One of the smartest ways to save pounds as a student is to get into Cooking, especially if you want to break the urban myth that all students live off is beans on toast!
Whilst we love a bit of beans on toast here at UniLife Money Modules (it can make for a very cheap, relatively healthy breakfast option you know?), we certainly don't advocate the over consumption of orange-tinged food stuffs. We believe that it's entirely possible to eat healthy, nutritional grub on a student budget - it just takes a bit of forward thinking is all. So switch on your university brain, don your best apron, power up the stove and get cooking. Check out our Top Tips below to get you started.
These are our top 3 food hacks.
If followed wisely they'll save you hundreds of quid in the long run:
Pack it up, Pack it in... For cheap eats whilst on the go nothing beats a packed lunch. It's all too easy to get into bad eating and spending habits as you negotiate the time constraints of uni life. But if you don't fancy filling the pockets of capitalists on a daily basis, make your own lunch and brink in a flask of coffee. You could save up to £50 a month by ditching your daily caffeine fix (assuming you spend £2 a day on designer coffee), which, when added up over the year, could amount to enough to afford a holiday. That's all you need to be a packed lunch maestro is a lunchbox, a flask and a bit of imagination. Try EasyLunchboxes for some inspiration. |
Love Your Freezer Your freezer is one of the best resources you have at your disposal when it comes to saving money. You can freeze pretty much any perishable foodstuffs, including meat, bread, milk and even fresh herbs. Fill up your freezer in September and you'll never go hungry again! Try doing a communal shop with your housemates, and stock up the following frozen essentials: * Frozen Pizza: or regular pizza, but ensure you freeze it on the day of purchase * Pitta Breads: just bung in the toaster and away to go * Frozen peas/ sweetcorn/ veg: pre chopped & packed full of goodness * Frozen berries: great for breakfasts and desserts. Remember the cardinal rule: Fresh food must be frozen on the day of purchase! Check out these other top freezing tips from BBC Good Food. |
Share & Share Alike
Life is so much nicer when we share things, be it warm food, shopping lists or favourite recipes. If you're used to mum or dad's cooking why not ask them to compile a list of favourite recipes, and teach you a few of their tricks before you leave home? Knowing how to prepare your favourite meals at uni will not only help warm your tummy, but can also help reduce feelings of home sickness. Get your housemates together and do a kitchen audit at your new digs. This'll enable you to see what equipment you have at your disposal, rather than all wasting your hard-earned cash on the same utensils. And when you're done with the utensils get your heads together to plan a shopping list. Doing a big weekly food shop together is a great way to stock up on Store Cupboard Essentials, and prevent you from wasting money on takeaways & impulse buys. |
Investing in some Store Cupboard Staples will ensure that even if you can't afford anything fancy, you'll always have something to eat:
Store CupboardĀ Staples - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires
The smartest way to shop is in bulk, so get your mates together for this one. If you pool your resources you'll save £££'s in the long run. And don't forget to use budget supermarkets such as Aldi & Lidl alongside your usual stores.
Gone are the days of the one stop shop: it often works out cheaper to do your shopping across a few different grocery stores. You'll be surprised how quickly you become a pro at this, and start schooling your mates in the best budget buys*
(*Warning: You may even start to sound like your gran: 'Washing powder is cheapest in Lidl, bread in Aldi, fresh fish in Tesco...' etc, etc!!!).
Gone are the days of the one stop shop: it often works out cheaper to do your shopping across a few different grocery stores. You'll be surprised how quickly you become a pro at this, and start schooling your mates in the best budget buys*
(*Warning: You may even start to sound like your gran: 'Washing powder is cheapest in Lidl, bread in Aldi, fresh fish in Tesco...' etc, etc!!!).
Last but not least...
Hands up whose resolve to save money begins to decrease incrementally as the weekend nears? Yes, us too! That's why so many of us Brits end up throwing our carefully managed cash on end of week Takeaways. According to VoucherCodes.co.uk (as quoted on The Money Advice Service's webpage), the average person spends around £110 a month on takeaways, eating out over a staggering 12 days a month. That's, like, 40% of the whole month. Multiply this figure over 10 years and you've got a reasonable deposit for a mortgage. Surprised? Yes, we were too!
And why do we waste our money, when so often Takeaway food can be bland, greasy and downright bad for us. It is simply healthier, tastier and more fun to make your own. FACT. Especially when eating in can literally save us thousands in the long term.
One of the biggest barriers to cooking up your very own version of your favourite takeaways may be fear of the perceived effort involved. So with that in mind UniLife Money Modules have adapted some favourite takeaway recipes into a handy cookbook (below). Courtesy of BBC Good Food, the beauty of these recipes lies in their simplicity. Here we present some exotic one pan wonders that'll leave you wondering why you ever fancied grubby takeaway nosh. Who needs to eat out when eating in tastes this good?
And why do we waste our money, when so often Takeaway food can be bland, greasy and downright bad for us. It is simply healthier, tastier and more fun to make your own. FACT. Especially when eating in can literally save us thousands in the long term.
One of the biggest barriers to cooking up your very own version of your favourite takeaways may be fear of the perceived effort involved. So with that in mind UniLife Money Modules have adapted some favourite takeaway recipes into a handy cookbook (below). Courtesy of BBC Good Food, the beauty of these recipes lies in their simplicity. Here we present some exotic one pan wonders that'll leave you wondering why you ever fancied grubby takeaway nosh. Who needs to eat out when eating in tastes this good?
Now that you're a master chef, let's look at making you a banking whiz kid too. Click 'Next' to move on to our 'Bank Accounts' section:
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