Dear Snarky – My Daughter’s Roommate Wants Her To Spend $2,000 On Dorm Room Decor!!!

Dear Snarky,

I feel like my daughter is being hustled by her new college roommate. My daughter is leaving for college in a month and at first loved her soon to be roommate. Then the girl and her mother went over the top on decorating the dorm room. They want customized linens with monograms, padded headboards for the beds and black out drapes from Pottery Barn.

All of this came in at over $2,000 for each girl! If that’s not ridiculous enough the mom suggested that I send her the money over a Pay Pal account and she’ll just buy everything so it “matches perfectly.”

I don’t know these people and I sure don’t want to send the mom over two grand via Pay Pal. Plus, I don’t have $2,000! I’m paying for college!!!!

How can I put a stop to this without making my daughter’s roommate situation miserable?

Signed, Worried

Dear Worried,

Give me a second to catch my breath. $2,000 to decorate a dorm room and a mom wants money via Pay Pal. Are you kidding me? Yeah, let’s just call all that a great big “Oh hell no.”

Now, turn that frown upside down because I have a fool-proof and super easy way for your daughter to emerge unscathed. All she needs to do is text her new roommate and blame everything on you. She should tell her roommate that you’re a little crazy and obsessively thrifty so there’s no way that she can spend that much on a college dorm room – ever.

Your daughter should then suggest cheaper alternatives for the look as in getting linens from Target or a Home Goods store and having them monogrammed. As for those padded headboards I just found some online for $39.00. Sure, they’re not top of the line, but, oh yeah, it’s dorm.

If the new roommate and her mother turn their noses up at the idea of bargain hunting then your daughter should just stand firm and suggest that her roommate does exactly want she wants for her side of the room and she’ll do the same.

The bottom line is it’s a flipping dorm room and no matter how much money you spend it’s going to smell like a dorm and feel like a dorm. Plus, you go to college to further your education not to win cutest dorm ever.

*If you have a question for Dear Snarky – 21st Century Advice With an Attitude 😉 – email me at snarkyinthesuburbs@gmail.com or PM on my Snarky FB page.

11Comments

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1

Millie on July 10, 2017 at 12:02 pm
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Thank Pinterest for this dorm makeover craze. It’s now like a contest to see who can have the best room. My daughter goes to University of Alabama and you should have seen some of those dorms rooms. It was unbelievable.
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  Catherine C. on July 10, 2017 at 12:07 pm
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  Another Southern mama here and I know of many mothers who have hired dorm interior designers. They work with the girls on their room, order all the custom stuff, and then show up on move in day and do all the hanging of curtains etc. I personally can’t think of a bigger waste of money.
3

irreverendt on July 10, 2017 at 12:05 pm
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Absolutely!!! My college room mate changed/washed his sheets once a semester when he went home.
4

Mom of 3 boys on July 10, 2017 at 12:15 pm
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Umm, maybe Im just an uncouth, I dont care what people think, kind of person, but I would kindly and as nicely as I could, suggest to my new roommate, that maybe we could coordinate on the color scheme, or whatever, but how about I decorate my side of the room, the way I want, and you decorate your side the way you want. OR ~ if your mom is determined to have everything match, SHE could pay for everything.
5

Donnadon on July 10, 2017 at 12:16 pm
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Unless they are buying furniture for the dorm room as well, there is no freaking reason to spend $2000 per girl for the dorm. Years before cell phones and Al Gore invented the internet, I corresponded via letter with my roomie. We figured out which of us would bring what for dorm “decorations”. We had bunk beds and yes they could be taken apart but we chose to leave them bunked. I had Holly Hobby sheets and a cat print blanket. I don’t remember what my roomie had. We didn’t feel the need to go all matchy matchy. We were there to learn not to see who could spend the most on dorm room décor. Sheesh.
6

JanetB on July 10, 2017 at 1:32 pm
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My heart is still pounding just thinking about this! I’ll have a HS senior this year and she’s gung-ho about college and living in a dorm next year. OH, MAN! Is this really what it is?? I can’t afford college as it is so I’m freaking out about how we’ll pay. No way will there be all this insaneness!
7

Julie Sherriff on July 10, 2017 at 2:51 pm
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This is not only ridiculous, it is shamefully ignorant. First, having had two kids in college dorms, I know how little they take care of what they have there anyway.They don’t spend all that much time in their rooms anyway. Second, they will have to move all of that crap out next May to exactly where? You can’t store it there for use in the 2nd-4th years of college, and by the way, BIG NEWS – no kids want to remain in the dorm after their sophomore year anyhow, so why in the name of stupidity would you want matching beds and linens anyway, when you may hate each other after the first week? Hello…If today’s youth is so concerned about the environment, then they will high-tail it over to the nearest thrift store for their bedding and decor items and forget about spending $4,000. This is sickening, irresponsible behavior on the part of the mom and her daughter. Give me a freakin’ break.
8

Kim on July 10, 2017 at 4:35 pm
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This sounds like a territory grab by the roommate and her mother. All decorating decisions have been made with no input by daughter and reflect the taste of two individuals, one of whom won’t be living in the dorm room. (There is a saying about dogs marking things to show ownership that seems appropriate to me in this case.) Personally, I’d advise the daughter to text that she is hurt that her roommate would make these decisions without her input and how could she? I agree that Worried needs to inform roommate’s mother that $2000 for decorating a dorm room is ridiculous. Worried needs to further inform roommate’s mom that decorating decisions and their implementation need to be done by the girls.

The roommate’s mother has a pair of brass b__s to demand $2000 from a stranger. I foresee this woman involving herself inappropriately in her daughter’s life, and therefor in Worried daughter’s life. In most universities/colleges, roommate changes occur at semester’s end. I’d ask the resident assistant for the floor for the roommate change procedures in case things don’t work out.
9

Linda accurso on July 10, 2017 at 6:35 pm
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Sure, as long as the roommates pay the tab.
10

Peter Nicholas Sherman on July 12, 2017 at 5:11 am
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Every undergrad I ever met living on campus would much rather spend the 2 grand on O week etc and student union Bar nights. Keep you going all year.
11

Stacey Arnos Cullerton on July 19, 2017 at 5:03 pm
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Glad I have boys…