poor student wants to eat

July 13, 2006 6:08 AM

Cheap student food.

So I've got myself a bit stuck with this whole student-summer (no loan in the summer, at least here in the UK) thing for the next few weeks, and I've basically got about a pound (about $1.80) a day to feed myself. What should I eat?

Yeah, I know, noodles, but there must be something else. My problem is basically that I've got big bags of the staples -- rice, pasta, bread -- but don't really know what there is that I can do with them cheaply. I mean, spaghetti with butter on is alright, but kinda sucks. What should I be buying to have with this stuff? Is there something I've missed?

posted by reklaw to food & drink (33 comments total)

Find some sauces to go with the pasta and rice.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:11 AM on July 13, 2006

canned tuna. make a white sauce and stir the tuna in and add to pasta. Splash out on some frozen peas for vegetables.
posted by gaspode at 6:13 AM on July 13, 2006

Buy a group of spices to flavour the rice and noodles. Coriander & Curry powder or Garam Masala, (Indian), cumin & Hot paprika (Mexican), five-spice (Chinese) etc., etc.,
Most of the little Halal food stores have spice mixes for about £1, that in theory you add to meat and rice to get a variety of different dishes. If you just add them to rice, you still get the flavour.
I recommend you also add pulses and lentils to your basics.
I see from your profile you're in the UK. If you're nearby I'd be happy to contribute some of my bloody huge selection of spices and maybe even throw in a meal. I so remember this awful time but got around it each year by getting jobs abroad.
Best of luck
posted by Wilder at 6:16 AM on July 13, 2006

A cheap tin of mackerel works well with either noodles or rice, try adding a tomato and some chilli flakes too.
posted by biffa at 6:16 AM on July 13, 2006

I'm in pretty much the same situation. In my opinion, it's all about the peanut butter. Cheap protein, baby. Beans on toast is always a good option (you can buy cans in packs of four, for a discount). Canned beans in general are cheap and energy-providing. Get some pesto to dress up the pasta. Soup is also something I've been getting into -- you can get a carton for about a little over a pound, which you can have for lunch and dinner. Fiber-cereal or oatmeal with soy milk are breakfast options.

Hit up the farmers' markets/street food vendors for cheap fruit. If you go to Borough Market around 3 pm on Fri/Sat, for example, you might be able to get a discount from vendors who are trying to get rid of their excess stock before packing up for the day. From the street vendors you can usually get a big carton of strawberries for £1.
posted by hazelshade at 6:20 AM on July 13, 2006

Oh, oops -- I probably should have mentioned in the question that I'm a vegetarian. And allergic to fish, to boot.

Thank you for the very kind offer, Wilder -- might take you up on that...
posted by reklaw at 6:21 AM on July 13, 2006

Buy basics. Go to the market. Buy plenty of veg. Visit the butcher, ask what cheap cuts he's got -- you'd be amazed at what you can afford.

Avoid the supermarket. Use leftovers. Buy flour (toad in the hole, yorkshires, dumplings...).
posted by popcassady at 6:26 AM on July 13, 2006

...then again, forget the butchers.
posted by popcassady at 6:26 AM on July 13, 2006

This question has been asked dozens of times on AskMefi. Three very recent threads that might interest you:

http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/39167
http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/39272

http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/37440

Try hitting the tags from those questions, too. You'll find hundreds of ideas for pasta, rice, etc. And some things you'd never thought of as well.
posted by fake at 6:26 AM on July 13, 2006

Go find a blackberry bush. Make a pie.

Ask friends with allotments if you can do some digging in exchange for veggies.

Go to a proper butcher and get some offcuts of bacon.

You got any lentils? If not, food coops do them much much cheaper than supermarkets and they go a long way in pasta sauces or curries. (You got a good spice rack? Simple dahl: fry some seeds (coriander seeds, cumin seeds or mustard seeds, doesn't really matter) till they pop. add onions, garlic, 1tsp turmeric 1tsm garam masala 1 tsp dried coriander, fry for a few mins, add lentils, cover, boil till done. easy. freezes fine, costs nearly nothing.)

