Young Calorie Counters

So I'm going to be a freshman in the fall but I have an apartment off campus about a block, therefore my meal plan at my university maybe allows for 5 meals a week. That's fine by me, I can grab lunch when I'm in between classes and don't want to go back to my place. My question is, I'm only alloted so much money a week by my budget for breakfast, dinner, my lunches when i do want to eat at home and snacks. I eat a lot now because I'm so active and if I don't eat enough I drop weight, so how do I maintain my healthy eating habits when I'm on a budget?? I know where a farmer's market is so I have produce covered but what suggestions do you guys have?

Buy anything you can store long-term in bulk. It is generally better value for money in the long run. I do say generally - you sometimes need to double check.

Buy things in bulk and on sale, freeze food, and go generic...

Be sure to freeze things that could go bad if you don't use them right away, like meat, bread, fruit, veggies...this will save you bunch...for instance, bread is always on sale - like, buy one get one free- but I could never eat 2 loaves of bread in a week, so I always freeze the second one.

Buy some generic brand foods...canned goods, bread, rice, noodles, etc...they pretty much taste just as good as name brand.

There are lots of really cheap and filling foods out there. Canned beans are great and always cheap. They even fill me up (I'm a big guy!).

Here's one that I think is a really good way to save cash on meat: buy things when they go on sale (the day before they go bad) and buy in bulk. Freeze what you can't eat right there and then you'll have cheap meat to eat whenever you want it. Voila! I think that meals where you can add canned goods are great ways to save on food costs. If the stuff ever goes on sale you can load up!

Good advice so far - generic brands, look for sales, stock up when it's canned/you can freeze it and shop thriftily. If you have time and the options take a look at different grocery stores. They will often have differing prices on items so you may choose one store to buy your cereal and milk from but another for eggs and veggies. Takes a lot of spare time though. >_<

Above all else, one word:

Coupons. Clip em'. Save em'

try  mygrocerydeals.com, its amazing, and lists upcoming sales and plenty of different stores :)

Original Post by runnabe15:

Above all else, one word:

Coupons. Clip em'. Save em'

try  mygrocerydeals.com, its amazing, and lists upcoming sales and plenty of different stores :)

 Does that site by any chance list for Canadian stores as well?

Quite honestly, I don't know, I've never checked :/

i just always login, haha.

i know! i'm not in college but i'm pretty poor and i've spent all my grocery money for the month and it's still got 10 days to go. : (

it's been very hard trying to gain and being poor. i don't think i've ever had the problem were i actually want to eat more but couldn't afford to. i've always had food available but didn't want to eat it. weird how that works huh.

runnabe15- i will check out mygrocerydeals.com for sure. thanks for posting that.