Maddison's Musings

I have to go back to hell, I mean school, tomorrow, so in order to motivate myself to get ready, I thought I'd share some of my back to school essentials and money saving tips for college with you guys. First, let's start with my essential school supplies that I use each semester.

I tend to keep my basic supplies fairly simple and cheap, but that doesn't mean I get shit supplies. For someone who has shelves of fancy and cute notebooks with nothing in them, I'm not one for fancy or cute school supplies. Usually, I just have one composition book and one folder for each class. The folder color almost always matches the composition book color, but that's just because I like it like that. This leads me to money saving tip #1: reuse composition books/notebooks/folders each semester until they give out/run out of space. Sure, these composition books are only like 50 cents, but you save a few dollars each year if you just reuse your supplies until you run out of space in the journal. If it bothers you having notes from two different classes right next to each other, you can leave a blank page in between them, or create a cover page for each class. I like to separate each class with a washi tape banner. So I'll use one notebook for one class for an entire semester, then when the next semester starts, I put some washi tape in the top right hand corner of the page with the new class information. As you can see in the picture above, I also put washi tape on each folder and composition book, that way by the end of the semester I can just peel the tape off and get ready for whatever class I'll use it for the next semester.

Another essential that I've been loving is my little Chromebook. I'm actually using it to type up this post right now while watching Queer Eye lol. Anyways, I got this Chromebook as a Christmas gift last year and at first I wasn't sure if I was going to like it or not, but I've grown to love it. I still have my regular laptop that I use at my desk at home that I use most of the time, but I love this Chromebook for school and any place that's not my desk. The battery life is great, and it's super lightweight, unlike my clunky regular laptop. This Chromebook slips right into my backpack and doesn't weigh me down, plus it comes in handy when I can use it in class or school in general.

The next essential is the most important: a backpack. I've had this Herschel backpack since 2014 and it still works great. I actually wrote a "What's in my Bag" post with this backpack back when I first got it, and you can check that out HERE if you want to see more of the insides/pockets/etc. (Also I would like to note that I squished the backpack down a bit so it could fit on the white background, and it's actually a regular sized backpack with plenty of space.)

Up next we have the actual pens/pencils I take to school. Again, for someone who owns a shit ton of fancy pens, I really just take the bare minimum to school. Partially because I don't take those studyblr quality fancy notes in class, I just take regular notes with my favorite pen- a Pilot G2 black pen. I used to use the .7 tip, but over the past year I've used the .5 tip more in my bullet journal, so I've grown used to a smaller tip, but it works because I think it makes my notes look a bit neater. I take most of my notes in pen, but I use pencil for math so that I can easily erase any mistakes. I switch it up between my Paper Mate pencil and my Pilot pencil. Usually, I stick to Paper Mate since the Pilot one looks so similar to my pen. Also, mechanical pencils are the one thing that I bring the fancier versions of to school. Not only do I like the way they feel and write better than the cheaper versions, but I only bring one at a time and I don't let anyone borrow it. Lastly, I bring at least one highlighter. Again, usually I stick to a basic highlighter that costs less than a dollar and will get the job done, but I like to bring one midliner highlighter on the first day when we go over the syllabi. I don't have a pencil pouch mainly because I usually only bring three things to school, but also because they fit nicely in one of the pockets in my backpack that's easy to access.

Last but certainly not least, textbooks are unfortunately an essential aspect of college supplies. Of course every class will have different textbooks, and I've only pictured a few above, but this is where you'll get more money saving tips because the price of textbooks is ridiculous and nobody should ever have to pay that much for a book they hardly read. My second money saving tip of the post is to rent used versions of your textbooks whenever possible. My university has a handy system when buying books online where you can see all the different versions and how much each will cost whether you buy or rent new or used books. You save so much money renting rather than buying, that unless it's absolutely necessary to buy a book, you should try to rent it. My third tip goes along with my fourth, but make sure to do a quick Google search of the book's ISBN number before you buy anything, because sometimes you can find a pdf version online for free (even if it might be sketchy/not as legal but I'm definitely not (yes I am) encouraging that so it's not in bold). My fourth tip applies if you have an Amazon account, which most people do by now (and if you don't, students can get Prime for half off and can pay for it all at once or monthly and it really comes in handy), but you can rent textbooks from Amazon and it's super simple! All you have to do is type in the book's ISBN number and see if it pops up as an option to rent. Again, I always rent used versions of the textbooks, and you can even do it on Amazon! For example, and so you can better see what I mean, below is a screenshot a textbook I might need this semester. As you can see, by renting it on Amazon, I'd save over $100!

A few other essentials that I forgot to picture include a water bottle and a coffee thermos/cup. I use a water bottle I got from my school's bookstore that is like one of those S'well bottles and it keeps water cold for 12 hours. I haven't used a thermos much, but I'm going to try and use one more this year, especially when I go to Starbucks, because if you bring your own cup they'll offer a small discount. Overall, I'm kind of excited for school to start, mainly because I'm excited for my Queer Literature class, but I'm also going to miss staying up all night. Here's to hoping everyone has a good year.

~Maddison