Preparing for uni... Why the mega shopping trips??

[Blushah]

I must be missing something, here!

All over FB there are mums people dashing from shop to shop to shop, maxing out credit cards; madly adding to their 'must-have' lists and stressing about what they've forgotten for DC's uni.

Now, of course there's stuff that will need to be bought, but don't most people have a spare pillow? Duvet? Towels? Duvet cover? Bedside light? Crockery? Cutlery? Tin opener? Sharp knife and chopping board? Doesn't their DC already own clothing? Tech?

One person (helpfully) posted that a shop had a reduced saucepan set- she bought two, one for this year, one for next.....'when she goes into a shared house'...

Or is it just me?

I don't really get the confusion here. Some folks don't have spares of everything, some folks don't have money to spare, some folks have expensive gear at home so buy their kids cheaper stuff to get them through.

Do you feel op I should have sent my daughter off with my creuset pots and pans and bought myself some new ones? That buying her a cheap set from Argos means I'm somehow a bad parent? That I really should have two tin openers and I've somehow failed as a home owner by only having rhe one?

My parents bought me bits and bobs from IKEA before I went to uni but they were emigrating and also have really nice stuff which I wouldn’t have wanted in halls. I was already applying for jobs so my parents gave me a boost so that I didn’t have to spend my first paycheck on basics.

My DHs parents stocked up his cupboards with cooking essentials/spices/oils etc so he could cook up a feast. It was appreciated by all.

It’s fun (sometimes) to go shopping.

I hardly ever buy new things for myself, many of our saucepans are copper and came from DHs grandparents. Our current crockery came from another dead relative.
I’m much happier to spend money on the DCs so DS had almost all new last year. We had a blast.

“Look at all my bubba’s uni kit! Gonna be paying this off for a year #WorthIt #LoveMyKids #UniLife #MustNotCry” 🙄

Exactly this!

We are years away from sending DS to university. However I very much try not to buy things I don't need. I buy one thing which is good quality and use it until it is dead so I doubt very much that I will have spares of much. Will probably be able to manage a bottle opener as we have a couple of those but we have only one grater, one tin opener, one set of saucepans etc. So yes we will be doing an IKEA trip for DS when the time comes :)

Buy new for yourself,, give your offspring your used tin opener. no harm

it is simply Consumerism.
back to school
off to uni
Christmas
Halloween

you name it, it is covered by the shops!

soup
"She took her duvet set. Total PITA to keep ferrying that back and forth on the train for trips home"

... why would my niece be on the train?

And also - where is the sneering???

I just took the crappest things our household owned with me (1980s).

Some people had gorgeous posters (some even framed!!!) or handmade patchwork bedspreads which I admired. I bought some Indian throws which I thought were fabulous 🤣

For my dd I will be doing an ikea trip. She will love picking her own stuff and it won't break the bank. We will both enjoy this as it will be a right of passage.

Surely there is no right or wrong way to approach this though?

Thing is I remember how easily stuff gets lost or damaged in student accommodation and like I say I buy good quality. Giving DS my old stuff and buying all new good quality stuff will cost a lot. Keeping my stuff and sending him off with basic IKEA stuff will cost a lot less.

snog " She will love picking her own stuff and it won't break the bank. "

IKEA can soon add up! Take a list of things she will actually need, rather than going "ooooooh, I need this spaghetti measure, and oooh! look at the egg poacher, I'll need four of those, and I may as well get that strawberry huller!"

good point redgreen

buy you offspring value tin openers, muuum, its broken, 6 weeks later.

Op if you belong to the same uni group on fb I totally agree with you. It's jaw dropping. I hate excess 'stuff' anyway. Dd is getting my old cast offs, if there's any new stuff to be bought I'M getting it!!

Ds will be going with hardly anything brand new. We have put together a begging list and circulated around the family who have all been amazing with bringing out their spare stuff. Now I appreciate this only works because he is the eldest grandchild on both sides of the family! Ds2 won't be so lucky unfortunately but he is 3 years younger so depending on ds1 plans we may be able to reuse some of his stuff.
Luckily ds really doesn't care what stuff looks like but I can imagine others might so can see how you could get drawn into a very expensive shop. Surely things are likely to go missing, I'm not sending anything which I don't mind not seeing again. Apart from ds ofcourse!

