1st time at Uni.....ideas please

rosalie-lavender

jrrowleyws wrote: »

Do bear in mind that there will be shops fairly near and so you dont need to send him off with tonnes of things, especially as the room in halls wont be massive!

Think I took the least stuff in my first year and have slowly accumulated more and more cr^p!

This is certainly true for those going to Warwick. There is a huge Tesco's only about 10 minutes walk away and a costcutter on campus. There is also a Wilkinsons that sells lots of kitchen stuff.

We still seem to have a car full everytime my son comes home though, but the full size keyboard in a hard flight case takes up a lot of the space.:eek:

hbloomers

I too have done the moving from Norn Iron to England thing. I made the mistake of buying a lot of things at home and taking it all over in the car. Bad idea. The best thing to do is probably fly over with him, so he can use your suitcases for clothes, rent a car for the day to pick up all the things he needs and then fly back.

Nearest airport is Birmingham (I think), which can be pretty expensive to fly from I've found, as Belfast - Birmingham is only served by Flybe and BmiBaby. Though if you're near near Derry, or don't mind an hour on the train, you can fly Ryanair Derry - Birmingham, or Belfast City - East Midlands. I'd seriously recommend a railcard as well. Natwest used to give a free 3 year rail card when you opened up a student account.. not sure if they still do this, or the NI branches do this at all, but its worth investigating. From what I remember, Warwick is about 30 mins from Birmingham Snow Hill, and the fare is £6 ish.

Also, check the inventory list for his halls before buying kettles, toasters etc. They may already be there. And if there are different payment options for halls, termly is probably best. I paid mine monthly, and it required a lot of budgetting. At least with everything taken out in one go, you know what money you'll have left to play with.

To save space in my suitcase, I bought a portable harddrive and copied all my CDs DVDs etc on to it. Might be something worth looking into

bunny_too

hbloomers, thanks for the advice, I will think about that flight idea. I am only compiling a list at the moment. No shopping done just yet.....

ciderwithrosie_2

It is good advice to shop once you're there, unfortunately we couldn't do this as we had to hire an airport taxi to get him up there, the guy would only stay for about 2 hrs max, wasn't too happy about it but that was the only one we could get - so checking in and getting keys, unloading, quick look round and unpack a few things, said 'hi' to a couple of his flat mates and that was it, left him sitting in the middle of all his belongings wondering where to start!! So there's no way we could have gone looking for the nearest Ikea or Wilkinsons, unless we'd stayed up there. When I phoned him later to say we were finally home he was down the student bar with the new flatmates so obviously didn't take him long to settle in (thank god he's a sociable lad, must be a huge worry if they're a bit shy and introvert)

Kaleidoscope27

Hey, I don't know if anyone's mentioned it, but you will probably find the university will supply you with a list of "suggested items" to take. You'll get it with the accomodation info (which probably won't come through until the end of summer - after A Level results day.)

When I first went to uni, we ended up going in two cars because my flippin' TV wouldn't fit in the first one! Lol! Turned out I didn't get a great signal on the thing anyway. (There's something to check if a TV is on the list: is it a good signal in the area? And bare in mind they'll need a TV license too. And a digi box if the area has switched yet.)

Someone mentioned make sure they know what they're weekly budget is and stick to it. This is important. I'm dead serious. It's so tempting, especially as a first year, to just spend so much because you're living away from home and it's freedom etc etc. I had £200 a month to live off and I made it work. If I had no money, I didn't go out y'know? My sister (who got kicked out of her first year after one term) spent £1,100 in a month on take-out's and going out and general partying. (Side note: she started her first year over again on a different course and is much more sensible thank god.)

As for what to take... just be sensible! Bedding, kitchen stuff, toiletries, clothes, basic food items (milk, bread, cereal, teabags/coffee - these are a great one because they can offer new flatmates a drink whilst they all get to know each other).

And don't forget student loan information, bank information, passport photos and any letters from the university.

Smidster

Soo he is going to Warwick - Good luck...he will need it!!!

Basically take as little as is possible...not least because the Warwick Car Parking bouncers will threaten to tow the car if you dare stay for more than 30minutes near the accommodation.

Fir a first grocery shop my advice would be to take what he needs for a couple of days and some money for a bigger shop later in the week.All very well saying there is a large tesco at Cannon Park but, as you can imagine, it gets ransacked in a hurry!

Definitely don't bother with stuff like TV - rooms don't have aerial points and rooms are not big anyway.

I would take things like earplugs - walls are paper thin

lordash

I am a current Warwick student atm. To go along with what people have already said, there is a Wilkinson, Iceland and a large Tescos not far from campus. In nearby Coventry there is also a large Ikea as well (cheap prices!) So you can pretty much get all of the typical stuff you need from there.

One word of advice though, don't do what I did and travel empty handed on a Sunday night just to realise all the shops were shut!

Oh and also, bring an ethernet cable from home. You need this to access the internet from your room and the local shops here get away with charging what they like for one.

pinkduvetdiva

Another tip for students - before ever handing money over for goods or services, ask if they do a student discount. The worst they can do is say no!

Indie_Kid

Plan meals! That way, he won't buy a load of stuff he doesn't use.

Some halls may supply ethernet cables - mine do.

Washing tabs/tablets might be better than washing powder - takes up less room & not as heavy.

Don't buy cheap washing up liquid - I went through 1 and a bit bottles of Fairy - some of my hallmates have gone through 3 or 4 of the cheap stuff.

dogstarheaven

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1935025&highlight=

this is my thread which i posted last yr, and got such a lot of support for the ideas and comments i got.. it was invaluable to me! daughter now studying for her 1st yr exams atm. she's been v sensible about her money and has managed to save some money by treating herself a holiday in the summer! good luck to the OP's son/daughter!