Cheap and healthy pack up's for uni - any ideas?

amystyran

I'm starting my 2nd year at uni in just over a week, and last year my money was drained because a) i was eating take out burgers and sweets all the time and b) because pack up lunches seemed to cost so much money! I also put on 1 stone in the year I was there, and there's no way in hell I want to do that again!

So my question is....

does anyone have any nice recipes, ideas or tips on what healthy foods I can put in a lunch box, without it being expensive? (bearing in mind i'm a student living off loans !)

thank you !

nxd10

Packing lunches can save you a ton - sounds like your plan will save you money AND help you lose.

For lunch, I have a piece of fruit, a few slices of roast beef with sprouts or greens rolled into a tortilla, and a piece of ginger or a radish or a few cashews - something to munch. I bring cold tea in a bottle.

I also really like bringing leftovers from the night before. They are essentially free.

Egg salad sandwiches or tuna salad sandwiches are high protein and inexpensive.

If you want to get rid of bread, you can be radical and take your egg or tuna salad and roll it into large leaves of kale or cabbage. You essentially use them as tortillas.

There is also soup in a thermos or ready for microwave.

AwesomeSquirrel

I used to be in your position and sort of still am (recent graduate in a new job so still low on cash). These are all things that me and my friends used to bring! We were in self-catering accomodation so had access to cooking equipment to prepare lunches.

- Yoghurt + granola in small tupperware (breakfast). Buy a large pot of yoghurt for best value and portion it out in tupperware to bring.
- Oat/granola bars, homemade for cheap (breakfast)
- Fruit (breakfast/snacks). If fresh fruit is expensive try your local farmers market or go late in the day and check the "dead and dying" section for reduced wares.

- Salad, homemade, with lettuce + tuna/chicken and what ever other veg was availabe. You can buy a dressing or make your own.
- Pasta salad, as above but with pasta to bulk it out further
- Sandwiches, ham and hummus is a cheap alternative. Hummus is often on offer in Tesco/ASDA or can be made at home in a blender if you own it. Be inventive and use leftovers.
- Wraps: keep better than bread and closes over more interesting fillings. Try leftover stir-fry, it' bloody amazing!
- Soup. If you buy yourself a food thermos (£10-15 on amazon) you can cook up a batch of veggie soup on the weekend and bring to lunch every day for the week. I do this at my new job all the time. You can bring some crackers/ricecakes/whatnot.
- Leftovers (eg. curry, bolognese, stew). Again requires a thermos unless you have access to a microwave.

- Small pieces of cheese eg. Babybel or piece off a Jarlseberg / Cheddar block.
- Home made trailmix. Buy nuts and dried fruit from a middle easter grocer OR look out for offers in your local store, Tesco routinely has 2 for £3 on Urban Fruit. You can also dry eg apples yourself in the oven and they keep for ages, google for recipe and utilise the apple season!

I recommend getting a set of cheap tupperware from IKEA; these are what we used: http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/60149673/ supplement with some decent lock&lock if you are looking to bring eg yoghurt.

LadyAmy20

I'm a student too! I've found if you can, buy in bulk and share with your housemates where possible. Especially with veg, and you can make big dinners like curries and hotpots/casseroles, soups, shepherds' pie, roasts (always a favourite). If your housemates aren't up for that, then you can always make a big meal and then freeze the rest in portions.

RE lunches... this is something I'm really bad at. Haha. Salads - you can mix up the usual green leaf salad with bean salads, pasta salads, rice salads etc. This way they don't go off as quickly and are more filling. I also agree with the wraps instead of bread, they travel better and last longer. If you do want bread, get the pre-sliced stuff when it's reduced, freeze it, and defrost it slice by slice as it's needed. That way you won't feel like you HAVE to eat it all before it goes off, and it lasts longer!

Instead of getting pre-cooked, pre-sliced meat like chicken or ham, buy chicken breasts or a ham joint and cook them yourself, and then slice it up. It works out WAY cheaper!

Buy fruit in bulk and then if you can't get through it all on time, cook it. Make a crumble or even just the cooked fruit on its own is nice for breakfast with yoghurt. Same with veg - if it's going off, cook it and freeze it.

EAT LEFTOVERS. I can't stress this enough! I hate to think how much money I lost last year when I threw stuff away.

Make the time to go to the cheaper supermarket even if it isn't the closest. Think of it as adding exercise cals! Also, if there's a market near you, have a look to see if things are cheaper, and go towards the end of the day when things go down in price (same applies to supermarkets actually).

If you like peanut butter, get a big jar of that and make sandwiches - it'll keep you going through lectures and is really easy to travel with.

Hope some of this helped!

maryjay51

go to the dollar store and get some containers .. invest in a sizable lunch tote and one of them things you freeze and use in a lunch bag to keep your food cold.. you can buy all that stuff in dollar stores or inexpensively at places like walmart. inexpensive items are peanut butter, tuna , oatmeal .. watch sales ads every week. i just bought a bag of mini carrotts for 99 cents. i also buy frozen berries . they last a long time and if you measure the servings out you can get your money's worth. buy yogurt but look for the store brand .its the same thing only with the store's name on it. if you have access to a kitchen or a microwave buy dried beans and cook them according to the instructions. some markets sell you meats less expensive if you buy in bulk. perhaps you can share all that with a friend or two. for instance i buy 40lbs of boneless skinless chicken breasts for 1.49lb ..i have to buy the 40lb box though..sometimes i keep it for myself and sometimes i split it up with someone else.

best advice is to write down y our wish list of things you want to have on hand.. research prices and watch sale ads and even use some coupons if you have any. you will be surprised at what you can buy.. always always use a grocery list. dont go in the store without one and wihtout a plan of what you need to buy. you will come out with everything but what you wanted and wind up spending more than what you wanted to.