Uni food essentials shopping list for your student accommodation

There’s plenty of tasty food you can buy on a budget. Especially if you’re flexible and you look out for bargains and deals.

See which supermarkets are near your accommodation and what’s good value at each one. You could always shop at one of them for most things, but nip into another to get their bargains.

And if there are a few simple meals you like to have every week or so, have a look at ways you can vary them. That way you can see what ingredients are on offer each time you go food shopping. Like spaghetti bolognese for example. It might not be as authentic without beef mince, but it’s still tasty with any kind of meat or vegan mince – so you could just get whichever’s on offer. Larger pack sizes will often be better value for money, so you could choose to batch cook and eat portions throughout the week or freeze some for easy meal prep.

Try to think about meals rather than just snacks – your money will go way further. Plus, if you’re not that into cooking, think about what’s easy, tasty and good value.

• Breakfast – cereal and milk, toast, porridge, yoghurt
• Bread and eggs – sandwiches, omelettes, scrambled egg on toast
• Pasta and rice – good with any sauce, veggies, meat or alternatives
• Stir fry noodles – with beansprouts and veggies
• Budget flavours – try mixed herbs, smoked paprika, garlic and chilli
• Your five a day – fruit and veg to keep freshers’ flu away (if you've got a blender you can buy frozen fruit to save money and make smoothies)

It’s no good having some tasty bargains in if all your plates are dirty and there’s no washing-up liquid. Before you go for your food shop, check if you have these:

• washing-up liquid and cloth/scourer/brush
• hand soap
• bin bags
• toilet roll

If you’ve got similar tastes and appetites, you might find it easier to do a big shop together and split the cost equally. Or you might decide to buy food separately and just split the house essentials like hand soap.

Either way you could still share some of the cooking – it’s a great idea to make a meal for your housemates every now and again. Maybe each of you cooks a meal for everyone once week or once a month, and otherwise you keep your food separate?

But what if you each buy your own food and you can’t remember whose is whose? In that case you might get into labelling-your-food-in-the-fridge territory – that’s ok, as long as you aim to have an easy-going, considerate household you’ll have no problems.