Food / housekeeping

Most students spend an average of £25 to £30 a week on food and housekeeping costs. This works out a lot cheaper than daily trips to the corner shop, which can soon add up and eat into your budget.

Money saving tips

Plan meals for the week ahead and buy food accordingly. Always use a shopping list so that you are not tempted to buy unnecessary items. Try to buy supermarket own brands as they are much cheaper than the more well-known brands.

Learn how to cook! Get a student cookbook which will have numerous nutritional but low cost recipes. The recipes below are simple, tasty and won't cost a fortune.

Avoid buying fresh fruit and vegetables when they are out of season as they will be much more expensive. Fruit and vegetables are a lot cheaper to buy from local markets than supermarkets.

A useful website to help budgeting for food and finding student friendly recipes is Student Nosh. It's got everything from learning how to boil an egg to finding inspirational vegetarian recipe ideas.

Make the most of supermarket loyalty cards. These are good if you always use the same store, and various supermarkets offer different deals.

Take your lunch to university rather than buying food from expensive outlets every day. Think about it, spending just £3 per day on lunch will cost £21 per week, that's £819 per academic year!