Life | A Student's Guide to Cooking for Yourself

I feel like everybody except me is back at university right now (out of choice, my exam isn't til 2nd February and I work better at home). So if you are one of those people that's back at university you may be in need of some tips, new semester new you? No more baked beans on toast for every meal. Living away from home comes with it's good and bad points, with freedom comes responsibility don't they say? It's not all bad though, cooking and planning can be fun if you let it be... I'm not so sure about the doing your own cleaning and washing bit though.

1 | Plan your meals. Writing down everything you need will make sure you only buy that and less is wasted. Allow for some flexibility though as you may come home from lectures and not fancy what you had planned (see my next tip!) Make sure you check what's in your cupboards as well.

2 | Batch cook or cook with flatmates. Your freezer (and tupperware, stock up!) is your best friend (if you have enough room that is!) Cook a big meal like a meat ragu and then split it into portions and stash it away for when you're really running low on money. Alternatively work out how much it would cost to make and split the cost between your flatmates and then you all get a decent meal.

3 | Online shop.
This goes alongside planning your meals as you're less likely to stray if you know exactly what you need for all your meals. Try not to get tempted in by offers, I notice I'm less likely to do this when I'm shopping online as I know how much I'm spending. Try and avoid the little shops like Sainsbury's Local and Tesco Express, they really put their prices up compared to the large superstores. If you do happen to have a flatmate with a car which I did towards the end of my first year, get yourself to Aldi/Lidl - still armed with a list and stick to it.

4 | Allow yourself some flexibility, as I said earlier it's not the be all and end all if you don't stick to what you had planned for that night, just don't do it all the time. P.S. you can totally live off Pesto pasta.

Hope you enjoyed this post and it was helpful in some way. Let me know your top tips for food shopping on a budget below!