So I’m clearly not the most struggling student, but I have noticed that food is always one of my worst areas on my budget. I think it’s because it’s so easy to justify it as a need.

But when it’s necessary, it’s very doable to scale back. Below are a few things I’ve learned about eating on a budget as a UK PhD student.

RAMEN

I can vividly remember being 20 years old and my roommate was so broke she literally just lived on Ramen noodles. There was a massive case of a single flavor she liked in the corner of our apartment kitchen and it was seriously all she would eat to an extent that I often was worried about her.

Don’t be like Laura. Do not Ramen every meal.

But… you could Ramen some meals.

About a year ago, I was home for the holidays and realized that my dad’s go to cold weather snack in the evening was Ramen noodles. And I kind of teased him about it. Then I tried one before I went back to school and actually – it was surprisingly nice.

Not nice for every meal, but I can easily do several meals a week of Ramen. In my flat, I call them noodles and my partner has learned the difference between when I ask him if he wants noodles or pasta.

There are a bazillion flavors, but I have to admit I’m not super experimental about it – I did, however do a taste test of every chicken flavor of instant noodles I could find in Tesco and the Co-op and I have strong opinions that Indo Mie Chicken and Zifon Golden Chicken are miles better than the rest. Zifon is Polish and looks like it says Zloty on the bag.

They are also the two cheapest. And I have taste tested up to around £2.00 a package (highway robbery) and still think Indo Mie for a slightly spicy vibe and Zifon for a full flavored garlic chicken are the way to go. Both can be found for between £.50 and £.70 a package.

FOREIGN FOODS

Speaking of those Polish noodles – the foreign food isles have essentially the same foods for a fraction of the price.

There can be a language barrier here, especially if you have allergies or concerns about exactly what is in things, but if you’re a little adventurous or patient with Google translate, you can find substantial savings in these aisles, especially in areas with big immigrant populations.

Or perhaps you, like me, are from a family that eats some ethnic foods. I learned this trick when I was astonished to find an Eastern European section and some familiar family foods and I can muddle my way through Cyrillic well enough to buy the foods there. Languages where the packaging doesn’t even use a Latin alphabet seems to have even steeper savings.

My favorite hack here is the (formerly £1.00, but now) £1.20 perogies. A single package of which can feed both me and my partner, which is a bottomless pit for perogies. The packaging is confusing a/f if you aren’t already pretty familiar with what’s in most perogies to match the pictures on the packaging to the flavor (which, fyi, is usually cheese and potato, cabbage and mushroom, mystery meat – probably some kind of pork/beef mixture).

THE HONOURABLE POTATO

Budget buddies, we are sleeping on potatoes. So much punch, so cheap. Both the traditional white potato and sweet potatoes are very affordable. Brits will be very familiar with jacket potatoes, but those aren’t really a thing in the U.S.

Cheap and easy, pals.

CARROTS AND PARSNIPS 

For some reason, these are incredibly cheap. I can regulary find a large bag of carrots for between £.15-.45 and parsnips aren’t much more expensive. Also, if you like me, though the parsnip was just the white sibling of the carrot, not true. Parsnips carry a caloric punch and are primarily carbs.

A few basic spices and you are good to go for endless combos with the veggies and potatoes. Sadly, I haven’t found a Trader Joe’s on this side of the pond, but I try to stock up on some of their seasoning options when I’m in the U.S. If America is nowhere on your radar, the UK has plenty of seasoning options too and a small splurge here can go miles for making your budget choice stretch.

END CAP SALES

If you find where your store stocks the things that are about to go off, you can usually find terrific deals. If you’re based in a big city and constantly popping into the grocery store due to restraints of grocery shopping without a car, this can definitely be a big win. Anything you pickup is still going to be fine to cook that night.

Most of these things could be frozen too for later use. I grew up in a house that keeps bread in the freezer, which definitely helps my cut down on waste, since eating a loaf of bread on my own before it moulds is pretty unlikely.

SWEETS

I’m always a little shocked at how cheap custard creams, bourbon creams, and your general biscuit-style sweet is. If you’re craving something sweet, the bottom shelf of the cookies aisle can actually provide you some bang for your buck.

Additionally, some shops like Asda and Sainsbury’s have smaller portions of candies for £.30-£.60 if you’re hoping for a specific kind of sweet.

SHOP HIERARCHY

 One thing I wish I’d understood a little better when I moved here was the shop hierarchy.

Though if you live in an area with a market, you can probably fresh fruits and veg cheapest there, though you’ll often have to pay in cash.

• After that, the cheapest shops are Lidl and Iceland.
• The next cheapest are Asda and Aldi.
• Followed by Tesco.
• Then you’ve got Sainsbury’s.
• After this is the Co-op.
• Finally, M&S and Waitrose are much pricier.

Any other graduate students living in the UK, how do you keep food costs down during this lovely cost of living crisis?