My sister is hoping that her professor husband can do a sabbatical like yours, but the finances will definitely be a challenge if Switzerland is the destination.
I admire your willingness to bring only what you can get onto the plane with you. But I wonder if you could also send some boxes of things ahead, especially clothes, using some slow service that doesn't break your budget? I'm not sure, but I think you aren't supposed to send new things, and I read on here that you are only allowed to bring 2 months of medications, so you'd need to figure out the rules. If you want to send some boxes and don’t feel comfortable asking your university contact, I'd be happy to receive and keep boxes for you until you arrive. Feel free to contact me for my address if you decide you want to do that.
You've already read about how expensive Switzerland is. Some of the threads another poster recommended on living frugally in Switzerland show that it is possible to live frugally here. I haven’t managed it, but there are a number of reasons for that which do not apply to you.
Something that will apply to you. I made an expensive mistake early on and hope I can save you from the same-- be aware that you probably can't return things and get your money back. I was used to going shopping on my own to pick out clothes for the kids (or ordering them on the internet) and then having them try the clothes on and I’d just return whatever didn't fit, money back. Here, no. A fair number of stores won't take things back at all (unless it's something under warranty and you can show that it is defective), and at the nicer places you will only get store credit. Even if you bought it yesterday, the tags are still on, and you have your receipt, the best outcome is store credit.
My expensive mistake was to buy a necklace at a jewelry store (at a chain that you see everywhere here) as a thank you for our long-term babysitter who had helped us to move and was leaving us that night. The stone fell out of the necklace as I was wrapping it at home. The next day, I tried to return it, not expecting any difficulty. The store asked me very suspiciously if I’d showered with the necklace. No, it was to be a gift. (But also, it was the kind of necklace one wears every day and doesn’t remove for showers.) The employee grudgingly said that she could ask her manager after lunch if the store would agree to repair it for free, or exchange it for another of the same. I explained that it was supposed to be a gift for a visitor who was now gone, and I had no use for the necklace. It was defective, purchased just a day ago and never worn, so I’d like a refund to my credit card. She said no. I thought surely the problem was language, and all it would take would be for our bilingual relocation agent to call and explain on the phone. The next day, I explained the situation to the relocation agent, but she did not see things my way.
In Switzerland, she said, you must decide beforehand if you want the item or not, and you can’t change your mind. I hadn’t changed my mind!—the product was defective and because it was broken I couldn’t give it as a gift at the time I needed the gift. She suggested I could get the store to repair it and then I could give it to someone else in the future but she didn’t think the store would take it back (nor, her manner suggested, did she really see why the store should take it back). I said I’d lost confidence in the brand and the store—how good could the necklace be when the stone fell out before even being worn? What if it fell out again but not right into my hand and was lost? If the store wasn’t going to stand behind its merchandise, I didn’t want to shop there. And I didn’t want to keep an expensive item, bought specifically for a particular individual, just in case I thought of someone I could re-gift it to. She was unmoved. I was stuck with the necklace.
If you are at a shoe store and they ask if you want to take the box the shoes come in, say yes if you might want to exchange the shoes. You can “return” shoes for store credit or an exchange only if you have the box.
The exception seems to be www.Zalando.ch where you can shop on line, get things delivered, try them on and return them. It is a bit pricey, but no hassles.
Places you can check on line to help you decide what to bring and what to buy here (perhaps others can add what they’ve learned from shopping in Germany or France):
A popular on-line clothing store for kids’ stuff: www.verbaudet.com . And www.Zalando.ch
The department store in Fribourg is Manor: http://www.manor.ch/fr/
The two major full-service grocery stores here are Coop and Migros. Coop on-line: http://www.coopathome.ch/home-page-d-accueil/C/fr .
Migros on-line: https://www.leshop.ch/leshop/Main.do...Menu=SHOP_MAIN
You can find a fair number of things cheaper at Aldi, but the variety of the selection and the prices vary week to week. https://www.aldi-suisse.ch/fr/page-daccueil/ .
Jumbo is the local equivalent of Loews/ Home Depot: http://www.jumbo.ch/fr/home.html
Fribourg is not very convenient to any IKEA.
