Sending kids off to college can be difficult in more ways than one. It’s very emotional but it’s also super expensive.
The Green Queen has had three kids in college so she knows a thing or three about watching her budget because tuition at the University of Oregon (a state sponsored, public school) is currently estimated at $20,789.00 per year for a resident undergraduate student taking 15 credit hours (which is the average).
So for a four-year college education, at an in-state university, (for one kid) you can expect to spend over $80,000, and this does not include any “Other Costs”, like if your kid gets sick or hurt and has to go to the student health center.
Plus there are additional administrative fees together with mandatory fees which aren’t included in this matrix. The Green Queen remembers having to pay “additional” fees for any physical education class and lab fees for any science courses (and even some math courses), additional instruction fees for music and art classes. Plus there is even a mandatory matriculation fee of $300.00 for all kids enrolling.
So, as you can see, college can be super expensive.
But the Green Queen has found a few ways to help fight these sky-high costs that seem to keep inflating faster than any balloon she has ever seen. Let her share her sustainable secrets which will also help Protect the Planet at the same time.
Your first-time college kid is going to need all sorts of house-hold items. She sent her sons and daughters off to school with hot-pots (which sell new for $15 to $20 — you can buy more expensive ones but that defeats the money-saving inspiration) for heating up soups, teas and cocoa -– to help avoid some of those “other costs,” like mid-day and late-night snacks.
Hotpot about $20.00
; 
A small dorm refrigerator to keep some personal food products on-hand, so they could bring food from home whenever they came for a visit or buy less expensive food at stores away from campus. Brand-new you can find these for about $125.00 and used is even better.
Dorm Fridge at $126.99 new
The Green Queen found one for $30.00 on Craig’s List.
On Craig's List for $30.00
Plus, they’ll need an iron
(No, they never used it at home, but just in case)
a compact ironing board;
a laundry hamper;
soap dish;
shower caddy;
and . . . on-and-on the list outgrew the Green Queen’s budget faster than Lance Armstrong whizzing by on a new bike.
But everyone can try some earth-friendly shopping ideas to help cut the cost of college and survive the high-cost of a college education in the United States. Here are some of the Green Queen’s (well-used) tips:
1) Try shopping at local thrift shops, second-hand shops and especially GoodWill because they not only help you find reusable, inexpensive, household items and clothing, they also have a mission to help others find work and better their lives. So, besides helping the planet you will be directly impacting people’s lives to make them better able to support themselves and their families.
2) Coordinate with other parents of college-aged kids to carpool rides. Kids all want to come home at the holidays and breaks so why not help each other with the physical and mental move from school-kid to college-kid and maybe just to commiserate about the high-cost of an education in the United States?
3) Check on-line, Craig’s List, eBay, and maybe just do a Google search for some of those more expensive items you can buy on-line, you just might find some great deals.
4) Post fliers for electronics, calculators, books, right as classes end (like outside the door where they take their finals) so that you can buy used before the students who had “your” class the first term sells their goods. You’ll get first dibs on barely used items and they’ll get a better deal than the college will pay them for their used books, etc.
You have to remember pre-owned items are always going to be less expensive than store-bought brand-new items. And while the Green Queen can’t help at all with that emotional part of dealing with the empty nest, she can sure come up with a couple ideas on how to help stretch the budget because she has been doing it for a looooong time now.
These are all great ideas.
One thing my parents did with the four of us kids was start shopping about a year in advance — they were able to hit sales, maximize coupons, stroll through yard sales, and more.
Definitely coordinate with other college-going families. Keep an eye out at thrift and second hand stores for the extra-long sheets that many dorms require. We bought ours new, but sold them later.
If roommates know each other, they can communicate and prevent double-buying. One can bring the fridge, the other the coffeemaker or microwave, etc. This saved my daughter a bundle. She inherited her small refrigerator; it was her Great-grandfather’s from his nursing home room.
The shower caddy was an ice cream bucket. Nothing fancy, and it worked.