First, before spending your own money, you should obtain free food whenever possible. Don’t mooch off you’re friends with lies of paying them back eventually. Instead, boldly mooch off your university. Between orientations, recruitment weeks, frat and sorority rushes and just random events, you should be able to grab a decent number of free meals. Additionally, catered on-campus events often have large amounts of leftovers they’re looking to give out before having to throw away. Each campus is different though, so keep an eye out and develop your specified free-food finding skills.

Now in terms of buying your own own food, you need to access your budget and prioritize what you will be spending it on. You must cope with the fact that you won’t be able to eat filet mignon daily. Also, recognize that $20 pizza budget could be better spent. Cutting back on your alcohol expense is advisable but not so easily executed. Regardless of what you end up cutting back on, figure out how much money you have a month to exclusively spend on food. Is it possible to live off of $6 of food of month? Yes, but you’ll only be eating 2 $.10 Ramen packets a day.

If your expected budget food is scant, it is highly recommendable that you take a multivitamin once daily with food to help ensure you get your essential intake of vitamins and minerals.

Next, you should find your local discount grocery store. On campus food shops are horribly overpriced so if you can get off campus (by car, bus or bike) to a store with deals, or even reasonable prices for that matter, do that. If its a trip for you, make it there once per week and stock up.

Alternatively, find your local grocery’s discount food/clearance section. Find out when they put items in these sections. There’s often great deals on about-to expire products. Buy meat when it’s on discount and freeze it until you’re ready to cook it.

Now that you’re at the store its time to shop smart. Here is a list of low cost foods to help stretch your budget:

Eggs (18 pack) (See Microwaved Scrambled Eggs)

Top Ramen (Buy in bulk if possible, avoid spending more than $.50 per package)

Day-old discounted bread, bagels, buns, etc. (Keep them in the fridge and they’ll last about a week, be careful of mold though)

Peanut butter & jam (The bulkier the cheaper, this will make your bread into a meal)

Yogurt (Store brand individual servings and large containers are often super cheap)

Bulk Bagged Cereal

Whole Chickens

Discounted Meat (The clearance section in the meat department often has banging deals. The meat is still good—just eat it or freeze it within 24 hours of buying.)

Mac and Cheese (The microwavable packages are more expensive than the good old box but still a cheap meal. Buy the generic brand, it tastes the same.)

Soup (1 can is a lot of soup and potentially a couple meals.)

Rice (Brown is healthier. The microwavable packages will be more spendy.)

Oats/Oatmeal (Flavorless yet economical.)

Russet Potatoes

Canned Beans (Re-fried, Baked, etc. Beans are caloric, filling and delicious.)

Bananas, Apples and Oranges (Find them on sale. They’re delicious and as healthy as you can get.)

Pasta (See the Pasta section of the site. There’s a lot you can do with noodles, sauce and veggies at a very low cost.)

Written by Justin Farber