A major pharmacy here is Sun Store: https://www.sunstore.ch/fr/sitemap/
You might take a look at, for instance, prices of sunscreens and other things your family uses regularly. I can’t find the over-the-counter medications section on this site, but I have been charged about 1CHF per 100-mg tablet of Ibuprofen (it came in a little 10-pack, not a bottle). Also, if your kids use allergy medicine, be aware that many of the medicines available over the counter in the U.S. have not yet been approved for kids here and may not be available.
On the subject of clothes needed and not needed, I agree that Fribourg weather is pretty much like Michigan but with milder winters. But I order the kids’ clothes way, way ahead, and it hasn’t worked out that well, possibly because the weather for the last 2 years has been unusual (or so I have been told). The winters weren’t bad, but the fairly-cold late-winter and early-spring weather lasted much longer than I expected, and the summers were quite cool. So I got caught short on sweaters/sweatshirts/thick long-sleeved shirts (the kids outgrew what I had for the winter before the weather got warm enough not to need them) and had a lot of shorts and t-shirts that the girls never would have worn here (we went back to the U.S. where it was baking hot and they did wear them there). Also the weather for much of the year is really changeable--you leave the house in bright, warm sun, thinking summer has arrived, and an hour later at a playground that gets some wind, the sun is gone, and you want your winter coat. People from Fribourg say there is almost never an evening in summer when they don't need a jacket.
Just so you’re mentally prepared, eating at restaurants, no matter how humble your tastes, is budget-breaking. So you'll want to be prepared to cook everything at home. (By the way, I've never found measuring spoons here. You can find measuring cups that have markings for lots of different systems, but I haven't found spoons.) If you have a choice of a fully-furnished apartment complete with kitchenware, place a high premium on it because all the basics are expensive to purchase.
Also, you probably know it is difficult for Americans to get bank accounts in Switzerland? It keeps changing, and varies from one bank to another. Maybe your university contact has advice for you. A fair number of stores don’t take credit cards, so it is great to have a “Maestro” card, which is basically an ATM card (you need a bank account to get one). Something you could do now if you haven’t already is to check if your current credit cards have “smart chips”. Without a “smart chip,” a credit card is pretty useless here and in much of the rest of Europe (apparently only America is currently satisfied with the magnetic-strip technology). Before we moved, I contacted my credit card companies to get cards that had “smart chips”. At that time, to get ones with smart chips, I had to “upgrade” to one of the annual-fee and “rewards” types of cards.
Finally, regarding Fribourg fashion. I took a look at the kids at one of the primary schools in Fribourg this week, and just around town. I only saw two boys in sweat pants (in both cases, they were wearing sweat pants with matching zip-up sweat jacket). The other kids looked just as casual, in my opinion, but all the others were wearing jeans or tannish or greyish denim. None of the older boys were wearing noticeably neater/dressier clothes—absolutely no one was wearing “chinos”, for instance. They all looked like sloppy American kids to me.
And, also, if you want to contact me when you arrive, or pick a school system, I would be happy to try to help you make a few connections. I hope you get an apartment with lots of kids around. The Swiss seem very family-oriented and would probably feel sorry for a child living far from home and family the way you were when you were 13. You might not be inclined to play the "pity" card, but worrying is a bonding thing here! The Swiss I have met are likely to be welcoming / helpful if they are sure that help is wanted. Maybe don’t try too hard to “keep a stiff upper lip” and put a brave face on things if things are not going well. "Complaining" and "worrying" are different. Feel free to worry out loud about your kids—the Swiss parents I’ve met worry a lot about their kids too. Wonder aloud whether your kids will be able to make friends because a year is a long time for kids to have no friends. Hope out loud that your kids will maintain ties with the kids they meet here in this special year, as you have (hopefully) done with the people you met long ago in France. If you can move the conversation that way when you meet your neighbors, it might help a lot. I think the Swiss may assume that newcomers want to be left alone, unless it is clear that newcomers don’t want to be left alone. (But it is a fine line because people here don’t want to be forced to socialize either, so you wouldn’t want to seem too forceful.)
Too long, rambling now! Best of luck, and the door is open if you want anything.