setting up a first time student

Hezzawithkids

CH27 wrote: »

I'm glad she's happy Hezza Maybe our two are at the same uni?

We had a very similar experience when we took son yesterday. I felt happy leaving him with his flatmate in lovely surroundings.
I hated the empty house when we got home last night though.

DD is at Surrey. I hope that all uni's have similar set-ups for moving in days as it makes the transition just that little bit easier to cope with. Know what you mean about the empty room though

Poppy9

As DD is settling now thought I would add to list of good ideas to buy.

• A dish drainng rack. DD shares kitchen with 4 others and a couple of them were piling dirty dishes on the draining board so £2 drainer from Wilkos bought.
• Bath/Shower mat! Even if sharing a bathroom as girls soak the floor
• A thermos flask to take a hot drink to library or if they have breaks between lectures but not enough time to walk back to accommodation

Also start saving the plastic boxes chinese takeaways come in. I filled a dozen of them up with them with portions of homecooked food. They are just the right size for 1 portion and the boxes small enough to fit compactly into freezer.

sazaccount

Just to add onto this thread as a past student I found the small parcels my mum would send with a bar of chocolate, a card and some of the coffee (latte/Cappuccino) packets make me very happy. Majority of my post went back to my home address (too much hassle trying to change) but it was very nice to see my room number up on the board that I had post :-).

E-mails/texts and calls are all well and good but having a card/letter was something special!!

Poppy9

Now is the time to shop for bargains for Uni students moving into uni accommodation me thinks!

Sainsbury's and Tesco have - 70% off duvet sets, towels, bath mats, crockery, pans etc.

Loving the bright pink bath mat for £1.50 plus a gorgeous DB duvet set for £8. Pillow cases just £1.50 and sheets £3/4 for DB

rosalie-lavender

These sets are a good buy. I have bought one to put away for my daughter when she moves into a shared house later in the year. She already has a reasonable amount but it was too good a bargain to miss at £4 for the set of saucepan, frying pan, and two baking trays. The saucepan is only small at 16cm but has a well made, well fitting lid and the frying pan is 26cm.

http://www.tesco.com/direct/tesco-pans-bakeware-4-piece-starter-set/517-0906.prd?pageLevel=sku&skuId=517-0906

I was pleasantly surprised that it is much better quality than I expected given the low price.

I also have bought the standard bath mats that they are selling for £3. I am so pleased with them that I have treated my daughter and housemates to two mats for their bathroom next year. I managed to get those for £2 each so a bargain.

jackieblack

rosalie-lavender wrote: »

These sets are a good buy. I have bought one to put away for my daughter when she moves into a shared house later in the year. She already has a reasonable amount but it was too good a bargain to miss at £4 for the set of saucepan, frying pan, and two baking trays. The saucepan is only small at 16cm but has a well made, well fitting lid and the frying pan is 26cm.

http://www.tesco.com/direct/tesco-pans-bakeware-4-piece-starter-set/517-0906.prd?pageLevel=sku&skuId=517-0906

I was pleasantly surprised that it is much better quality than I expected given the low price.

I also have bought the standard bath mats that they are selling for £3. I am so pleased with them that I have treated my daughter and housemates to two mats for their bathroom next year. I managed to get those for £2 each so a bargain.

I've also bought one of those sets and a couple of the £3 bath mats to put away for DD in September. Also some kitchen utensils for 25p each and chopping board (50p).
I bought half a dozen soda glasses yesterday for 25p each but they're so nice I might keep them and give DD a couple of the old ones they're replacing

bouncydog1

We used to buy all of the non food BOGOF offers in the supermarket, and put the free one in the Uni stock box. When DD went to Uni she had stuff such as toiletries, foil, cling film, food bags for freezer, washing powder, bleach and cleaning stuff for her bathroom etc. so was easily able to manage on her allowance for food, fares and books.

When she moved out of halls and into houses, we used to do a large online shop before she left home so that she didn't have to worry about going to the shops when she got to her new house, as there would be supplies arriving that day.

Poppy9

Might be worth bumping this thread with a new batch of students off to Uni.


DD now preparing for her final year - where does the time go.


She's sharing with a different group from last year as I think they all realised they rushed in to sharing for Y2 before they had really settled friendship groups and found out who they can live with!!!


Summary of things to buy/not buy from me:

1. washing up bowl for not only doing odd bit of laundry but in case of sickness!
2. Washing tablets as easier/pods as easier to use for them.
3. Bin liners for the bins in their room
4. Mattress protector and if a crap mattress a cheap memory foam topper (added warmth too if room cold)
5. Fleece blankets to go over and under in bed and to sit in communal areas!
6. No more than 2 plates/cups/cutlerl etc. and if no cook 1 saucepan, pyrex bowl. Sharp knife and chopping board
7. A few ready meals for first few days and some longer life staples like tins of beans/cereal/long life milk.
8. Check what size bed before buying bedding
9. Check if accommodation has desk lamp/iron/ironing board etc - DD accom. did for first 2 years not that she ever used iron.
10. Large plastic storage boxes are good for clothes, books etc. and can often fit on top of wardrobes
11. An overnight bag for trips home
12. A laundry bag/basket - Ikea blue bags are good.
13. An extension lead - they won't have many sockets!
14. If in private accommodation a spare light bulb!!
15. Loyalty card key fobs for your account
16. Some booze/goodies for getting to know new flatmates

Do show them how to use online food shopping and vouchers. Do help them work out an amount of money they have "free" each week.


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