Get some tescos value tinned tomatoes and some garlic, make pasta sauce. Get a block of Grana Padano for 2 quid from Morrissons - it's cheaper than parmesan, and if you're eating pasta it makes ALL the difference to have some decent cheese on it and a block will last you 10 dishes or so.

Rice with beans and onion.

Rice with bacon.

Belly pork (real cheap) baked beans and carrots, with a touch of paprika and some fried onions is a filling tasty meal which should set you back about 60p a serving (fry the pork and onions, chuck the rest in till it's done).

Value beans.

Value kidney beans with value tomatoes, onions and a couple of fresh chillis. Serve with rice or baked potatoes.

(I've been a student, a part time masters student and a grad student. Man I know about cheap food.)
posted by handee at 6:28 AM on July 13, 2006

There are loads of threads on this topic. Check out this one, this one, this one, this one, or this one for starters. I'm sure there are quite a few more, but that's what I found in a quick search.
posted by orange swan at 6:28 AM on July 13, 2006

And where abouts are you? I have a rhubarb plant that has ideas of world domination.
posted by handee at 6:29 AM on July 13, 2006

Campbells condensed chicken soup with pasta in it. It's cheap and goes a long way. In fact, any recipe on the back of a Cambpells soup tin is worth trying.
posted by fire&wings at 6:33 AM on July 13, 2006

Canned soup, plus a little salt and pepper, goes great with noodles or rice. "Soup and noodles" was a staple food at my house growing up, and only costs cents on the dollar. (Pence on the pound?)

Canned tomato sauce an also provide an excellent sauce, as long as you have some spices to mix in.

Buy vegetable or chicken broth/stock to cook your rice in. Also buy butter or margarine and some olive oil—you'll need them if you cook anything more complex than soup, and they last a while.

Buy a sack of potatoes. A great cheap meal: microwaved baked potato. Just poke holes all over the potato, and cut a grid into the top. Then microwave on high for eight minutes. Immediately after, cut open the potato along the grid lines, drizzle with olive oil (more healthy than butter), and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and perhaps another spice or two. When I first moved into my apartment I used basil and parsley, as that's all I had, and it made for a very tasty, filling meal. I had this for breakfast yesterday, actually.

Drink milk—it'll provide you with calcium, vitamins, and liquid, and it's very cheap, as drinks go. If you want something sweet, buy off-brand soda—you can often get that for mere cents a can/bottle.

Also, eggs are incredibly cheap and filling.

Bananas seem to be the cheapest fruit in my area ($0.55 a pound), but that may vary where you are.

You don't need that many spices—and with the small amount of money you have right now, you'd be better off buying more canned soup/broth than buying spices, which (at least here) run between $3.50-$6 a bottle.

Things not to buy: cereal, most meat (excepting canned tuna, or meat-based soups), juice, dessert items, bottled tomato sauce, frozen pizza, name brand food, etc. Just buy cheap ingredients, and you'll be golden.
posted by limeonaire at 6:34 AM on July 13, 2006

There's been plenty of people with more money than you that have used food banks / soup kitchens. Save your money so you can feed yourself properly with it, and use the food bank to supplement your diet. Nobody deserves to go hungry / poorly nourished. That's what it's there for.
posted by shepd at 6:35 AM on July 13, 2006

shepd's got a point - when I was an undergrad, the uni provided soup at lunchtime over the holidays...
posted by handee at 6:36 AM on July 13, 2006

Chili non carne! Chopped tomatoes and kidney beans can be picked up for a sum not considerably different to nothing in Lidl, then get a big big pack of veggie mince and two onions and experiment. I like adding a dried chilli (25p at my market) to it.

You haven't given your location in London in your profile. If you're in the west or the north I can point you towards some great, cheap food stores.
posted by randomination at 6:38 AM on July 13, 2006

[my email address in my profile]
posted by randomination at 6:39 AM on July 13, 2006

If you email me your address I'll send you some money and a couple of american treats.
posted by iconomy at 6:58 AM on July 13, 2006

Cheese and spinach sandwiches with humus instead of mustard and mayonnaise.
posted by 517 at 7:24 AM on July 13, 2006

Along iconomy's lines, drop me an email and i'll send you a package of spices. I've got the best corner shop opposite my house.
posted by handee at 7:42 AM on July 13, 2006

Here in the States, we have a form of welfare colloquially known as the Food Stamp program, which allows people in not-very-posh circumstances to redeem governmental coupons for food at local markets.

