, etc, as well as detergent, cleaning supplies, couple of plastic bowls/plates, we bought when we got there.
Buying online, and having it shipped directly could also have been good, but we got much better prices at Ikea and TJ Maxx, and had to send boxes anyway.</p>
<p>We did a combo also, brought from home, bought there and picked up pre-orders. One thing I liked about going early and buying things there, was that after driving around doing all the shopping, I felt very familiar with the area. I think this helped me to feel more comfortable leaving my S 1500 miles away. When he would call and tell me where he went, I could picture it exactly.</p>
<p>According to the cashier at our BB&B, you can use five coupons at a time, and they don't care if they are expired. So I would go through the line with five items at a time. And if anyone needs some of these coupons, send me an e-mail. I might be able to help.</p>
<p>Peg
Queen of Coupons</p>
<p>We did a lot of Internet shopping and had it shipped directly to the dorm. The dorm allowed for early (prior to move-in) deliveries, so most of the stuff was there when we arrived.</p>