It's back to school season, and whether you have first-graders or a first-year med student, chances are you are shopping for them.
But you may want to know about some things not to send to school with them. We start with college students.
Don't send to college
Did you send your college-bound student to school with an ironing board? Chances are he's or she's going to use it as a clothes hanger, not for ironing.
The website DealNews.com lists several items you may not want to ship to a college student:
- A printer: You'll pay hundreds of dollars for ink cartridges ... so other students can use the printer. Colleges provide cheap printing.
- Expensive bedsheets: They will never get changed and will have food stains on them in a week.
- An iron: It will be used only to cook grilled cheese sandwiches, if at all.
- A high-end gaming laptop: A $600 laptop is fine. Expensive laptops end up stolen or dropped.
Don't buy for younger kids
And from the doesn't that stink file, some things not to buy for younger kids.
- Cheap backpacks: They can hurt a child's back and can fall apart in a month or two.
- No-name pencils and crayons: Come on, pay a few cents more.
- A tablet in place of a laptop. Editing a term paper on an inexpensive tablet? You may say "doesn't that stink?"
Remember: A laptop will do pretty much everything a tablet will do, and it will be easier. The exception: higher-end Microsoft Surface tablets that are essentially full laptops.
Bottom line: Don't go too cheap with younger children, but assume anything a college student takes to a dorm room or apartment will not last more than a couple of years.
College life takes a toll on everything, so keep it simple so you don't waste your money.
Don't Waste Your Money is a registered trademark of the EW Scripps Co.
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