Healthy Eating on a Limited Budget

Now that you know what to look for when finding a place to live, let's talk about food.

Like many incoming students, the thought of living on pizza, burgers, fries, pop, and beer without parental scrutiny may be one of the best things about moving away from home. That's exactly what I thought my first year of college. Now I can barely stand the greasy smell of pizza without feeling nauseous. In fact, not only is living on fast food horrible for your health, but it will literally eat through your savings.

For a college student, the most important factors in choosing a meal are convenience, cost, and portability. However consider what eating out everyday will cost you. A fast food combo is around $5. A bottle of pop from the vending machines near one of your classes is $1.25. One or two slices of pizza from the food court on campus will be about $2-$5. A cup of coffee is about $2. You get the idea. If you do this every week day, you could be spending $2000-$3000 a year on food! What if you don't cook at all or go out with your friends on the weekends...

Compare this with cooking your own meals. Each meal could cost less than a dollar! Doing your own grocery shopping could mean spending less than $30 a week or $1560 a year on food. Making your own food is not only cheaper, but also more nutritious and healthier (trust me, you don't want to know what goes on in restaurant kitchens). However, there are still a few money saving grocery tips you'll need to know.

• Never shop in just one store if you can help it.
• Make a shopping lsit of things you need, do not deviate from this list and if you forget to get something, do not go back. Going back because you forgot the milk could mean walking out of the store with not only a jug of milk, but cereal and a bag of chips.
• Try to buy groceries during the weekend, especially Sunday morning or afternoon. Many supermarkets will have early bird or weekend specials with major discounts.
• Clip coupons or be aware of when sales happen. You could also consider joining a food co-op if you have something like that near you.
• Buy unprocessed food. Boxed foods like cereals and frozen meals are extremely expensive when you consider the cost of what it takes to either make the meal yourself or buying in bulk.
• On that note, also buy unpackaged produce. That means choosing sandy bunches of spinach, whole heads of lettuce, and whole vegetables. Don't buy bagged salads or precut vegetables and fruits. Not only are they more expensive but they also won't stay fresh as long.
• Check out local ethnic markets or farmers markets. Vegetables at Asian markets often cost less than at supermarkets.
• Buy dry goods like pasta, noodles, rice, beans, cereal, and canned goods in bulk. Buy non grocery essentials like napkins, paper towels, and plastic bags in bulk.
• Buy jugs of distilled water, not bottled spring water. Consider $0.50 or less per gallon of distilled water to the cost of bottled water. Take a refillable sports bottle to school.
• Try to drink water instead of pop. If you must drink pop, then at least buy 24 packs or 2 liter bottles and use a refillable sports bottle.
• Eat less meat. The cost of a vegetarian diet really is less expensive than a diet with large portions of meat in every meal. If you can't give up eating meat, then at least eat smaller portions.
• Speaking of meat, buy the leaner cuts. Meat with higher fat content may cost less per pound, but consider that all that extra fat just melts away when the meat is cooked. Post cooking you'll be left with less than if you chose a leaner cut of meat.

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