If you are in college and you are moving out on your own, then there is some shopping you have to get done.  I have been in this situation and I had to spend alot of time researching the cheapest prices for all the nice stuff I need.  You need furniture, appliances, computers, books, and clothes.  Where are you going to find all these items and live nice and comfortable while on a budget?  I broke down this idea into three ways to shop: Internet shopping, department stores, and thrift stores.

    There are a ton of Internet sites that you can use for shopping. A popular choice would be ebay, a product bidding site where you could find anything you could want at usually lower than in store prices. If you are looking for more specific items but don’t feel like going into a bidding war, try sites like Amazon Marketplace. There you could buy what you are looking for at lower than amazon.com prices. A similar site is Half.com. Half.com is owned by ebay and only sells a few categories of items. If you are looking for textbooks, music, movies, books, video games and video game systems, then this is the place to shop and sell. The only problem with these sites is that you are buying from sellers and not a company, which means you should only buy from sellers with mainly positive ratings. But it is tough to beat these prices when you are searching for textbooks.  If you are looking for computers, laptops, home audio, televisions, and electronic accessories, try newegg.com. This site often has great deals on big named electronics and is pretty reliable. Sites like bestbuy.com and circuitcity.com contain different and often better sales than the ones in store. You would also probably have a better chance of getting your item than relying on the store. Amazon.com has great prices that compete with these store prices. Target.com has lesser known brands of electronics, but they will give you similar quality at lower prices.

    Thrift stores are often great places to find low priced used merchandise. Since I work at a nonprofit thrift store, Boley Centers’ Your Neighborhood Store, I know what you can expect to find and the prices that are listed. The price of clothing there is blouses and shirts for $3.49, Tee Shirts for $1.99, and pants and jeans at $4.99 each. We also carry furniture, books, CD’s, DVD’s, tableware, plasticware, toys, electronics, and much more. Everything is easy to find and the clothes are sorted by size and color. Everything is priced reasonably and is in good quality. We also have a list of items on sale at 50% off every day. Everything is marked with different colored tags because every week everything marked a certain color is half price, no matter what it is.

    Department stores are popular shopping centers around back to school time.  The reason is because they have great sales.  I remember seeing mini fridges at Target for under twenty dollars, which was a good deal I couldn't pass up.  Clothing is usually on sale with low prices and buy 1 get one half off.  You could also get some food shopping done here but you could get better sales at a grocery store.

    I hope this information is beneficial for anybody who needs to spruce up your college dorm and not spend too much.