This page features money saving food shopping tips on preparing student meals, recipes and a list of the best of the best student cookbooks.

Money saving food tips and recipes

- want to cut the cost of your supermarket bills? We'll show you how...

Due to global commodity driven inflation, food prices are rising fast. Whilst official government figures put this at around 5% a year, in reality core basics such as eggs, pasta, bread, milk and cheese are rising much faster. You've probably already figured out the old tried and tested money saving tips such as:

• Buy cheaper own brand products, they're often the same ingredients just without forking out for the brand's marketing budgets
  
• Buy from the value ranges for commodities such as flour, sugar, rice, salt, oats etc.
  
• Buy in bulk, yes we know it will cost you more initially but for non-perishable goods the savings can be significant, and you'll save some packaging while you're at it. Why not share the stuff out amongst your student house to all benefit from bulk buying power?
  
• Take advantage of 'buy one get one free' offers, but only on products you would have bought anyway
  
• Avoid fruit and vegetables that are packaged up in plastic bags, it's usually significantly cheaper to buy lose produce. Check the price per kg on each product to check this.
  
• Write a shopping list and stick to it, and don't go shopping when you're hungry to avoid making impulse purchases!
  

so let's look at some other more original ideas...

Invest in a breadmaker and bake your own
If there are four or more of you sharing a student house/halls of residence kitchen then making your own bread could save you around £1 a loaf on buying equivalent bread, after factoring in ingredients and electricity costs (although in student halls these are typically included!). Buying a breadmaker could pay for itself in less than an Autumn term and don't tell me you're too lazy: it takes less than five minutes to set up each time. A new breadmaker currently costs between £30 and £100 on Amazon.

Don't buy ready made things - make them yourself at a fraction of the price. Pasta sauce, salad dressing, and tasty snacks like Hummus, guacamole and tzatziki cost about £1-2 in the supermarket yet take a few minutes to make:

Tomato and basil pasta sauce - heat 3 tbsp olive oil in a saucepan and cook a chopped onion and 2 crushed garlic cloves until soft. Stir in a tin or two of chopped tomatoes, 2 tsp balsamic vinegar and 2 tsp sugar. Bring to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes. Stir in a handful of hand torn basil leaves or a sprinkling of dried mixed herbs. Season with salt & pepper and serve over cooked pasta with grated parmesan cheese. Of course mince for bolognese, tofu, fried bacon and mushrooms or seafood can all be added to this base sauce.

Salad dressing - in a jar/bottle with a lid mix 3 parts olive oil with 1 part balsamic vinegar and a dash of white wine vinegar (optional), add a finely chopped garlic clove, 1 tsp runny honey, 1 tsp French mustard, a squeeze of lemon juice and salt & pepper. Put the lid on and shake, always dress the salad at the last minute. Avoid prepared bags of salad as these are not only expensive but lose freshness fast, so buy proper lettuce.

Hummus - take a can of drained chickpeas, 2 crushed/chopped cloves of garlic, 1 tsp cumin (optional), 2 tbsp olive oil, 4 tbsp water, tbsp tahini/peanut butter (optional), 1/4 cup of lemon juice and puree in a food processor until smooth. Season with salt & pepper, serve with a drizzle of olive oil and a garnish of 1 tsp paprika and chopped parsley (both optional).

Guacamole - juice half a lime into a bowl with a seeded and chopped fresh chilli, 2 chopped tomatoes, 1/2 finely chopped/grated onion, a crushed/chopped clove of garlic and 2 tbsp chopped coriander. Halve, stone and peel the avocados, chop roughly and add to the bowl. Roughly mash with a fork then season with salt & pepper. Add more lime juice/chilli/garlic/coriander to taste.

Tzatziki - mix together in a bowl a peeled, grated and well drained half cucumber, 200g Greek yoghurt, 2 tbsp chopped mint, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 crused garlic clove, grated zest and juice of half a lemon. Season with salt & pepper.

Buy less and waste less
British adults waste an average of £424 a year each on food that goes off before they get around to consuming it, according to research from insurer Prudential. One in three people admits to throwing away food regularly and one in two to throwing away frozen food that's too old to eat. The most commonly wasted foods are lettuce and bags of salad, followed by bread, fruit, milk and cooked meat. One reason is that people tend to over-estimate and over-buy when doing a weekly food shop, especially when faced with a vast array of choice and special offers in supermarkets. There's no point falling for a buy two of something for a discounted price if you're going to throw one of them out when it goes off. Another reason is the misunderstanding of the dates labelled on food packaging, the 'sell by' date is simply used by the supermarket so the shelf stackers can start discounting the product for sale - along with the 'best before' date it does not mean the produce is unsafe to eat, that date is labelled as the 'use by' date.

In the Western World the food we throw away is four times the amount needed to feed the world's hungry, and the surplus production coupled with the landfill emissions from wasted food comes at a huge environmental expense. For more information on the cost and impact of wasting food, how to avoid it and what to do with your leftovers visit Love food hate waste.

Don't believe that prices are always cheaper at supermarkets
Give local retailers a chance, whilst local corner convenience stores can be pricey most towns have a fruit & veg market or greengrocers which will give you significant savings. Avoid the convenience branches of supermarkets such as Tesco Express which can work out up to 30% more expensive than a large Tesco store. If you do shop online, use a supermarket comparison site such as mySupermarket.co.uk to check you are getting the best deal. Draw up a shopping list and the website will work out the cheapest of four supermarkets for you - comparing prices at Asda, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose's online service Ocado - and send you to the relevant online checkout. Within your chosen supermarket, the site will scan all offers and comparable products to those on your list and if it finds a similar product at a better price it'll suggest you do a swap, saving you more money. Of course, if you prefer to do your shopping in person, you can still use the website to find your cheapest supplier and print off your shopping list. Also consider the low-price supermarkets like Aldi, Lidl and Netto - these often score higher satisfaction scores with customers than the main players.

