Lots is changing at our house this week! We just drove our oldest child seven hundred miles away to attend college. While she was packing up all of her possessions either to store at home or to take with her, all five of her siblings started making plans to takeover her bedroom!
As I mentioned in my last post, we are really excited that our daughter chose and was accepted to the same university where my husband and I both went for undergrad. Not only is it an excellent school academically, it’s also very affordable. Like both Mike and I did, our daughter is planning to pay for college herself for the most part.
Still, we wanted to help her get ready to go. So tuition and books aside, here is what we spent to get our daughter off to college!
It won’t surprise you that we didn’t go out and buy everything brand new. Not only is this better for the budget, but our daughter is pretty environmentally conscious so she often prefers getting things second-hand for those reasons, too. It also helps that she is somewhat of a minimalist when it comes to stuff.
Bedding — $10
She is living in on-campus, apartment-style housing. The 6-person apartment comes with all of the essential furniture like beds, desks, couches, etc.
She brought a quilt that I made for her several years ago along with a pillow that she already had. We needed Twin XL sheets for her bed. We have lots of sheet sizes at home, but that’s not one of them! I chose these cute sheets because the colors went well with her quilt.
Bathroom — $83
Along with the sheets, I put a bunch of bathroom items into a laundry basket to give her as a graduation gift. Since she doesn’t have her own bathroom (six girls share two bathrooms), I thought it would be helpful to put her shower things in a caddy in case she and her roommates decided to use whichever shower is available, rather than keeping their things in one dedicated shower. Originally I got a plastic shower caddy, but the shampoo and conditioner that I got didn’t fit in it! I decided on this mesh caddy instead because it had room for everything and could easily be hung on a hook, unlike a plastic caddy.
I filled the caddy with shampoo, conditioner, body wash, soap, face wash and deodorant. The deodorant that she likes has a deal that you get $5 back in Walmart cash if you ordered three, so she’s stocked up for a while!
I got Sam’s Club towels because they are super soft and fluffy at a really great price point. I got two bath towels, a wash cloth, and a hand towel. I also got a bath mat from Walmart to match and of course some toilet paper.
Kitchen — $38
For graduation, she received some gifts of bowls, measuring cups, glass containers with lids, and a hand mixer. For her birthday, we got her a Ninja blender. At the thrift store she bought herself plates, bowls, glasses, pans, utensils, etc. I won’t count any of those in the total.
There wasn’t too much left that she needed. I sent her with one of our crock pots (we have several). We bought a rice cooker at the thrift store for about $9. We got her some dishcloths, a kitchen towel, dish soap, and dishwasher detergent. We also picked up a vegetable peeler at Walmart and got a baking sheet at the thrift store.
Laundry — $28
We got two of these collapsible mesh laundry baskets for dirty clothes. For laundry detergent, I took advantage of several different brands that have Walmart cash back offers making them great deals. One of them is the perfect small bottle that will be convenient to carry. I also got this and this which can be used as refills. We have a big box of Oxiclean at home so I just scooped some into a freezer bag for her. I also got her some stain remover spray
School Stuff — $0
I offered to buy her a new backpack since she has used the same one for all of high school, but she said that she didn’t need one. Since I am always stocked up on school supplies, I just had her “shop” in my stash for any school supplies that she thought she might need.
We thought about getting her her own laptop, but found that perfectly adequate ones were available to rent for free through IT surplus. We picked up the loaner laptop after checking her in. They said if it has any problems to bring it in and they would fix or replace it. They had both PCs and Macs available.
Clothes — $45
She needed to buy pants and shoes for her on-campus job, but we were able to find what she needed from the thrift store. The shoes were nearly new, but needed some insoles, so I picked up these insoles from Walmart. She brought hangers from home, but once she got unpacked, she realized she needed more so we got some from the thrift store (not necessarily cheaper than new, but more environmentally friendly). We also got a couple of pairs of shorts and a really cute dress.
Organization/Decor — $0
We didn’t buy any new decor items since she had plenty at home. She is definitely more of a minimalist when it comes to decor. I meant to get her some desk organizers like this, but I completely forgot until we had already left.
Fun — $8
We picked up extra copies of some games that our family enjoys so that she can play them with friends at college. We found nearly new versions of Pie Face, Scrabble, Mad Gab, and Upwords all in pristine boxes at the thrift store for $2 each!
Food — $95
We buy a lot of things in bulk, so I suggested that she “shop” from home for some of those things. She grabbed several kinds of beans, steel cut oat, brown rice, and a few other pantry items. I sent her with jars of peanut butter and jelly and some home-canned applesauce and peaches.
Her first big shopping trip included lots of fresh and frozen fruits and veggies, olive oil, spices, pasta, oats, bread, tortillas, milk and other dairy. Sharing a fridge with 5 other girls means you can’t stock up very much. Just having six gallons of milk fills the fridge up pretty fast!
How’d we do?
Move-in went smoothly! We left our two high schoolers at home and brought the younger three (and our oldest, of course) with us. The six of us were able to carry all of her things (aside from the food we later bought) in in just one trip. We spent lots of time exploring the campus and sharing memories. We’re so excited for her new adventures!
Between setting up her bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen and getting her ready to start school, we spent just over $300.
Since this is our first kid to sent off to college, I have no idea what is “normal” to spend. We weren’t trying to do it as cheap as possible, but I feel like we did pretty well.
What do you think? Is there anything you think I forgot to mention?
Some of the links included in this post for products that I purchased are affiliate links. I may receive a small commission for purchases made through those links even though the price for you doesn’t change.
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