Blog 2

How to eat well on a budget

To me, eating well means to eat tasty foods until I'm full. Eating on a budget means eating food that tastes decent and fills me up. It doesn’t matter what I eat, I just want to feel full after eating. My tips won’t be the healthiest options to eat in my opinion, but it will get you full.

How to stretch your grocery budget

1. Load up on rice, spaghetti, mac n cheese, and instant ramyun noodles. These products are cheaper than already made, microwaveable frozen foods. Since the average price of spaghetti and cup noodles are close to a dollar, you could save a lot of money than other food products per meal. Rice is very filling and you don’t need many ingredients to eat a decent meal with rice. Soy sauce, fried eggs, and rice makes a great meal and would be cheaper than a big mac from McDonald's. Eating till you’re full while spending less is key to eating well on a budget.

2. Don’t buy the lowest priced items for the same type of food. In my experience food tasted better from a renowned brand rather than food from an off brand. You probably won’t enjoy eating cheap, low-quality foods and might end up throwing them away. Spending a couple of more dollars on average quality foods might save you more than just bulk shopping the lowest priced foods.

3. Freeze freeze freeze. Freeze everything that you think you won’t be able to finish by the expiration date. A great method to take advantage of this trick is to buy items that are on sale. For an example, buying loaves of bread while they’re on sale and defrosting them when you’re hungry is a great way to save money. Freezing any food that has less than 50% of water can be defrosted and taste exactly before they were frozen. Freezing is a great way to elongate the shelf life of foods.

4. Refrain from buying items that your body doesn’t really need. Try not to buy candy, chocolate, chips, and carbonated beverages. Not only are they unhealthy, but it also costs you to pay more money out of your pocket. Not buying snacks could stretch your grocery budget tremendously by saving a couple of dollars. And most snacks are quite expensive too, averaging over 5 dollars. It is much better to intake vitamins and nutrients from fresh vegetables and fruits from the money you saved from not buying snacks. I personally refrain from buying snacks for this reason and you should too.

How to supplement and take advantage of your on-campus meal plan

1. One method is to trade your meal swipe and take out food from the Down Under Cafe. If you load up your take out boxes with food, you can eat at least two meals or maybe three. Using one meal swipe to eat two meal is a great way to save your swipe for another time. Do not forget to put the leftover food in the refrigerator so you can eat later and keep the food from spoiling.

2. Buy muffins, hot pockets, pop tarts, bananas, or oatmeals to eat for breakfast. It's a great way to start the day and save a swipe for lunch or dinner at the Down Under Cafe. The DC has little to no food in the morning, so replacing breakfast with the substitutes mentioned is a great way because DC has plenty of food options for lunch and dinner. For me, buying bananas to eat in the morning is the best way to eat well on a budget. On a weekly basis, I buy 5 pieces of banana for just one dollar and eat them every morning and feast for lunch and dinner.