Er ... Am I the only person here who lives in a very small house with little storage and therefore does not have e.g. extra pans etc other than what we actually need. So yes I can rustle up duvet covers and that's what DS got ( i.e. previous duvets and duvet covers. Yes I bought him a few things and one which some will be \ / about a £70 quid mini fridge because he wasn't allowed to hang his milk outside the window in a carrier bag . & I just wanted him to be able to have a nice coffee - he likes coffee - so hang me - I bought him a cafetiere as well - cheap and cheerful but he used it to kingdom come.

If we have cast offs it is because they are trashed and have to be binned - actually in 3rd year DS did get a frying pan and some plates which were way past their sell by date - but really ? Can no-one believe if you live in a small house with little storage you do not have lots of "spare stuff" even if your DC is 18 . Oh a further travesty - I bought Ds a kettle , because we now have a boiling water tap because no room in the kitchen for a kettle. Do I win the internet ! Ah I absolutely get how it is nice to buy some things for DCs and Actually I bought Ds some very very cheap and cheerful throws to cover up well used chairs in his room.

That said despite my profligacy I would absolutely draw the line at recarpeting his university room

I bought him some cushions and a cheap light as well - exit stout party

When I went off to uni I took a mix of spares and new, depending what we had in the house and then my gran paid for me to do a 'big shop' in my uni town.

I'll probably have to buy all new for my DC as I don't tend to have spare kettles hanging around and we don't have mountains of spare bedding and towels but I will definitely do a big shop for them.

The big shop was worth its weight gold for me. As I was the one with the wine, the vodka, the pringles, the frozen pizza, pasta, store cupboard ingredients and the ability to cook them, I made new friends quickly.

The cooking skills my gran taught me also came in handy. I didn't have to buy much food. We had a deal, my flatmates bought it, I cooked it.

I'mrhe most terrible parent ever, she leaves in three weeks and I've bought precisely NOTHING Well that's not quite true, I've bought a lovely new pan set for myself so she can have the old one I suppose.

I need kicking in to action to actually buy stuff!

Surely there is no right or wrong way and it depends on the individual and the family circumstances.
We didnt have spares of anything and my dc would come home from uni often so i didnt want them taking their duvets from home plus our house is quite cold compared to halls so they had much thicker duvets compared to what they nedded in halls.
In terms of sending them with used and buying new, especially my kitchen stuff i have what to me are quite nice decent quality stuff which id asked for as a birthday/xmas gifts as i could never justify buying myself i hope they will last for years so there was no way i was sending them with the dc to uni, especially when i cook often and i knew neither were interested in cooking. They both had cheap basic kitchen stuff from wilko/ikea or the supermarkets and it all worked fine. I didnt spend excessive amounts and even some of the basic essential items were gifted to dc on their birthdays/xmas before going to uni.

Id like to join the 'Don't have spares' Team

I have 4 saucepans and two frying oans and i kinda need them to cook for me and the other three members of our family sho are still need at home

I also dont have spare towels and bed linen...having said that the first year he went i am guilty of buying him new marks and next towels and bedding

In his house this year he has a double bed (aaaggghhhhh!) so i am pleased i kept our old kingsize stuff so he can have that and obviously the towels are still good (plus i bought two of everything )

I dont think its too bad setting them up for three years although he has killed his pots and baking trays so we did need to replace those

We have just bought a new telly so the old one went in the childrens room and their old one is now in his uni bedroom

Spoilt brat

Apparently duvets with zoo animals or dinosaurs are not cool.)

I beg to differ!!!

Dd is going to be staying in lodgings and bedding is provided and its catered but I would have bought new as we don't have spares.

I have one set of matching saucepans and one set of matching cutlery/utensils. They are not new but were expensive and long lasting. Why on earth would I forgo those?

We don't have spares around this house - we don't have the storage space to keep stuff "just in case" - if it's not being used - it goes. Bedding for the relevant room goes in under-bed drawers when not on the beds - no massive grand stockpile of it elsewhere, couple of sets that match the decor of the room in question and that's it. Don't have spare kitchen stuff - we don't have masses of kitchen cupboard space so I keep things minimal and if it's not getting used it goes for a brief holiday in the shed where if it's not being missed... it gets served an eviction notice. Our house is what we can afford to live within our means - which MN should be approving of - but means space is limited.

It's not a new thing - most parents did a detour to Ikea (or Woolies - showing my age here) when their kids moved into shared houses for their 2nd year of uni when I was a student (first years all lived in catered halls so all you needed was a kettle, toaster and some dubious mugs to grow your pet mould in)