Wherever you shop, buy loose rather than prepackaged foods saving both money and the environment and buy fresh produce in season when prices are lowest, Eat the Seasons is updated weekly to show which fruit and vegetables are in season. Further for cheese and meat check out the special offers from the deli counters, they often work out cheaper than the prepackaged stuff on the shelves. Avoid ready meals, they are often loaded with salt and sugar and work out more expensive than cooking with the ingredients from scratch. See below for links to recipe websites and student cookbooks.

Don't waste money on cleaning products
Notice how TV commercial breaks are filled with adverts for ever brighter packaged solutions to household cleaning? Instead of filling your cupboards with an assortment of spray bottles, and the ad man's pockets then turn to home-mixed cleaners to get the job done at a fraction of the price and environmental impact. Simple white vinegar and baking soda can be used to clean virtually anything around the house, and often with better results than a branded spray bottle full of chemicals - which are typically also damaging to your health. Mix these in some warm water for an all-purpose cleaner, or check out the Less Toxic Guide for a full list of home-made alternatives for cleaning tasks around the house.

Student food shopping list and student meal ideas
Ok now you know where to buy and how to buy, how about what to buy and what to cook with it? Try our student store cupboard staple shopping list:

• Carbs - potatoes for boiling, mashing and baking/roasting, dried pasta, rice, noodles, oats for porridge, cereal, sliced bread (preferably wholemeal/granary with seeds or nuts to keep you fuller for longer).
  
• Veg - carrots, cabbage, peppers, garlic, courgette, mushrooms, leek, onions, beetroot (roast it - delicious!), salad (tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, spring onions).
  
• Protein - eggs, tinned fish, fresh fish (read our guide on cheaper alternative and sustainable fish), tinned legumes (baked beans, sweetcorn, butter beans, black beans, borlotti beans, kidney beans, lentils, chick peas), meat (mince, chicken thighs - avoid more expensive and less tasty breast, pork/lamb chops, sausages) or non-meat alternatives (tofu, frozen mince, Quorn or Linda McCartney type products - check freezer section in supermarkets). Generally eating meat substitute products or going vegetarian is cheaper, healthier and involves less waste or risk of food borne illness. Check our section on eating less meat for more information.
  
• Dairy - milk, cheese, yoghurt (good with the porridge or for puddings), spread.
  
• Other - peanut butter, bottle of squash, stir fry sauce, dried mixed herbs, olive oil, curry paste, tomato puree.

Now that's a long list and don't buy it all at once, but bookmark this and go back in and out of it, see what works for you. Here are some meal ideas to go with that list:

• Breakfast - cereal, porridge (yes I know boring but also proper cheap - mix with yoghurt, honey, raisins etc to liven it up), eggs (fried, scrambled, omelettes, poached), toast, yoghurt.
  
• Lunch - (toasted) sandwich, egg/tuna/tofu/potato salad, baked potato, canned soup.
• Dinner - stir fry, pasta (with veg/tofu/mince), baked potato, risotto, meat and 2 veg, chilli, roast/nut roast, cottage/shepherds pie, spanish omelette, veg/meat curry.

Links to the best recipe sites on the web

BBC Food - search by up to three ingredients, or by recipe type. Or check for recipes you've seen on TV cooking shows.
Beyond baked beans - real food for students. Check out details of their recipe books below.
Channel 4 - get all the best recipes from Channel 4's chefs, including Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay and Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall.
Chopstix - information on Chinese recipes and cooking techniques. This site links you through to the more comprehensive chopstix.net
Jamie Oliver recipes.
Vegetarian/Vegan recipes - either browse or search recipes by meal type, ingredient, cuisine type and food type from PETA.
Recipes covering all areas of cooking.
Video Jug watch videos of food and drink recipes being prepared.
Waitrose recipe search contains over 5000 double-tested recipes: from simple-to-prepare, tasty snacks to more elaborate special occasion meal ideas.

Recommended student cookbooks

Impress your partner or just your mates with recipes from this recommended selection of student cookbooks:

	Nosh 4 Students - A Fun Student Cookbook "This book is so good it has changed the way in which i feed myself at uni. It makes all the recipes seem real easy so you don't mind trying them out and the recipes taste great. I didn't cook much before getting this book, now instead of eating of spending loads of money on covenience food i can use the shopping list in the back and get a weeks worth of shopping easily and eat real cheap.........which is nice!"
	Beyond Baked Beans: Real Food for Students Leading food and drink writer Fiona Beckett’s groundbreaking cookery book is a student cook book with a difference. No patronising tone, no ‘witty’ cartoons, no same-old predictable recipes. Instead, a fresh, inspiring, well-designed book for students to get excited about.
	Beyond Baked Beans: Real Veggie Food for Students Fiona Beckett sets out in typically groundbreaking way to revolutionise the way in which students cook and eat vegetarian food. This is a book that treats the post-Jamie generation to a feast of wonderful and affordable vegetarian recipes coupled with sensible advice on menu building, entertaining and nutrition.
	The Student Cookbook "A must buy... A cookbook with the right balance"
	Sam Stern's Student Cookbook : Survive in Style on a Budget "A cracking book by a great young lad - get the teenagers cooking!" Jamie Oliver on Cooking up a Storm.
	Meals in Minutes One hundred easy recipes from the irrepressible TV cook, Ainsley Harriott.