A recent survey’s results by Intelligent Environments was published in the Independent which highlighted that three quarters of students who received a maintenance loan were stressed about debt issues, with 39% of them saying they can’t afford their weekly shop.
With this in mind, debt is becoming one of the most common factors as to why students are suffering increased mental health problems, therefore we wanted to give you some quick and easy tips on budgeting to make your lives a little more stress-free when feeding yourself.
Plan
Although this may sounds stupid and easy, planning what you’re going to eat throughout the week will make it much cheaper. If you make a shopping list before you go, stick to it and don’t let yourself get too tempted into getting more than what you need. Going food shopping on an empty stomach will also mean you’ll probably end up spending more, as you’ll be craving all sorts of food which you probably won’t 2want to eat by the end of the week.
Cook together
Cooking with your flatmates for dinner will definitely make things a little cheaper (as long as you agree that steak is off the menu). Making bigger loads of food to share means that you can all chip in for the meal and use the ingredients, so there aren’t any left overs which may never get used again. It’s also a good way to see what others enjoy making for dinner so you aren’t eating the same budget meal because you want to save money.
Buy things in bulk
Forking an extra pound or so for bigger packets of pasta and cereal for example will save you money in the long term. It means you won’t have to go shopping as much and only need to get the daily necessities such as milk and bread. This even goes for groceries like crisps, chocolate bars and drinks where you’ll be better off buying bulk packets and bringing them to snack on in uni, rather than buying them at uni for an escalated price.
Don’t be a snob
As much as you may miss your mum’s weekly M&S grocery shop, uni is not the place for that and unfortunately you may have to lower your standards for your daily dinners. This may also mean you should start trying the value and shop own branded goods as they are so much cheaper, and you may not even taste the difference.