Money…the big grey elephant that’s always in the room with you as a student. Come loan day you’re set for the semester – the following week, oops! It’s all gone. It happens to the best of us. Especially as a fresher when most of you aren’t used to budgeting or handling your own finances. So how can you get around this?
Unfortunately the most simple answer is either a; learn to budget or b; get a job! Neither of those options seem appealing I know. So prioritising instead is your next best bet. And what is the most important thing to spend your money on during term time?? Why food of course! (Yes drink can fall under this umbrella too!).
Getting used to your own food shopping can be tricky. At first it’s great fun, buying all the things your mum usually says no to but then…you get to the checkout and a £90 bill quickly wipes that smile off your face.
So here are the top ten ways to save money on your weekly food shop
1. Double Up
Now this one depends on your circumstances, share the shop with your house mates to halve to the costs, the cooking and even the washing up!
It might be super easy or it could be nigh on impossible. But you’re sure to get a good selection of meals if you can gang together with some of your housemates to take turns making meals (don’t announce your culinary kitchen skills you might get stuck doing them all!).
That way, you’d be able to have some of your meals cooked for you and you’d only need to take one turn ever week or so to do the cooking. AND…it’s usually a lot cheaper! If you can pull this one off, it’s a fantastic thing to do and will also make you closer to your roommates, which is only a good thing.
If you spend, say, £25 a week on your shopping, you’d be surprised just how much you’d get if four or five of you contributed £20 each and did one big shop for all your meals together, plus remember BOGOF and never be afraid to try new food.
2. Make a List
Before you go write down everything you need to buy. Even plan your weeks dinners so that you go for what you need and don’t impulse buy.
If you have a specific shopping list with specific products (or if you only want to use one supermarket per shop), check where the product is cheapest (trust me, I found a lot of things were always on offer in at least one of the supermarkets nearby).
Also, buy the cheapest brand there. Unless you’re an academic food snob who wishes to max out on the credit cards from day 1, I know cheap products may send a cold shiver down you but don’t worry.
Sometimes you’re getting exactly the same food as the more expensive product, just with crappier packaging, just like EBay and PayPal the product comes from the same owner and (in the majority of cases) the same production process.
And if it doesn’t taste quite as good as the brand you’re used to, is the slightly better taste REALLY worth two or three times the price? Stick some ketchup on it.
3. Use the Self-service Checkout
Keep track of how much you are spending and if it goes over your budget, then put some things back. Alternatively, at the checkout ask the person at the till to let you know when it reaches a certain total. For example if you are looking to spend £40 ask him/her to let you know when it hits that amount
4. Look out for Offers
‘Buy one get one free’, ‘2 for 1’ and ‘Special offer’ at Supermarkets are going to be your new best friends so keep an eye out for them too.
5. Coupons & Vouchers
You’ve probably seen various food product coupons in magazines and completely ignored them, why? Because we’re all food snobs and don’t want to look cheap. If it’s for some brand of butter that you couldn’t care less about, for instance, you’d just turn the page.
But (now here is a good trick) what some of the supermarkets do is take the money-off vouchers and coupons, even if you haven’t purchased that particular product. They don’t all do it, plus it depends on who is serving you sometimes, but if you’re happy to try it each time, it’s worth a go.
It might only mean a 60p here and a 40p there, but it’s still money better in your pocket. It all adds up, go shopping 4 times a month save £1 each time you save 53 pounds in the year and that’s half your TV license.
I know this may seem a bit OTT and you’ll feel like your grandparents but you’ll appreciate a coupon much more when it gets you ‘BOGOF’ on wine or a crate of Fosters! Scour magazines, newspapers and the internet for little penny saving vouchers.
6. DON’T Deviate
Food shopping is for FOOD, and FOOD alone! Unless it’s toiletry essentials everything in your basket should be edible. That means no dvds, books or magazines unfortunately!
7. Bigger Portions
If you can’t do the clubbing together thing with roommates, for whatever reason, how about making a meal to last you? Make it big enough to create a few more servings and then fridge/freeze it.
That way, you can still look to cheaper grub. The only thing is, you might get bored with the same food over several days. But sometimes when you’re trying to save money for better things it’s worth it, isn’t it?
8. Bye Bye Brands
Try not to opt for branded products. Yes this may mean you have ‘Shades’ in your toilet roll holder instead of ‘Andrex’ and ‘Asda Bolognese Sauce’ instead of ‘Dolmio’ but it really doesn’t feel or taste that different. Honestly!
9. Be Realistic
Buy what you can afford. I know you may really fancy the smoked salmon with dauphinoise potatoes that your mum cooks perfectly for you but being a student, chicken dippers and waffles may just have to do!
10. Choose Wisely & Don’t Impulse Buy
Just don’t. Yes, the sweets and goodies are by the till for a reason. No, you don’t have to succumb to it, you are stronger than the usual fool who falls into this marketing trap (sorry if you’re a fool).
Choose items that will last or that you can freeze. There’s nothing worse than having to throw away things you’ve bought because you haven’t eaten it in time. Your money would be better spent on clothes or a night out than thrown in the bin would it not?
11. Membership Rewards
In the UK most supermarkets like Coop, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Lidl have membership schemes and apps offering discounts and the chance to collect points. Over the long run you can make big savings, and also receive weekly special offers direct to your phone.
12. Go Down the Market
Find out if there’s a market that comes to town on a regular basis and utilize their (usually) cheaper prices on fruit and vegetables as well as meat (I recommend you read the articles on in the students should know section).
Similarly, if there is a farm shop nearby, they might have decent prices on fruit and vegetables, especially if you buy in bulk and combine some of the tips above. If you like a bit of a sweet snack sometimes, a load of different fruits might be a cheaper and healthier way to eat, rather than fatty and sugary snacks.
Cough ready meals … cough. I know that’s boring and you’ve probably heard that advice time and time again, but it’s true. You know it, I know it that person out the window, go look, see them? They know it too.
13. Cook Cheap Recipes
There are loads of cookbooks out there (points to cheap shopping section, and recipes here on this site, which I hoped would persuade students that they can make wonderful and cheap meals every day. Using recipes for students you will realise you can make a lot of meals really low cost.
14. Go Vegan or Vegetarian
Meat is expensive, cut it out of your diet to save a lot of money!
And there you have it. Next time you pop to Asda or Tesco, remember these top ten tips and you’ll have more money in your pocket before you know it!