College Life: Eating on a Budget

Eating on a budget is tough as it is, especially if you're going it alone in college! Pizza can get expensive, and is not edible after about 3 or 4 days, plus it does get boring after a while eating the same things. While staying in a dorm room or apartment and going to school with limited funds you need to figure out how best to spend your money on food that is going to not only taste good, but also be good for you!

One of the best investments I ever made was getting myself a small indoor grill, one of those lean mean fat burning machines. Getting this small little grill has saved me a ton of money, and kept my meals from clogging my arteries. Grilling is a great way to eat great, and keep healthy, although meat can get expensive, especially if you make veggies to go along with the meal, so I try and use this only about two or three times a week.

Frozen foods are a great way to survive college life on a budget, and make great lunch and dinner solutions. Hot Pockets are a life saver, and so are Stouffers dinners. Both have a wide variety of options, some of them actually healthy, and only take a few minuets to cook. I try to buy them on sale at my local super market when they have a "buy ten for 10$" deal going on, so I can eat for over a week, with some variety for just over 10$

Ramen noodles are another great time saving meal, and cost only pennies to buy. You can normally get a pack of five servings of Ramen for about a dollar, you just can't beat that in terms of stretching a dollar. Ramen may not be the best thing to eat all the time, but the carbohydrates that the noodles have will provide you with extra energy throughout the day, and flavored Raman mixed with some extra meat you have left over, or veggies can be a real treat!