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Tips for Being Thrifty & Being in College

I have been cooking a lot lately and have been thinking about a healthy, inexpensive diet for anyone looking to save money. I have learned several important things:

  • Rice should be the only carbohydrate you need. Go to any Asian grocery store or Sam's Club and buy a 25lb bag. They are usually around 10-12 dollars will last you several months. It is also an excellent side dish for pretty much every meal.
  • When purchasing meat, buy cheap, uncut meat with bones. This has several advantages: you can you use the bones to make soup stock, it is way cheaper, you know what parts you are getting and can ensure the freshness of each part. Whenever you have any cut of meat, always save the fat and trimmings to make stock. The giblets in chicken and turkey also help contribute to good stock.
  • Legumes are your best fried. Beans and lentils are dirt cheap and very nutritious. They also make fantastic soups. Always buy dried, as they are cheaper and produce less waste.
  • If you are short on cooking time, cook a lot of food each time you cook. Be sure it is food that reheats well. The main reason for this is that it takes only marginally more effort to cook a lot of food compared to a little food, and you can reheat the food and eat it whenever you want.
  • Oatmeal is a fantastic breakfast food. It is extremely healthy for you, dirt cheap, and is ready in only a few minutes. It also tastes great with brown sugar or honey.
  • While meat is good, try to limit your intake as it quite expensive. Seek to get a lot of protein for legumes and oatmeal too.
  • If you like fried food, an old Chinese tip to making old oil fresh again is to filter it and cook a few slices of ginger and a couple pieces of scallions in it. This will help make the oil taste fresh again.
  • Tofu is also a good source of protein and is extremely cheap. Do not buy it at Shoprite, as it is quite expensive there. Go to an Asian grocery store where you can find it at ~1 dollar per lb. Try not to use this as your primary protein source, as soy protein has been shown to cause cardiovascular problems if ingested too much. While your at the Asian grocery, pick up some miso paste to make miso soup, which is also great with tofu in it.
  • Cut the ramen noodle bullshit. They are extremely unhealthy and taste like shit. They are loaded with salt and MSG. Following my above tips should lead you to a very healthy, delicious, and most importantly cheap diet which will prevent the need for ramen noodle crap.
  • Don't buy fozen, premade, microwave/oven heated food. It is expensive and tastes pretty crappy. It also is usually quite unhealthy.
  • One of the finest vegetables in terms of price, taste, and nutritional value is brocolli. Steam it for 7-8 minutes and put your favorite sauce on it for a quick, delicious, and healthy vegetable side dish. Asparagus is also good and can be had on sale for under 2$ per pound.
  • The banana suggestion was good as they are always cheap. Look around for fruit on sale. Apples are usually always cheap.
  • Never throw away anything edible! If you eat roasted chicken, boil the bones for a minute and take them out and save them for stock. Any leftover sauce or unfinished portions should go right in the refrigerator. If it won't reheat well, just suck it up and finish it. It will be much better to be a little overfilled and receive the benefit of more calories than wasting time, money, and resources.

Following these tips will certainly help you save money, stay healthy, and have satisfying and delicious meals regularly. I will add more to the list as I think of more stuff and happy dining!
 
When we cook, we cook enough that it will make 6-10 meals. Things like tasty tasty lasagne, or asian stir-fries, indian or thai curries, chicken pasta bakes - all of these with 4-7 different vegetables in there :)

It really is useful, as it means you don't have to cook anywhere near as often, and you can just re-heat and eat :)

We don't tend to make stock though... probably should start... eh.

CB :)
 
Chaos Butterfly said:
We don't tend to make stock though... probably should start... eh.
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Stock is really important for making good sauces and soups. Once you start making your own stock, try making soup with the powdered or canned stuff. You won't like what you taste, I promise that!
 
Oh, I know the use and value of stock...

We just pretty much never make soup. We also cheat when we cook and use pre-bought sauces. Makes it easier, and isn't TOO much of a cheat ;)

CB :)
 
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I have converted my friends into end-of-the-month 40 oz drinkers.

Also, have a relationship in which you supply all the drugs and she supplies everything else, thus saving money
 
Those are some great tips indeed, I believe I have used most of those.
It does involve doing some things I don't think everyone has in them tho. Most of my friends can make soup stock but just don't want to , or are too lazy to. they'd rather spend money on food and then complain when they have no money later.
 
Another tip, not so much for being thrifty as in a good way to get free money...

Medical studies/clinical trials.

If your university has a medical research program, there are always clinical trials going on for everything from asthma treatments to suncream testing to impotence testing to pretty much anything... At my uni they put up flyers around the uni advertising the tests.

These tests are usually very minimal risk, and have a financial reward of anywhere from $50 through to $$$$

The cheapest one I did got me ~$60, and the best one I did got me $3000!!

Its great "work" if you can get it :)

CB :)
 
so... anyone got any good recipe sites?

I move out of the dorms this year... and i need to start cooking for myself... need some simple stuff... never really was taught to cook anything... so any help is appreciated lol
 
- Use natural light during the day
- Use fluorescent lightbulbs at night
- Use power savers and turn them off when you're not using them.
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is this pertaining to college or marijuana?
 
AmorRoark said:
Aldi! :D
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Oh my god, seriously. Not only is Aldi insanelllly cheap, they have a lot of great stuff! Really amazing priced food, I cannot shop at a regular grocery store anymore because of it. I'm a total Aldi convert. For example, I buy "Fit and Active" (their health conscious brand) whole pasta, they have Penne, Rigatoni and Spaghetti and it is only 99 cents a box and it is delicious! Thats amazing! <3

Aldi also gets amazing deals on "real" brands like Kellogs and Tyson and Healthy Choice, etc, that change from week to week, its always exciting (for me because I'm lame) to see what they have new when I go there!

Also, the dollar store is great for items like toothpaste and shampoo etc. You should not have to pay more than a buck for that crap anyway and these stores usually have "real" brands too, like Crest and Colgate (for toothpaste), at least I know The Dollar Tree does! You can also get food here. Some people might think that is weird but for stuff like spices for cooking or granola bars, juice, condiments, etc, its really a great place!

Seriously, boycott grocery stores, there are way cheaper, perfectly wonderful alternatives! (my Aunt also buys spices at Big Lots for 50 cents, but that might be bordering on white trash, haha). :\



For entertainment, DEFINITELY take advantage of the local public or university library! DVDs and CDs, not to mention all those pesky books, are just waiting for you to check them out for free! I'm actually recently obsessed with my public library, I just put about 8 movies on hold, its awesome!
 
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