'The 4 student budgeting rules that helped me cut my food bill'

With living costs continuing to put pressure on students, finding practical ways to spend less on groceries can make a real difference.

Through trial and error, I found a handful of habits that helped me eat well, waste less food and keep costs under control at uni – and went on to publish a cookbook of cheap, easy meals.

Here are my budgeting rules.

Cooking is always going to be cheaper than getting takeaways – save ordering in for special occasions.

If you don't know your way around the kitchen yet, that's OK. Cooking is a valuable life skill and gets much easier with practice.

Use social media – YouTube, TikTok, Instagram – as well as dedicated food recipe sites and don't feel intimidated. There are so many cheap and easy recipes that anyone can master.

Split basics like teabags, salt, spices, sugar and washing up liquid with your housemates and, if costs and space allow, buy these in bulk if it works out cheaper in the long term.

If it's practical and you go through them at a similar rate, you could also consider sharing big bags of rice or pasta.

The same goes for squash, milk, jam – anything you find you're duplicating unnecessarily.

It doesn't just save money, but frees up storage space and helps create a sense of community, too.

This is the real nuts and bolts of food budgeting. If you want your food bill to be as low as possible while maintaining a balanced diet – you need to:

But cooking like this long term can feel restrictive. So, to keep things interesting, keep space in your budget for time-saving and flavour-boosting ingredients like curry pastes and a few more complete protein options like chicken thighs, silken tofu and frozen fish fillets.

It's all about trial and error. During my first few months at uni, I realised I hated batch cooking, so I based meals around whichever vegetables were on offer and whichever protein was cheapest in the reduced section.

I relied on a solid set of store cupboard staples which I replaced as and when. I divided these – essentially anything with a long shelf-life – into four rough categories:

Carbs: A variety of pasta, rice, noodles, couscous and flour

Tins and dried food: Tomatoes, chickpeas, coconut milk and different types of beans, as well as dried lentils.

Flavourings: My flatmates and I shared flavourings like soy sauce, dried herbs and spices, oils, vinegars, hot sauce, mayonnaise, honey, ketchup and mustard.

Frozen: Fish fingers, frozen peas, mixed berries and green beans.

I built up these staples gradually as and when I could afford them.

Buying a whole new set of gadgets isn't an option for most students – and with storage space at a premium, it's not practical either.

Here's what I found the most useful in my student house.

A blender: I bought a cheap three-in-one gadget. It had attachments for chopping, blending and whisking and I still use it nearly every time I cook.

Slow cooker: I had adverse childhood experiences with slow cookers (mostly involving soggy pasta), but my flatmates used one for energy-saving cooking and it was an effective way to cook hearty meals without much effort.

Microwave: Essential and luckily, most student flats come equipped with them. Not only great for making porridge and reheating leftovers, but also for pre-cooking root veg like potatoes and carrots to save on oven time, melting chocolate, steaming vegetables like broccoli and peas, and making healthy homemade popcorn.

I use mine for very quick soups (soften veg for a few minutes, mix with hot stock and blend). It's perfectly possible to make whole meals in there.

Air fryer: In terms of usefulness I'd put this above a slow cooker but below a microwave – it makes cooking quick and energy efficient. But counter space is usually at a premium in halls and house shares, so don't invest until you know there's somewhere to put it, and there isn't already one in the house.

Originally published September 2023, updated September 2026.

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