I still remember my first week in my second-year apartment. While it was an incredibly exciting time, I also couldn’t help but stress about this new load of responsibility that hadn’t been there as a first-year student. I could no longer access the Pitman dining hall, I had no more campus flex dollars to spend, and I had to figure out how to meet my nutritional needs. I stood in the middle of a Loblaws, staring at the shelves and wondering what an adult was supposed to fill their pantry with. What do I buy for protein? Should I get spaghetti or rigatoni? How many spices will I really need? Is paprika really that essential?
For the first few weeks, I survived on buttered noodles, Kraft Dinner, and the occasional overcooked chicken breast with salad if I felt ambitious. Eventually, I found a pickle soup recipe on TikTok to try, and subsequently, I made it every single week for almost two months.
Though at some point, when the temperature starts to drop and the days get shorter, you realize that you can’t live off a meal that is half-liquid. So, you walk over to your pantry, stare aimlessly into it, and think, Well, now what? It can be messy, overwhelming, and even underwhelming at times. But learning to cook can also be incredibly rewarding. Here are some tips for starting to make meals on a budget.
Keeping it Simple
Once the initial How do I feed myself? Anxieties dim; the best thing to do is keep cooking as uncomplicated as possible. It’s tempting to believe that you’re going to try a new recipe every night and have this expansive meal rotation. But the truth is, to build basic cooking skills in the kitchen without piling on excess stress, it’s important to start with a few simple staples you can make again and again, and then build on them from there. When you know exactly how to throw a dish together on a night where you’re tired, overwhelmed, or running late, you can bring quietness and control into your day.
The simplest meals can also teach you the most. When you make the same dish a few times, you learn how much salt you like, how much garlic to add, and how to adjust things to your taste. Through repetition, you learn to taste as you go, and you develop a kitchen intuition that lets you build on your skills and refine your beginner meals.
Making the Most of Your Pantry
One of the biggest realizations when you start cooking for yourself is that you do not need to recreate your family’s pantry, nor do you need every spice you see in recipes on your Instagram reels. I can safely say I still have the cinnamon I bought in my first year, and I’ve probably touched it once! What you truly need is a small group of dependable ingredients that fit your habits, schedule, and taste.
Rice and pasta, for example, can be the backbone of countless recipes, so having them on hand can easily keep you from scrambling to the grocery store at the end of the day. My cupboard is also always stocked with canned tomatoes, so I could easily whip up a pasta sauce or soup if needed. A few frozen vegetables in the freezer can also save you when your produce goes bad faster than expected.
Stocking your kitchen is not about building a huge pantry. It’s about having a reliable set of tools that you know how to use. When you know you always have something you can turn into dinner, even in a pinch, cooking becomes much less stressful.
Budget Groceries
Budgeting for groceries and finding the best deals at the store is something that I still find stressful at times, even in my fourth year of university. You learn quickly just how much prices add up, and how food can eat through your budget if you’re not looking. This realization, however, can naturally push you toward frugal habits that still taste delicious.
One of the best things you can do is shop with intention. Frozen vegetables are affordable and last forever. Nameless brands can taste just as good as the expensive ones. Ingredients that appear in multiple meals can stretch your money and reduce food waste. All of these are simple notions, but they make all the difference.
And then there’s Flipp. Truly, this has become my most prized app on my phone in university. It saves you from wandering aimlessly and helps you determine what is actually on sale and where. Checking weekly flyers suddenly feels like a fun game of trying to find the best sales.
Smart shopping is not about restricting yourself — it’s about being realistic and getting creative. You choose ingredients that can be used throughout the week, and you figure out what can be paired with what’s already in your fridge.
Finding Comfort in the Kitchen
You can also find comfort in the kitchen if you look for it. For me, that comfort usually comes from recreating something I grew up eating, or trying one of my dad’s recipes. There is something steady about calling him to ask about specific dishes, or texting him photos of whatever I made that week.
Even grocery shopping reminds me of our after-school trips to find the best produce deals that day. We would walk around the store trying to build dinner for as little money as possible, sometimes a dollar or two a plate. My attachment to those memories makes the act of shopping less overwhelming. Instead, it becomes familiar.
Comfort does not always look like a perfect meal. Sometimes it’s as simple as a dish that tastes almost like the one you remember.
Learning to cook as a student is a mix of trial and error, small victories, and the occasional kitchen disaster or smoke detector alarm. It is rarely perfect, but it constantly progresses. You gradually begin to recognize the meals that work for you, the groceries you seem to keep restocking, and the routines that make things a little easier. Unless you’re a culinary student, cooking in university is not about becoming the next Gordon Ramsay. It’s discovering what makes you feel nourished, capable, and a little more at rest.