living on a budget: ways to make the $'s last

[Uchuuko]

Live without cable, and only use internet sources if you must have anything like cable.

Buy the grocery store's "dollar menu", or the cheaper items. This includes dollar bread, rices for cheap, canned foods, cheap fruits, jugs of water for under a dollar if you want, jugs of juice (store brand tend to be the cheapest), etc.

I have done both. I am still doing the first one, and I mostly did the second one while I was still physically at my current college during the pandemic shutdown here. I don't do most of the grocery shopping now.

[Polaris]

I find that doing meal-plans for the week helps me save money, especially on a student budget (for those not living on campus and under a student meal plan, like me and my self-catered studio for my university)

Planning my meal-plans for lunch and dinner (since I usually have a small breakfast anyway so I don't need to really plan it out) helped me save money as I spent the weekends grocery shopping under a strict budget + cooking food for the week. I could plan what I wanted to eat, make some adjustments in case it didn't fit my budget, and cook it all and pack them up in food storage containers. I could take my lunch + snack with me to uni and ensure I eat a proper lunch, got some snacks in case I had to stay late for labs/do some extra revision), and when I get home I've got dinner that I can just heat-up without the hassle of cooking a whole meal.

Also, knowing that I had meal-prepped food waiting for me back in my studio helped me stray away from eating out too often/getting takeaway with friends.

[galled]

Polaris you are incredibly efficient and organized! Hat's off to you. Inspirational!

When I was in school I lived on ramen, mac and cheese, and tuna fish. Keep in mind that the skills you've developed will serve you well the rest of your life (especially knowing the minimums you can live on), but also know that it gets better and school will zip by before you know it and you'll look back and will be proud of what you've accomplished and endured. Cheers!

[Polaris]

Polaris you are incredibly efficient and organized! Hat's off to you. Inspirational!

When I was in school I lived on ramen, mac and cheese, and tuna fish. Keep in mind that the skills you've developed will serve you well the rest of your life (especially knowing the minimums you can live on), but also know that it gets better and school will zip by before you know it and you'll look back and will be proud of what you've accomplished and endured. Cheers!

Thank you galled, your words are too kind!

This efficiency definitely couldn't have come without lots of trials and errors! I learned my lesson of overspending and not planning in first year and that lead me to eventually getting my routine down in my final year of uni.

My go to and easiest and cheapest meal-plan was a super simple Chicken Pesto Pasta.
All you'll need is:
-Chicken (breast or thigh)
-Salt & Pepper (and a dash of cayenne pepper & paprika) --> season the chicken
-Pesto sauce (I usually got mine from those premade pesto jars)
-Olive Oil
-Extra veggies (I liked to put cherry tomatoes, spinach, and/or red bell peppers in mine)

[galled]

Being a cheapskate (and feeling like I got ripped off if I pay more for something than I have to!), I've found a number of free web sites that list deals for practically everything.

My daily goto is https://bensbargains.com
You can search for something you want and it'll email you when a deal pops up for that item.

Another good one is https://edealinfo.com

Of course https://camelcamelcamel.com tracks price histories for Amazon.

Have fun saving money!

[Vaughn Creighton]

well i did this twice or thrice when i noticed i've spent my money too much before the end of month.. i divided for 3 meals a day and misc (for fare or for something really that might comeup) .. i put them in small envelopes sealed i labeled them with dates and what meal..so my wallet contains atleast 4 envelops aday.. if i dont get to use misc envelopes or for a reason i missed a meal because i was occupied with too much activity.. then those envelopes will fall as savings if not as for something like snacks or whatevers.... it only happens when i dont budget... this one helped me because at times when i like something i see like food get tempted.. but this one will remind me when i open the wallet.. ridiculous right?

[Lemon Cheesecake]

I like the envelope idea!

[Vaughn Creighton]

its really difficult to be on a tight situation
i borrow money on close friends who i can trust and who trust me. . i can never ask all friends for money. there a certain friends who will let you borrow without second thoughts... so in return as soon as i got my money again i pay them back the due amount with a bonus snacks^ ^