Pre-Arrival Adventures
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Hello hello!
This week has been absolutely crazy and I meant to post something on January 27th about my nerves for the program. But in all honesty, shopping for and preparing for arrival really took a lot of those nerves away. Which is perfect because this program’s first week is supposed to be very fun and I can’t wait to enjoy all of what it has to offer. The shopping of these past few days has been plentiful and my wallet’s contents have been drained. But, that’s all part of the experience. On Friday the 27th, my mom and I landed in
Orlando at about 3:00 pm, so we didn’t have too much time to do a lot of shopping or looking around the area. Though, we did manage to get to the Outlets and to Character Warehouse. I got a super cute tote bag, belt bag, and bucket hat for pretty cheap! They still had a lot of the Christmas merch and Halloween merch at Character Warehouse so the pickings were slim on non holiday specific items. But I think we did a good job! On Saturday, we did the bulk of our prep for Monday’s Move in and shopped until we absolutely couldn’t anymore. I think we gave the saying ‘shop till you drop’ a new meaning. Once we hit the second target, I was down and out, so we made our way back to the hotel and crashed. Later in the evening we went to the new Sonny’s Barbeque not too far out of the area and then to Disney Springs! I had been eyeing some merchandise but was able to contain myself to only buying one thing before I got my cast member ID on Friday. After all of these outings, we’re pretty tired today. Our Sunday so far has consisted of tanning at the pool and talking to some other participants and families staying at the same hotel as us. While all of this is still fresh in my mind, I’d like to give some suggestions on how to shop for your Disney College Program on a Budget! I think keeping expenses low at the beginning of the program is super important as you won't really be making ANY disposable income for the first few weeks of your program. And when I say disposable income, I mean you will probably only be paid enough for rent and some groceries before using up your ENTIRE paycheck. Don’t let that make you nervous or second guess this! Every college program participant struggles in learning to budget with your new job and income the first few weeks and I know I will begin to go through that come Monday. Everyone is in this together and you will build a network of friends that understand your unique situation; they’ll be there to support you and help you adjust to your new home. And you’ll have this blog to learn from my successes and mistakes!
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Target:
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The Target in Flamingo Crossings Town Center is totally curated towards the apartment complexes. You potentially could get everything you need at this one target, but that doesn’t mean I’d recommend going this route. If you are unable to get a mattress topper ahead of time, I did see some at this Target. However, the issue with this curated target is it’s so tiny! There are only a few of each item and I am TOTALLY convinced it will run out during the move in rush. They have about a week in between move in day to get things restocked, but if you are unable to shop for your apartment the weekend before move in, you might be in trouble if your plan is to do it all at target. Also target prices are not nearly as cheap as the other places in this post, so keep that in mind when deciding where to shop. This target’s beauty and self care selection is pretty vast and their grocery section is not as small as I believed it would be.
The Super Target near the Ross and TJ Maxx had an amazing stock of just about everything! It is farther than the Flamingo Crossings Target and the prices will be just as high as the other target, but if you’re running into the issue of the Flamingo Target running out of things I’d suggest heading over to Super Target.
Walmart:
The Walmart Supercenter near Flamingo Crossings Village was where I did a lot of my shopping for general apartment items. I was able to find some great things for pretty cheap, but the Walmart supercenter can be pretty overwhelming. There are a lot of aisles and at least in my experience it wasn’t set up the same way most Walmart’s in California are. It was also PACKED, so it was hard to move around and shop there. Even being far away enough from Flamingo to not really have a move in crowd, there were enough regular shoppers there to make deciding what I needed to buy stressful. Walmart did have a really good deal on plastic hangers and had some very helpful cabinet organization. These were not available for that great of a price, or at all, at the Flamingo Crossings Target. So for organizational items and odds and ends Wlamart is a great option. But as I mentioned previously, it can be pretty overwhelming.
Five Below:
I think the only thing from Five Below that stands out to me is a fake plant. Five Below here is Five Below anywhere; not that special. I would say to be careful here, as they tend to sneakily mark up things that are cheaper than $5.50 at other stores. For example, method hand soap at Five Below is $5.50, but at Walmart it was closer to $3! If you’re not careful, you’ll get sucked into thinking you’re getting a great deal at Five Below but in reality you’re being upcharged! To all my Five Below lovers, I’m sorry but If I had to recommend a place to skip apartment shopping, it would be here.
Dollar Tree:
Dollar Tree is EXCELLENT for shopping for some cups, plates, and cleaning supplies. Toilet Paper, Tissues, Cleaners, Paper Towels, and many more items of that kind are $1.25 and pretty good quality! You can also put together a pretty great medicine cabinet for cheap at the dollar store. Just know what the generic names for the drugs are that you usually keep in your medicine cabinet and get the off brand/generic versions. They work exactly the same. This is also a good stop for getting any hair tools/accessories you might want for your costume.
Ross:
I really was not expecting Ross to have so much apartment stuff! The Ross’s back in California are usually more clothing focused, but the closest Ross to FCV is huge! I was able to find a ton of great apartment stuff and wish I went there first honestly. This Ross had such cute wicker furniture, which I know is not everyone’s cup of tea. But it would fit the blue and white beach theme of my room so well. The standout at this Ross is definitely the kitchen section. So many cheap kitchen utensils along with tupperware and cookware. Highly recommend Ross for furnishing your kitchen and some of your bedroom.
TJ Maxx:
TJ Maxx was also full of great finds, but more so for your bedroom. I think this would be a great place to get your bed set if you are in a 4x2 or 4x4 apartment style. If you are in a 2x2, like me, you might have trouble finding twin xl sheets. But a helpful tip is that a Full size and a Twin XL size bed are the same length! The only difference is the width. So what I’ve done in college and for this program is get Full size bedding, instead of twin xl, so that the sheets will fit nicely over my 2” foam mattress topper. They had an entire wall of bedding/comforter sets that might be cheaper than you’d find at walmart or target. I ordered my bedding and mattress topper off of amazon and shipped them to one of my friends who had moved in before me. If you aren’t able to take that route I recommend TJ Maxx for your bedding needs on a budget along with other great bedroom finds.
For the purpose of giving you a list of where to shop in order to maximize your bang for your buck I’d recommend:
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Ross
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Dollar Tree
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TJ Maxx
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Super Target
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Walmart
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Flamingo Crossings Target
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Five Below
By going to these stores in this order you will be learning from my mistake and not give yourself the opportunity to buy something more expensive before you find something cheaper. For anyone about to move in, Good luck! I’ll be sure to update this blog with how my move-in went and things I thought were super helpful, or not so h
Here's some photo's from this week! Much Love,
Makena
