Student cooking has two rules: it has to be cheap, and it has to be easy enough to make after a long day. You don't need skills or gadgets — just a few staples and a handful of meals you can do half-asleep.
The starter cupboard
Buy these once and you can throw together dozens of meals for very little:
- Carbs: pasta, rice, noodles, bread, potatoes.
- Protein: eggs, tinned beans, tinned tuna, lentils, cheap chicken.
- Flavour: tinned tomatoes, stock cubes, soy sauce, garlic, a spice or two.
- Free veg: a bag of frozen mixed veg — cheap and never goes off.
Five meals anyone can cook
- Tomato pasta: pasta + tinned tomatoes + garlic + cheese.
- Egg fried rice: rice + egg + frozen veg + soy.
- Beans on toast, upgraded: beans + toast + cheese + a dash of hot sauce.
- Loaded jacket potato: baked potato + tuna or beans + cheese.
- One-pot lentil curry: lentils + tinned tomatoes + curry powder + rice.
Cook once, eat twice
Make a big pot of pasta sauce or curry and it's two or three dinners for barely more money — and less washing up. Cooking for one gets cheaper the moment you stop cooking one portion at a time.
Plan the cheapest week without the effort
Deciding what to buy is half the battle on a tight budget. CulinaryFlow's Meal Planner builds a cheap week and one short shopping list in seconds, so you buy only what you'll actually use — no waste, no wondering.