Is there a comparable program in the UK?

Does the government provide a food-specific subsidy?
posted by jason's_planet at 7:43 AM on July 13, 2006

jason's_planet: As far as I know, they don't. The fact that I'm a student on summer break also seems to disqualify me from absolutely every benefit the government does offer.

Thank you to everyone for all the kind help and offers. You're all really, really nice. I think I've got a few good ideas here, so I'm going to do a little shopping later on and see how it turns out.
posted by reklaw at 7:55 AM on July 13, 2006

Just to add that spices are not that expensive here in the UK. The fantastic amount of Asian stores with 500 grams of chili, coriander, cumin, for less than a £. Same for large amounts of Dahl, lentils, chickpeas.
The one thing I have to warn you about Reklaw is that many of the spice mixes I was referring too may not be 100% vegetarian. More likely if they are an Indian company than a Pakistani company, but you'll need to check.
Maybe we should be making up "care packages" for our US mefites! ;-)
posted by Wilder at 7:59 AM on July 13, 2006

I'm a vegetarian student who is incredibly poor, and sometimes has to live on a dollar a day.
The trick? Bulk staples plus fresh vegetables. It's harder during the winter, but during the summer it's pretty easy.
For ramen, toss an egg in just as it finishes cooking. For beans and rice, buy some salsa too (dunno how the UK does on Mexican food). That's a pretty solid meal.
Basically, something that's been important for me, even while living on the very cheap, is to buy good quality ingredients. You can usually find decent deals (local food co-ops, etc.) and that makes eating peasant food much, much easier.
posted by klangklangston at 8:18 AM on July 13, 2006

I was a student in London. I sympathise. My recommendation is to make a good tomato sauce every other week or so.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp oil (preferably cheapo olive oil)
2 tins of plum tomatoes (not chopped)
2 cloves of garlic
handful of basil leaves

Recipe:

1. Slice garlic very thinly (like in Goodfellas!)
2. heat oil
3. add garlic to oil
4. cook until golden (ie just when it starts to get a bit cooked, not when it actually browns)
5. add two tins of tomato.
6. turn up heat till it bubbles vigorously
7. lower heat to a simmer. cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring to make sure tomato doesn't stick... no need to crush the tomatoes, they will fall apart with stirring as the sauce thickens.
8. Remove from hob, leave to cool for 2 minutes or so
9. tear up about 10 basil leaves, stir in

Et voila....

This is a lot tastier than any shop bought sauce and though it may not sound cheap, it keeps well in the fridge and can be used as a base for many other dishes.

The sauce recipe above should keep for 4-5 days in the fridge and provide a base up to 4 meals, provided you are cooking for one. You could double up the ingredients and batch freeze so that it keeps longer and can vary what you're eating a bit more. Ideas for meals using this sauce include:

1. toasted pitta pizzas (toast a whole pitta bread, spread sauce on one side, sprinkle on cheese, bung under grill)
2. Pasta sauce (good on its own or as a base)
3. A vege Chili (to eat with rice)
4. Fry onions, add brown lentils, then some stock. Cook, then stir in tomato sauce towards the end.

There's many more variations, but this ain't really a recipe thread...

...and if you don't like tomatoes, I guess this doesn't help much!
posted by davehat at 8:21 AM on July 13, 2006

Um, am I the only one to recommend "dumpster diving"? Essentially, larger grocery stores (in the US at least) discard huge amounts of perfectly edible food every night. And it's oftentimes not gross; some of it has expired on that day, but I would have eaten that anyway if I had purchased it. And also no "diving" may be involved (I find the phrase pretty inaccurate and icky, myself). There's a store by my house that just leaves it out on the curb in clear bags. Free sealed packages of organic lettuce? Why, yes, please.
posted by unknowncommand at 10:19 AM on July 13, 2006

Dumpster diving is a great idea -- many foods (yogurt, milk, preserved meats, canned food, eggs) are still good for days or weeks after the sell-by date. Make friends with somebody at the grocery, and see if they'll give you some of the expired stuff. For example, they throw away a lot of perfectly good veg and fruit in the stores here, and if you ask the guy who's taking it off the shelves you can often get bananas and such for free.

