College is expensive, trust me I look at my loans all of the time and think, “geez why can’t it be cheap.” You can’t really change the price of how much your tuition is unless you get in-state tuition and a lot of scholarships

The one part of the expense that you can control however is what you bring to college with you. That could be what you use to decorate your dorm, the bookbag, electronics, clothes and everything else.

I have talked about it previously but Amazon truly is your friend when it comes to making purchases for college. Target is great especially in the beginning of July to the end of August. 

Looking back at my previous expenses at Target, I started shopping in June of 2020. From what I have seen on social media, what people do is they start buying things for their dorms and for classes and they compile it all somewhere in their home, and pack it on a later date.

That is a smart decision at first, that is until you are over-stocking everything and not checking back and returning what you don’t need/want. The best advice I can give for college shopping is look at what is allowed in dorms/ classrooms, make a list, check it twice, check weekly ads constantly (they never get boring), check return policies, make your purchases and SAVE YOUR RECEIPTS.

For many stores, if you do not have a store account and you don’t have a receipt, they will not honor returns without a receipt. If the stores have a 30-day return policy make piles and put the dates in your phone of when specific items need to be returned.

A couple of weeks before you move into college, it is best to go through what you bought and make the decisions of what you  are keeping and what is going to be returned. When you are doing that, put the items into piles in categories. Class related items in one, bedding, bath, clothing, laundry, etc. 

After you do that, make a packing list of what you are bringing and you can use that for years on end. Maybe even pass it down to friends and family.

Some more advice and suggestions that I can grant y’all is pack smart. If you are close to a store, you can buy laundry detergent, shampoo, conditioner and other items like that there.

Happy shopping and save a lot!