Living off-campus can be the best part of college, but expenses quickly compile when you don’t have a set cost of living. One expenditure that is especially challenging to maintain is the cost of food. Eating out is enjoyable and delicious, but it’s draining on your bank account and not very healthy in the long run. Cooking is the best option overall: relatively affordable and easy to make healthy. Whether you have experience grocery shopping or are a beginner, here are a few ways to make grocery shopping more affordable while still maintaining a healthy diet.
Coupons, coupons, coupons
This one may be a given, but it cannot be emphasized enough. Coupons are so easy to come by, and they can save you hundreds of dollars. Most grocery stores send you coupons through the mail, and many even offer them in-store at the checkout counter. Even saving ten percent or fifty cents can add up, and over the course of a year, you could save hundreds. Coupons are also offered online, and these ones are easily printed or downloaded to your phone for use at checkout.
Buy in bulk
While not everything is practical to buy in bulk, there are certain essentials that stores like Costco and Sam’s Club offer that are much more affordable to stock up on. This includes sparkling water and pop, alcohol, pasta, rice, eggs, frozen meats, frozen vegetables, cheese, the list could go on. I especially recommend buying things that can be frozen or kept for a long time. Additionally, buying toilet paper, paper towels, and other non-food essentials in bulk results in a cheaper cost per individual item. It can seem intimidating to spend $25 on a bag of chicken breasts, but if the bags have 15 pieces of meat in them, that only comes down to $1.67 per piece. That’s a great deal! Also, these stores often have samples of different products to make sure you can try something before you buy it.
Ignore the brand
We all have our favorite brands. But loyalty has no place in the realm of saving money. It’s every cheapskate for themselves. Putting pride aside, let’s be honest and accept that most products are relatively the same. Bread is bread. Meat is meat. Cereal is cereal. And so, look at the price, not the brand. (Hint: typically, the grocery store brand is the cheapest, and usually has the best sale price, too!)
Stock up during sales
As the old saying goes, “On the seventh day, God made sales, and all the broke millennials rejoiced.” Maybe that’s not quite how it goes, but it is true that sales are a blessing to college students. This goes for everything you need to buy, groceries included. When you see a sale on a particular item you use all the time, stock up like you would if you bought it in bulk. Again, this is best for items that can be frozen or keep for a long time, as fresh produce and other spoilable items may go bad before you get the chance to eat them. I especially love sales on coffee beans, since they can be kept in the freezer for months at a time.
Chicken, rice, and everything nice
Certain foods are healthy and affordable. Chicken is a great protein source that can be bought in bulk, frozen, and thawed prior to cooking. For those of you who are vegan or vegetarian, canned beans work for this as well (and they don’t even need to be frozen!). As for carbs, rice and bread are both inexpensive options that keep for a long time or can be frozen. The great thing about these food options is that it is so easy to buy these items in bulk and meal prep. Chicken and rice are staples that are easily flavored with different sauces and spices to prevent you from getting bored. Eat a burrito bowl one night, coconut green curry the next, and stir fry the day after that. You can meal plan days or even weeks in advance and freeze whole meals to save both time and money.
Buy in season
The biggest mistake for beginner grocery shoppers is shying away from fresh produce because it is expensive. Yes, frozen produce tends to be cheaper, but oftentimes shoppers don’t realize that the reason for high produce prices is because they are shopping out-of-season. Stay up to date on which fruits and vegetables are in-season and buy based on price rather than what sounds good. Also, buying local produce can be much cheaper than buying imported produce – and you’re supporting local farmers!
Substitutions are essential
Recipes are a great guide for cooking, but they are just that: a guide. The beauty of cooking is that it’s more of an art than a science, and ingredients can be switched around without significantly changing the flavor of the final dish. If a recipe calls for an extravagant and expensive ingredient, find a cheaper substitution. Vegetable oil can be substituted for cooking oil, dry herbs for fresh herbs, frozen vegetables for out-of-season fresh vegetables. Meat and seafood can be especially expensive, but chicken or beans can act as a substitution for almost any meat or seafood ingredient. The greatest skill you can have as a chef-on-a-budget is learning to adapt to your circumstances, and sometimes these circumstances mean changing up a recipe to make it affordable. Finding a less expensive solution to a costly ingredient allows you to make the recipes you want for a fraction of the price.
Take it from me, expenses are one of the worst parts of being an adult. You work hard for your money, but your money works hard to get out of your wallet as quickly as it can. Grocery shopping especially can accumulate costs rapidly. Nevertheless, it’s still possible to spend less and enjoy more. I spend under $100 on groceries every month, with my average being about $15 per week. The trick is to think smart, compare prices, and pick an item with the greatest value (cost per quality). Spending cash is intimidating when your bank balance is less than your midterm score, so get the most out of your money every time you shop.
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