What are ways college students can eat healthy when they are on a budget?

Mr. Knowledgeable VI: What are ways college students can eat healthy when they are on a budget?
For many college students like myself, eatting healthy is not always possible and many college students are on a shoe string budget for groceries and many students end up eatting food they do not like. This food can include Ramen Noodles, Canned Food, Frozen Food, and eatting fast food such as pizza and hamburgers.

What kind of advice would you give to college students to eat healthy when they are on a budget for food and groceries?

Answers and Views:

Answer by LivewireT
Apply for food stamps at your local gov’t office.

I went back 2 school recently. I was required go on externship for about 2 month and I had to quit my part-time job. I had absolutely NO income coming in, but the food thing was taken care of because one of my friends suggested to apply for foodstamps. They really helped me out, and I only recieved them for 6 months.

Answer by Anonymou$
Salad isn’t expensive anywhere in the world right? That’s what I think you should eat.

Answer by frnchfries2000
pizza with spinach topping

Answer by ChipMunks
Fast food is never a healthy food. Perhaps can buy some vege and fruits to made own salad. And also buy cereal and milks for breakfast. These should not cost much.

Answer by bigdaddymentor
ramen noodles. chicken flavor, shrimp flavor, beef flavor, plain, uncooked, mixed flavor, random flavor. ramen noodles. learn to love them.

Answer by Amanda
fruits and veggies are a lot cheaper than eating out. try spicing up your noodles with small peices of meat and veggies, kinda like a little stir fry. it’s healthier and yummier. Also, milk, eggs, and flour can make thousands of different foods. For example, Swedish Pancakes. Add a little cinnamin and jam or fruit, they’re delicious and healthy! I eat those for dinner sometimes. You can get billions of recipes online that only require those three ingredients, plus whatever you want to add to it. It’s simple to eat healthy on a tight budget. It’s also cheaper to eat healthier!

Answer by Kmay
there are a tons of online coupons websites, that would be a start. Peanut butter, eggs, bread, beans and lentils are all cheap yet healthy alternatives also during summer time hit the farmers market’s in your area

good luck to you

Answer by goody_2_shoes
Is it possible to get a meal plan at the college? Sometimes they are expensive, but they are covered under your loan. At the college I went to, they had a lot of carb-based stuff, yet they always had a salad bar and soups. You could order veggie burgers or veggie chicken if you wanted to. The dining commons does provide options for you.

If there is no dining commons, grocery shopping is the best way to make sure you eat healthier. There are a lot of healthy cereals out there and you can put fruit in them to change it up a little bit, salads and soups are good during lunch. Even sandwiches are good as long as you stay away from white bread.

If you’re worried about gaining weight, you can let go of the healthy foods thing if you exercise. I’m not saying eat junk all the time. I mean you can have a pot pie for dinner and be OK as long as you are monitoring what you eat and how much you exercise.

Good luck!

Answer by kagmi
Buying in bulk helps. If there are any bulk-specialty stores in your area (Sam’s Club, Gordon’s Food Service, etc.), you might be able to work out an arrangement with some other students to buy massive amounts of food for a fairly low price per pound and then split the cost.

Shopping at Asian markets if you can isn’t a bad idea, either. Some of their stuff is of questionable health value, but they tend to have healthy things like rice and fresh vegetables in large amounts at really low prices. Frozen vegetables and rice aren’t bad staples for a college diet. There are a lot of fairly healthy rice dishes you can make by stir-frying frozen vegetables, a little bit of sauce, and some cooked meat or scrambled eggs.

I don’t know what resources are available to you, but I hope this helps. 🙂

Answer by Kim G
Along the lines of the salad suggestions – buy a bag of already cooked and frozen chicken breast cutlets. It’s not too expensive since it’s going to be spread out over probably a month of eating. Grill one (if you have a George Foreman-type grill) or bake it, slice it up, and add to your salad for added protein.

I make a hellacious Asian salad from ingredients I find on sale – any items that aren’t on sale, I leave them off and add something else. Start with Romaine lettuce, add some chopped zucchini squash, yellow squash, matchstick carrots, a half a can of drained mandarin oranges, a small diced tomato, and some form of protein (grilled chicken breast or thawed petite salad shrimp). Add Newman’s Own Ginger Sesame dressing or Ken’s Steakhouse version (both are fairly lowfat and reasonable calorie-wise). Top with a sprinkle of toasted almonds. By the time you finish, you are soooo full, and sooo satisfied.

One other idea – nuke a large baked potato. Add some lower fat margarine (or spray butter or the powdered type Molly McButter). Add some lite sour cream and maybe a sprinkle of lower fat shredded cheese. For dessert – sliced fresh strawberries or peaches in a bowl of milk. Again, look for the items that are on sale that week.

Answer by kamran a
brothers.according to our budget we should take a careful tour of college canteen{shop} and should choose is juice and sandwich is in our budget range or an other thing like salad one.hope it will help thanks

Answer by bill s
Mr K-

I’m going to assume you have a little dorm size fridge, a microwave and maybe a little sandwich maker or mini George Forman grill.

Buy yourself a bag of potatoes, a collection of spices, bread, a package of shredded cheese, bag of frozen veggies, some Parmesan and the Ramen noodles.

Nuke up a potato, toss on some pizza seasoning, add some cheese and chow down. While eating the potato, nuke up the Ramen and toss in the veggies in the last minute of heating.

With your George Forman, make yourself a grilled cheese.

there you go. dinner for under 2 bucks.