Healthy Eating On A College Budget?

I think this is actually easier than healthy eating when you have more money.

I gained all my weight since leaving university and starting full-time paid work. Because whilst I'm not well off, I have enough money to happily get a takeaway at weekends, buy desserts whenever I feel like them, and get through a bottle or more of wine per week. When I was a student, none of those things were really an option - cake and stuff was an occasional treat.

If you focus on veg, pulses and carbs plus whatever meat you can find on offer, you can make healthy meals quite cheaply. Most student cookbooks will have recipes for vegetable curries, bean chillis, etc. which are fairly low in calories and inexpensive.

Look out for meat when it's reduced to clear (about to go out of date, but still OK for now) and freeze it or cook a batch of food with it straight away.

The one healthy thing you probably can't have loads of is fruit because a lot of nice fruit (berries, melons, etc.) is quite expensive. But vegetables are cheaper and don't contain as much sugar so I wouldn't worry too much about this. Maybe just buy one type of fruit that's cheap (eg: apples or bananas) and have a portion every day, but don't expect to be able to eat a huge variety of fruit.

The traps to avoid falling into are:
-Eating tonnes of carbs to fill you up. Nothing wrong with pasta and rice, but I know in my uni house a typical serving of pasta was 100-120g (dry weight), whereas now I'll have 60-70g with more veg.
-Eating lots of cheap fatty meat (bacon offcuts, cheap sausages, fatty mince). It's better to get some of your protein from beans/chickpeas/lentils (which are cheap and healthy) so you can afford slightly better meat when you do have it, than to eat cheap meat every day.

i don't care what others say ... its hard to eat healthy on a buget. you can buy 3 ramen soups for a dollar (3 meals) or you can buy one orange for a dollar (not a meal at all).

Eggs are cheap .. You can have them for any meal.

You can find frozen ground trukey n frozen ground trukey sausage in the frozen section that is way cheaper than the one in the meat section... I find that it is even cheaper than the hamburger in the meat section too sometimes

dried beans are pretty cheap and can be used instead of meat.

Frozen veggies are cheaper than fresh most of the time. Don't bother with canned ones.

Frozen berries are cheaper than fresh most of the time

Pork chops are pretty cheap

It is more expensive to eat healthy fresh food - it's tough! Also, it doesn't last long and if you buy sale items in bulk, they can go bad before you can eat it.

Remember that many things stay fresher longer in the fridge. I have started putting apples, oranges, potatoes, and breads in the fridge. English Muffins will last longer in the fridge than regular bread, and since I toast everything, it taste just as good.

Not sure where you live but you can also buy from local roadside food stands. Not only is it a great way to get fresh seasonal produce but you are supporting local farmers as well and it is cheaper than fresh markets.

Here in the south, some places are even cheaper if you pick the produce yourself. It can be fun to go out and pick strawberries or to buy pecans and walnuts in the shell and spend some time shelling and freezing the nuts.

I agree with Alska too, frozen foods are your friend - they last much longer than fresh and are better for you than canned foods.

Best of luck to you.

Hi Ashley,
omg definitely yes!
my roommate and I shared and improved our healthy eating habits too! we both walked 3 miles to/from college/apartment and would spend all day on campus, so we needed to pack our lunch/snacks to maintain steady energy and focus.
I like what an earlier poster said, buy dried beans, lentils, grains in bulk department.
join your local food co-op, this concept was created by college students for budgetary reasons!
buy in season fresh produce, especially greens.
buy frozen berries from the northern states (best flavors from north; $7 for 8 cups = 50 cents a pint compared to grocery store $5/pint).
volunteer at a sustainable foods concept (grows fresh foods for shelters). in addition to fresh produce you may get fresh eggs at dirt cheap prices or free.
the least amount of packaging and processing = lower cost. aka: fresh, simple, like milk vs cheese or yogurt.


travel food (lunches, snacks):

1. zucchini, cucumber, yellow squash:
fresh whole cleaned and uncut. wrapped in handtowel, placed ontop of books in backpack. good nosh makes two snacks or one meal! eat like an unpeeled banana! you can reuse hand towels (wash) vs constant spend on paper towels that you toss.
2. apple, orange: no leaky in backpack! (from being squished). bananas good too but easy squishing so need keep ontop of books.
3. baked sweet potato: superfood, high fiber, highly nutritious. had to put inside double ziplock baggie as they may leak a bit depending on moisture of potato and heat outside.
4. baked potato: also delicious high carb and potassium.
5. almonds, walnuts, peanuts, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds. raw unroasted. highly nutritious protein and omegas. almonds are especially energizing in a good way. remember a handful is an ounce serving. I still carry and stash snack baggies of nuts in briefcase, in car, in office desk, in gym bag... it's power food that sustains you between meals.


