Daughter Going Into Halls - What to Bring/Buy?

Talonaer

asfor reduced rates:

Everything on university area is frankly reduced for students.
a UCL card gets you a discount in 95% of shops in and around gower street.
There are loads of student bars etc. Student gym memberships, dentist etc etc. All will be advertised at the freshers fayre. Thats where youll find it all. plus a crud load of freebies.

Talonaer

dogstarheaven wrote: »

i hear that her accom isn't allowed BluTack as she's read that somewhere, is that true? so the alternative to this is a big notice board... that she'll have to tack her timetable to and other essential must-see things..

playing cards is a great idea as she loves to play bridge and poker and stuff..

is fresher's flu that common? oh well, pack all essential medicines then..:o

i'm not sure whether a Thermos is a 'cool' thing to carry for her needs. i just hope she won't be spending her money on wasteful drinks at cafes...she's v much into her appearance and wearing things in coordination (not too fashion victim-y, but unneccessarily so IMO).

blutacking things is "not allowed" but everyone does.

Freshers flu is just due to new area, huge amounts of people , and yes for those that indulge in drinking alot it highly surpresses your immune system. Part and parcel of it, everyone gets it at some point in first term, and survives.

By mid november she'll be seeing alot of people with thermos's. Cheap cans of soup and going to the nearest shop for half a cheap bagette with someone for lunch becomes fairly standard once the temperature drops.

I do highly reccommend taking her own lunch in each day. buying it each day quickly becomes £4-5 pounds a day on crud.

dogstarheaven

thanks for your detailed help and suggestions talconaer and to rikki, horace, elfen and atypical!

the Thermos and white tack/pins i shall be buying for her then!
pleased to know that there's a big Sainsburys in Camden.
the walking distance v. the bus info is v useful, talconaer - i shall point this out to her.
v pleased to hear of non-alcohol related events on Fresher's Week:p
discounts galore in most of the shops in the area:j
so the Fresher's Flu is basically alcohol-inflicted - i shall warn her about the consequences then!
i'm sure she'll be making her own packed lunch as she was used to doing that for school.

new questions to ask if you don't mind answering for me pls?

how big will the student rooms be?
is a clothes airer really useful to have?
how much is the laundry at UCL?
will there be ex-students selling their old text books advertised somewhere?

still haven't bought our train tickets yet. daughter also needs to suss out how to get the best railcard deal from Natwest Student Account altho' she hasn't got her Student Finance sorted out (she's had confirmation of her Loan but she's not certain she'll get it in time for when she starts on the 28th).:o

have a good day ppl!
xxx

ps. talconaer: which course are you studying? your £100pw for food seems highly excessive - what kind of tastes do you have? daughter is going to be cooking from fresh, but i doubt she'll need to spend more than £20pw. the family budget that i have is around £70 for the three of us!

Gingernutmeg

When I was a student a good clothes airer was really useful. There weren't enought tumble dryers in the laundry, they tended to be either busy or out of order, and they were ridiculously expensive - something like 50p for however many minutes, and you needed pounds and pounds to get stuff dry. Having an airer came in handy so many times! I just kept mine under the bed, it fitted under there perfectly and didn't really take up much space. It also came in really handy when I moved out of halls, as when you're paying the electricity bills you realise how expensive tumble dryers are!

MandyLou66

Hey dogstarheaven!
When my daughter first went to halls we had to pop out and buy washing up bowl, dish drainer and pot brush also plenty of tea towels and dishcloths as they never seem to wash them!
She will soon let you know what she needs when she goes to use it and its not there!
Even though we text and phone frequently I send a small piece of home to her each month! Just a small thing - pair of crazy socks, favourite choccy bar, Yorkshire teabags, facepack, just something to let her know I'm thinking of her! They don,t get a lot of post at Uni and she loves to receive her little pressie!

Good Luck to you both at this exciting but emotional time.

Kind Regards ML

Talonaer

dogstarheaven wrote: »

thanks for your detailed help and suggestions talconaer and to rikki, horace, elfen and atypical!

the Thermos and white tack/pins i shall be buying for her then!
pleased to know that there's a big Sainsburys in Camden.
the walking distance v. the bus info is v useful, talconaer - i shall point this out to her.
v pleased to hear of non-alcohol related events on Fresher's Week:p
discounts galore in most of the shops in the area:j
so the Fresher's Flu is basically alcohol-inflicted - i shall warn her about the consequences then!
i'm sure she'll be making her own packed lunch as she was used to doing that for school.

new questions to ask if you don't mind answering for me pls?

how big will the student rooms be?
is a clothes airer really useful to have?
how much is the laundry at UCL?
will there be ex-students selling their old text books advertised somewhere?

still haven't bought our train tickets yet. daughter also needs to suss out how to get the best railcard deal from Natwest Student Account altho' she hasn't got her Student Finance sorted out (she's had confirmation of her Loan but she's not certain she'll get it in time for when she starts on the 28th).:o

have a good day ppl!
xxx

ps. talconaer: which course are you studying? your £100pw for food seems highly excessive - what kind of tastes do you have? daughter is going to be cooking from fresh, but i doubt she'll need to spend more than £20pw. the family budget that i have is around £70 for the three of us!

