A student-oriented guide to maintaining good macros affordably without sacrificing flavour!
General Tips
When cooking meals, it’s pretty useful to divide them into a carb, a protein, and some veg. Each of my favourite cost-effective meals use a different meat, although lentils can be substituted for mince and tofu for frying. As much as you might dislike it, buying en masse is absolutely the best way to save money, along with avoiding food waste (with some creative methods you mightn’t have thought of). I always was an ALDI-truther, but I’ve got to admit that LIDL (in my opinion) is undoubtedly the best place to go as a student in York. It’s not even a question. Both shops have roughly equivalent prices although the LIDL is so much larger that there are more discounts and affordable options thus is often cheaper in actuality.
Chicken stir fry
You can buy 2XL chickens at LIDL for a good price which can be deconstructed and cooked to make at least four stir fries. The spare cuts of chicken can be roasted and the marrows used for either a stock or broth. Standard noodles (especially from international grocers) are the cheapest option but egg noodles are healthier so maybe worth it if you’re really hunting the gains. You can get fresh veg for free from York SU’s (University of York Students’ Union) Crate to Plate scheme, but it’s also always a good idea to have a bag of mixed veg like broccoli or cauliflower in your freezer.
Pork ragu
After an embarrassing amount of experimentation on different mince, I can conclude that pork is the best of the bunch: chicken is cheapest but a bit mushy and not especially nice; turkey is the healthiest but the most expensive; beef is the nicest but about double the price of pork. If you really wanna add some flair to your bolognese then another cheap addition is basil. You can get a whole plant for about a quid and mine has lasted to this day. You can even build a little herb garden by your windowsill with rosemary or thyme too. It’s also smart to buy chopped tomatoes instead of any branded sauces and add your own herbs!
Chilli con carne
My go to meal because it’s kinda the most versatile meal. The only essentials are canned tomatoes and kidney beans (along with a bombardment of chilli powder). I usually do this after a week or so and just chuck in any finely cut veg that would otherwise be going off. Conveniently, all of these ingredients are given away by York SU at Crate to Plate every week, although I really would emphasise having a stacked spice cupboard to make it a little more interesting. (Sidenote: mooch of your international student friends because their spices are about a thousand times better.)
Extra Titbits
Getting the LIDL Plus app is really useful in shaving off even more expense. Also, meal prepping (despite the whole weird online optimisation culture thing) is definitely the way to go; get yourself a lot of containers and spend an hour or two on the weekend, because otherwise you’ll waste an inordinate amount of time on cooking. All-in-all, these meals usually come to about one or two quid, so definitely a bit better than just having takeaway!
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