home cooked meals:
1. pasta: you're still young so pasta carbs are still good. learn how to make your own, super easy and dirt cheap once you know how to do this! ask for a birthday gift of a hand crank pasta machine (they're the best anyway). I was very athletic in college and required my carbs.
2. rice: go for whole grains, or basmati (super fast and easy to cook). be sure to get wild rice on occassion.
3. quinoa: good protein in these, it's in the beet family.
4. beets, raw roasted or steamed: super high fiber and good for you. you can also roast any veggies in a crockpot, or even a rice cooker.
5. carrots and other root veg.
7. lentils and peas: super high protein, and also great fiber content. oh, and lentils are dirt cheap! my favorite are green lentils.
8. spinach, parsley, kale, chard, all cabbages are the very highest on list of highly nutritious chlorophyll and greens nutrients. Romaine is good too. Chard and Kale are super easy to grow in a pot! and keeps producing more leaves even after taking leaves from it. Zucchini also easy to grow in pot and we all know how prolific that plant is!
9. Tomatoes: the best thing to use fresh or create sauces. I keep both fresh tomatoes (for salads), and a jar of good marinara in the house at all times. the marinara acts as a nice add to make sauces or splash onto cooked lentils for flavoring it like a soup.
10. hot sauce! everything tastes better with a smidge or a huge dollop! the really potent ones go the farthest in cost/longevity. just make sure it's made with vinegar which preserves it for long shelf life. A large jar of quality marinara ($8) still lasts me 2-3 weeks.
11. bananas: super great food, high potassium.
12. frozen foods: sometimes, but just what I need. the mixed vegetables or broccoli or peas or edamame (soybeans). very filling. i'll even buy a large bag of cleaned fresh broccoli and toss the whole thing in freezer immediately (yes, even without blanching), still works great for soups or steamed.
13. frozen cherries: this is my favorite treat, even today. used to be ben&jerrys cherry Garcia, but I needed less fat in diet and realized frozen cherries (microwaved just 30 seconds for a slight softness) is just as good! I even dip them in melted dark chocolate for a super treat of chocolate covered cherries! oh, and cherries are high in melatonin which makes it perfect to snack on before going to bed.
14. dark chocolate: again, an infrequent super treat of which I take only 1-2 tablespoons portion, not the whole thing. get a really high quality (aka: low sugar, although expensive) dark chocolate bar and keep it for special special treats, or when you need to relax from too much stress (which exercise also helps with).
15. dairy: milk is cheapest vs cheese or yogurt. make your own yogurt, it's so dang easy and no special equipment needed except some pint sized canning jars, a baking pan (to sit jars in water bath), a heating pad or just use oven on lowest setting. truth is I use a heating pad placed in cold oven because it's cheap. commercial cost of goat milk (qt) $4, cost of goat milk yogurt ($8), cost of homemade goat milk yogurt ($4.25). you need a starter culture, I get mine from wilderness family naturals online.

I'm currently in college and struggle with this as well. The best thing to do as far as shopping for "healthy" food is to scout out the places closest to you. Is there an Aldi's? A Save-A-Lot? Food Lion? These tend to be the cheapest, but Walmart is an okay alternative.

Also, try to buy fruits and veggies that are in season. You're going to pay an arm and a leg for, say, strawberries in December. But if you ever get the craving then, buy them frozen. You can put them in yogurt, smoothies, and a plethora of other things. Frozen veggies are also relatively cheap and work wonderfully as a stir fry or as a side dish any time of the year.

Buy frozen chicken breasts. I know $10 dollars sounds like a lot to drop at once, but the bag usually contains enough for five or more dinners (if you're cooking for one). You cannot, absolutely cannot, buy five chicken dinners at a fast food place or other restaurant for $10 dollars. So when you look at it like that, it's justifiable to spend that much at a time. And to me, chicken is a staple. You can find so many simple, easy recipes that will fit within a college budget *and* within your calorie goals. (My favorite is a glaze made out of honey and mustard, then topped with a little (optional) mozzarella.)

Potatoes are your friends. Sometimes I make a whole meal out of a sweet potato. All you need is a microwave, too, so that's great for a college kid.

Try to make meals that use a lot of the same ingredients. Make some ground beef, and then portion it out. You can add beans to some of it to make tacos, add it to pasta dishes, or basically anything else you can think to do. It lasts well in the freezer, too, so you don't have to worry about the portions going bad before you can use them (that's like watching money go into the trash; it's the worst.) Or buy some english muffins. It's not the cheapest bread, but you can use them for breakfast sandwiches, mini pizzas, warm lunch sandwiches, or a PB2 and honey sweet open-faced dessert.

Good luck!