One of the most exciting points of the school year is the first few days back, seeing all of your roommates, meeting new ones and getting back into university life. To make the first few days a bit more enjoyable, less stressful and to make the transition smoother its best to move in and organize your place a bit beforehand. My move into my university student house consisted of various weekends of me dropping old furniture off and other household purchase off as well as painting my room and setting up my bed.

If this entire task seems completely overwhelming and you don’t know where to start, where to find furniture to fill your house etc. This post will hopefully lead you on your way.

Where to Get Cheap Furniture
Where you get furniture depends on what you consider gross and unsanitary I guess. For those who would snag a couch sitting at the end of someone’s driveway that’s all you, and you can probably get it cleaned if you wanted to, and save yourself a ton of money. There are other options and many of them where you can find desks, chairs, kitchen tables, bed frames, dressers etc.

• Check out garage sales for furniture of all kinds
• If you have a Habitat ReStore near you, check it out- you’re supporting a charity and getting discount furniture
• Check out Value Village or Goodwill. I have heard of many people snagging tables and other furniture for ridiculously low prices
• Search through Kijiji and Craigslist people are always selling
• For inexpensive new furniture check out Ikea or JYSK (A JYSK is opening up in Guelph this August)
• See if anyone in your family is getting rid of old furniture, you know where it came from and they will often give it to you for FREE. Plus it’s often a good excuse for them to get new furniture. Total win for everyone
• Also talk to the students that previously lived in your home, they are often willing to leave furniture or sell it to you for cheap if they are graduating (they really don’t want student furniture any more or don’t want to haul it back home)

Decorating Your Room
Some landlords unfortunately don’t want you to paint, and often it is a good thing (save yourself a lot of hassle) unless your walls are absolutely disgusting. If you’re allowed and want to take on the painting challenge there are some cheap ways of getting it done.

• Check out Dulux paint stores. They often have a buy 1 get 1 50% off deal. So you can get your paint and primer there. (For most rooms you only need a can any ways).
• Buy brushes, rollers and other supplies at the dollar store. Dollarama is a great place to check.
• For doing edges snag yourself some painters tape (usually green or blue) if not just freehand away I guess.

In terms of decorating your room there are a few good ways to do it. Check out Walmart for various picture frames, wall art and mirrors etc. They are usually inexpensive, and you can even get digital pictures developed for really cheap there as well. Also consider posters for your walls, the University of Guelph does have a poster sale at the beginning of the year. If not you can also check out http://posters.ca/

Stocking up the Kitchen
One of the things I realized once I moved away from home was the amount of things that a kitchen has in it and how many gadgets, pots/pans, trays, bowls, plates you need in order to make a meal, the list goes on and on. You begin to quickly realize that if you have any chance of making even Kraft Dinner you need a pot, some sort of stirring object, butter, milk, possibly a colander (that thing that drains the water) and if you’re really fancy a bowl to eat it out of. You can see how this all adds up. So I have devised a plan to give you a decent list of all the things you need to stock up you’re kitchen. Hope it helps.

Cheap Student’s Kitchen List

So where can you get most of this stuff?

• Check out Canadian Tire for cheap deals on pots, pans, silverware and cooking accessories. Starting August they often have their back to school sales for most school related products.
• Ikea also has some cheap kitchen accessories. Just don’t get sucked in and buy a bunch of unnecessary stuff. It happens I know.
• Get old pots and pans and baking gear from your parents or relatives. If you want you can try out kijiji and craigslist but it could be a little gross :S up to you.

Other things you may have forgotten

• Light bulbs! Batteries!-These are the 2 most annoying things ever when they die or burn out. Especially when those batteries are powering your smoke detectors. Have extra’s on hand so you can actually sleep through the night when they start dying at 2am.
• Buy a lot of toilet paper if it’s on sale-stock up
• Garbage, recycling and green bin bags
• Cleaning supplies; Windex, Toilet Bowl Cleaner, Toilet Bowl brush, All-Purpose cleaner, rags for cleaning, paper towel. And the greatest invention ever..the Magic Eraser
• Garbage cans for inside your room, for the kitchen and for outside (some of these may have been provided by your landlord)
• Soaps- Face, hand, body, dish, dishwasher. So many soaps.
• Snag an extra pair of sheets, you will thank me.
• Fans and portable heaters. Unless you are rolling in the dough you won’t have your AC (if you have it) or heat pumping at all times during the year. These 2 can be a lifesaver.
• Shot glasses!-Geez people I shouldn’t need to remind you.
• Deck of cards-you never know when you might need them
• Red Cups and ping pong balls-Just necessary
• Scotch Tape, Elastics and twist ties. If not I’m sure you will find a creative way to seal/close things..

The post Moving into Your Rental Home: Stocking the Place appeared first on Cheap Students.

If there’s anything you feel is missing or off the mark feel free to leave a comment on this post. If it’s an awesome tip I will definitely add it to the list.

1. Be conscious of the debt you have. Keep track of your student loans, lines of credit and credit card bills.
2. Always save, keep money stockpiled in case of emergency.
3. Coffee and food purchases at the cafeteria at school pile up.
4. Keep track of what you’re spending-the more conscious you are of your spending habits, the more likely you are to fix them and try and spend less.
5. Make expenses aside from tuition as low as possible. That includes rent, cable/internet, food, “entertainment”
6. Spend cash when you can. Take out what you need and don’t bring your debit card along. Debit cards make spending much easier, only when you check your statements do you actually realize how much you spent. It tends to pile up pretty quickly. aka try to avoid starting a bar tab when you go out.

8. Always pay off your credit card balance in full! Not just the minimum payment. You probably already have student debt, try not to add any further debt on top of that.
9. Come up with a student loan repayment plan. How much do you already owe? What do you estimate you will owe by the end of school?
10. Set your educational and career goals. Do you want to travel? Can you afford going to grad school right away?
11.Never buy if you don’t have to. Borrow from friends. Sharing is caring. This is always good when it comes to textbooks an unfortunately very large investment unless you put the effort in.

Additional Reader Tips

• Try to get as much free entertainment as possible. Have a BYOB board game night or poker tourney using snacks as betting chips. Look into free concerts at the school; often in the faculty of music but also young artists starting out nearby. Try karaoke, or a trivia night at a local pub (with a strict drinks/food budget). Look for film screenings in the area or at the library.
• Many schools have course books on short-term loan at the library. If you are diligent enough to not leave a semester of reading to the last week you can avoid buying the book all together. Especially for books that are only needed for homework questions (ie math, physics etc). I photocopied the pages I needed. Also think about sharing a book with a roommate or trusted friend.

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