I am studying medicine at UCL, taking a year out currently from Medicine directly to do an intercalated BSc ( an extra degree in a year) in history of medicine, with the Wellcome Trust at UCL, this year though.

Sorry if i typed anything that gave the impression of £100 a wekeo n food! I reckon around £30 on the cheap, £40 if your splashing out at all. Cooking for one is always more expensive in my experience than cooking for more. London prices seem to be dearer especially if your having to use smaller supermarkets, which i do, but she should be ok with the big camden sainsburys. Prices in things like Tesco Local (there is a small tesco directly opposite her halls which is part of a petrol station) are generally 10-20% higher in my experience! I do tend to by some more extravagant things but I live to eat rather than eat to live, unfortunately i enjoy cooking and good food too much. So the extra £10 a week is part of me treating myself. Id say average £30 a week on food is about right.

how big will the student rooms be?
Cant say specificially for ann stephenson but average UCL room is... 3m by 7m or so. With a single bed, desk, sink and cupboard. Obv for ensuite rooms the room is bigger but the bathroom is built into the corner and so the room is even smaller.

They are not big lets say that.
is a clothes airer really useful to have?
If it can compact down easily YES! Student rooms are small enough, dont have much space to hang stuff, and with the heating get fairly humid so an airer is a gods send. I wish id had one

how much is the laundry at UCL?
I can only qoute for my halls but a wash was £2, and the tumble dryer was 20p for 10minutes. SO i average around £3 as i didnt have an airer and i found my room (due ensuite) got very humid so things didnt dry unless i opened the window, and froze in the winter so...But thats the halls i was in, all are slightly different.

will there be ex-students selling their old text books advertised somewhere?
For medicine we have a fortnightly newsletter were people sell text books. Depends on her course, for..maths? ..no idea im afraid. There are often second hand book sales at the ULU building which are worth keeping an eye out for. To be honest there is very little need to buy many text books. There are a stupid amount of textbooks available for loan from the multiple UCL librarys! with an easy system to locate them, renewable over the internet etc etc. So I dont suggest rushing out to buyunless shes sure she needs it.

smufflemuppet

I remember this scenario oh so very well! I only did my probation teaching a couple of years ago and had to go into halls - a Unite place infact which turned out to be a better bet than the University's own halls even though I had to make my own meals. I'm a bit of a hall addict having been to uni twice and having had luxury items in my first year many moons ago only to have them nicked, borrowed and never given back. Thus the LAST time I'd ever stay in halls I decided to do go down student territory and consider the cheapest options where possible.

Briefly I took:

Tesco value cutlery (or similar)
3 large Storage boxes from Poundstretchers with the ribbed lids. So handy for course work and one upturned provided a stand for a television or radio.
A clock radio AND a small travel clock just incase there's a power cut (we had 4 of them in the first year)!
A torch
Desk lamp
Heartily recommend John Lewis value plastic boxes - ideal for storing food, pens and pencils and anything else she may need. I think they are either £12 to £15 but you get loads of small margarine sized tubs ideal for food left overs, they don't take up much space and not much of a heartache if they get broken. They are also as I found out ideal sizes for my mum's makeup when she came to visit!

Cheap Portable stereo (AVOID taking expensive HIFI as the sound can be too loud and some halls have paper thin walls) I bought a cheap Sanyo for about £30 and it did me fine even though it lacked USB points!
Laundry bag
Tesco Value iron (or similar)
Plenty of cheap Poundstretchers hangers.
Good quality (and warm) 13.5 tog duvet because even with the heating, it can get cold in halls and 13.5 is a good tog to consider when it gets too hot or too cold. Much warmer than 8 tog!
Cheap Argos single sleeping bag, not only for extra warmth but handy if having friends stay over.
Year planner - essential!
Single sauce pan and one frying pan
Chopping board
Towels & tea towels; got JL Value ones recently (again!) at £7 for a bale.


IKEA used to a home starter kit and a mate of mine got this but I was not impressed with the quantity - a bit too much of everything and some of the pans included weren't of good quality.

Rikki

A clothes airer is very handy.
The washing machines take coins (sons was 20p pieces) worth saving a ready coin supply or be prepared for the washing to come home. :eek:

You just show the natwest rail card when buying your ticket to get your student discount. They send you a new card each year, with your original picture. :eek: :rotfl:

Room fresheners blocks are handy to have.

ThinkingOfLinking

MandyLou66 wrote: »

Even though we text and phone frequently I send a small piece of home to her each month! Just a small thing - pair of crazy socks, favourite choccy bar, Yorkshire teabags, facepack, just something to let her know I'm thinking of her! They don,t get a lot of post at Uni and she loves to receive her little pressie!

Good Luck to you both at this exciting but emotional time.

Kind Regards ML

That's SO sweet.

Reverbe

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Unless she's a keen cook, I doubt she'll get much use out of a wok or a steamer.

Have you checked whether basic cooking utensils/cutlery/china are provided? What about buying her an Argos voucher so that she can get what she needs when she's there?

I find a wok very handy for just cooking large amounts of anything a frying pan requires.. The high sides mean there's less chance of loss while turning things over and stirring...