If you're not comfortable with that, I'm not sure if they do this in the UK, but here in the US the stores will put out a "reduced for quick sale" bin with almost-but-not-quite-outdated food in it. Usually you can get this stuff for almost nothing, and if you're going to eat it right away it's just as good as the full-priced stuff.
posted by vorfeed at 11:00 AM on July 13, 2006

When I was a grad student there was two weeks between when rent was due and when student loans came in, and I was ALWAYS poor. A five or ten pound bag of potatoes worked wonders. I had mashed potatoes two meals a day. I imagine it's not great for you long-term, but it didn't kill me when I was in my super-poor periods.

Also, rice made with chicken bullion instead of water (if that doesn't violate your vegetarianism) or vegetable stock instead of water can be tasty.
posted by christinetheslp at 3:47 PM on July 13, 2006

Don't buy tinned beans, lentils, chickpeas, etc.

Buy a big ol' bag of dried ingredients. A tin of supermarket beans costs (in Canada at least) the equivalent of about 40p, and lasts one or two meals.

The same money can buy you a big bag of dried beans, which will last you 6-10 meals. You just need to go to the effort of cooking them.
posted by generichuman at 4:40 PM on July 13, 2006

Breakfast - porridge. Get steel-cut oats if you can - you need to soak them overnight, but they make a more substantial and more filling meal. Beans on toast, peanut butter on toast, honey on toast.

On the pasta front, stick with the classics - tomato sauce; olive oil and garlic (with chilli); butter and cheese; fresh herbs, oil and lemon; if you can splurge, pesto. Consider using polenta some time - the same flavours work, plus you can chill the leftovers in a tray, cut it into squares and fry it in butter for lunch or dinner (or dessert, if it's plain and you drizzle with butter and honey) or make a portable snack.

Chickpeas - buy in bulk and soak/boil overnight. Puree with a little olive oil, garlic and lemon for a tasty spread for toast or bread. Simmer a can of tomatoes with a little curry paste or powder and throw in a couple of cups of pre-boiled chickpeas. Chickpeas and leeks make a wonderful soup. Chickpeas also work well served in a bowl with the various pasta fixings. It sounds strange, but half and half chickpeas and pasta with olive oil, garlic and fresh herbs is super tasty and very, very filling. Puree lemon juice, olive oil, chilli, coriander and salt for a quick piri piri sauce, toss through chickpeas, mop up with bread. Chickpeas work well with zucchini/courgettes, if they're cheap - just fry in butter, top with cheese.

Lentils - simmer with spices to make dhal, which is great got with rice, or cold on toast (with tomato sauce/catsup :>). Cold, fat, green lentils are great with olive oil, garlic, lemon, fresh herbs and bread. Add red lentils to curries and soups - they don't need to be soaked before hand, and make the best dhal to boot.

Beans - soak white beans then puree as per chickpeas. Make a big pot of minestrone with pasta, beans, tomatoes, herbs, vege stock, oil and cheese. Kidney beans are great in curries - add a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter for a savory richness (seriously). Kidney beans are also great in a soup with cumin, coriander, tomatoes and chilli.

Do you eat pumpkin the UK? It's fabulous diced, roasted and then tossed together with any or all of the above. Cheap and tasty.

If you have some spare time, learn about picking wild food in parks and reserves. Greens like nettles are great wilted with a little oil and lemon, or added to soups, pastas, stir fries and curries, and they're packed with nutrients. If you're lucky, you might get berries or mushrooms!
posted by obiwanwasabi at 5:16 PM on July 13, 2006

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/40dollarmenu.htm will get you through the summer if you down adjust it for 2 and find a friend. I don't know if you can get it cheap enough downadjusting it to 1 person.

--Michael
posted by gte910h at 9:41 PM on July 13, 2006

Peanut butter, definitely. Another good thing to have is those big bags of frozen vegetables, like corn and peas and stuff. They're very cheap, keep forever, and tossing a handful into your rice or pasta will make it much more meal-like.
posted by ITheCosmos at 5:06 PM on July 29, 2006