Back-to-school! Preparation for college and moving

Whether in grade school or college, I have always found the back-to-school preparations fun.  I get to plan how I will organize the necessary papers for my classes, prepare for learning new things, and much more.  Many people starting college will move away from home to live in a dorm or an apartment closer to their school.  And since most of us have never had the need for extra-long twin sheets (among other things) before college, this means some shopping.  So today I thought I would share some tips and some helpful websites.  I may add some to this list, and feel free to share your own advice in the comments!

+ Many stores have special ads for moving to college.  These can help give you ideas of what you might want or simply style ideas.  For example, see Target's college section, Walmart's college section, and Bed, Bath, and Beyond's college section.

+ Fun fact about Bed, Bath, and Beyond: if you sign up for coupons/emails, they will send you 20% off one item coupons every once in a while, and sometimes $5 off coupons.  Even though their 20% off coupons have an expiration date, BB&B accepts expired coupons.  (This might hold true for the $5 off ones, too.  I can't remember.)  So when I bought things for college, I brought a bunch of 20% off coupons with me.  You can only apply one coupon per item, but that's still pretty good.

Doing the math...on meal plans

Figuring out what meal plan to get or whether to have a meal plan at all can be a little tricky, especially if you have never had a meal plan before.  As I mentioned in a previous post, when I looked at my meal plan and other food expenses after the fall of my sophomore year, I decided to drop the meal plan altogether.

To evaluate everything, I wanted to figure out exactly how much I was spending on different things.  I double-checked the cost of the meal plan online and then looked through credit card bills to see how much I was eating out and buying groceries.

(Note that food costs will be different for different people.  Costs can be affected by the region in which you live.  Costs will also depend on what types of food you buy.  For example, buying organic foods will cost a lot more than Ramen.)

For the fall of 2012, I spent approximately $1240 on food.  The actual amount was slightly higher, as I took some groceries from home.  The $1240 was divided up approximately as:
Groceries: ~$280
Eating out on or off campus: ~$260
Dining Hall: ~$700 (I got the "Block 120" meal plan, which cost $1128, but then swiped in a friend for meals for which he repaid me.  We agreed upon this at the beginning of the semester, as I knew I wouldn't eat 120 meals in the dining hall.)

Homemade Hotpockets

I found these sometime during last semester and had been looking forward to trying them.  Within the past two weeks, I've made these twice.  They are easy to make and turn out wonderfully!  They aren't quite dorm friendly.  If I did decide to make them during the school year, I could go ahead and measure (and maybe mix) the dry ingredients.  All I would have to add would be yeast and water.  Another option would be to make and then roll out the dough and freeze it.  Then all I would have to do is thaw them and add ingredients for the filling.

Below is the recipe for the dough, which I found at ABeautifulRuckus.com.  The fillings that I suggest are combinations that I've already tried.  Feel free to suggest new ideas!


Dough:
Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1/4 cup dry milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 Tbsp yeast
1 cup warm water (not hot)
extra flour for helping the dough not stick when you roll it out