It can be hard being a college student living on your own and having to manage money and plan for meals. I remember when I was in nursing school, I tried to use a budget when I went grocery shopping, but I often ended up buying way too much frozen pizza, and by the second year I had considerable unintentional weight gain, and did not want to eat one more slice of pizza anymore. That is when I started learning how to cook on my own and learning how to budget when doing groceries. Being a student or when you first graduate from college is hard because you are trying to sort out your life while still living on a budget,  you can not always eat out and you are learning to eat healthily.

I started my journey in learning how to cook and eat healthily when I was in nursing school. When I plan a meal on a budget, I want to make sure the food I am eating is healthy and easy to make, because I do not always have time to spend an hour in the kitchen to make Shepard’s pie or beef wellington. Here are some suggestions for people who would like to save some money on groceries but still be effective and healthy when prepping for meals.

1. Enjoys grain more often.

Rice, pasta, barley, and couscous are not very expensive and there are many recipes to make each of these grains. Recipes that can be calorie conscious and usually you can cook larger portions which helps with meal prep for several days. It’s a two bird in one stone deal, that you get to cook more at once, so make your life easier at meal prep, plus it cost less.

Check out some recipes that are delicious and take less than 20 minutes to make.

2. Buy frozen veggies.

You can find varieties of frozen veggies from zucchini, squash, and bell pepper, to broccoli, corn, and sweet peas. These frozen vegetables are much cheaper compared the fresh ones. They are still nutritious when cooked properly, and they reduce food waste compared to fresh vegetable which do not last as long as frozen ones. I find frozen veggies are helpful when you are on a budget for grocery shopping, and it does not cut down on being healthy.

3. Plan your meal on food that is on sale.

Before heading out to the grocery store, check out store flyers or coupons online to see if there are foods or great deals/offers. Usually, you may be able to find one or two of them, sometimes it’s a great deal on dessert, and you might be able to treat yourself to that!

Remember to check out grocery coupons on websites.

4. Make extra and plan to use leftovers.

If you found yourself in the situation where you have leftover fruits like carrots or celery, to reduce food waste and be cost-effective, you can consider making bowls of beef soup with those leftover ingredients, and freeze them for use on a busier day when you don’t have time to cook. Remember to use an airtight storage container that allows the liquid product to be stored in the freezer. In addition, when you have to make a large amount of Mexican chicken rice, you can use the leftover chicken for the next day’s lunch sandwich, or even use it the day after for a soup with chicken, veggies, and barley.

5. Do not go grocery when you are hungry.

This is probably the most useful suggestion I can give you for grocery shopping on a budget. This was my pitfall when I was in college and often felt tired and hungry after a whole day of classes; when I went grocery shopping, I usually bought things that looked delicious at the moment, or even bought food that I may not be able to finish. When we are hungry, we feel like we need a lot more food, and end up buying things that are not on our grocery list. Hence, always eat some food, even a quick peanut butter toast before going grocery shopping will allow our minds to be clear and conscious when we do our groceries.

It is important to keep yourself organized and plan your meal when you are on a budget for grocery shopping.

There are many free printable weekly meal planners online you will be able to find.

Are you thinking about buying those meal plans? There are affordable meal plans that you can find online, which minimize your cooking time and reduce food waste, and they are always plenty of choices to choose from their menu.  Depending on your budget, you may find meal plans allow you to have more time to focus on other lives demands like spending time with friends and families or focusing on school.