One of the great things about being in college is that you are (finally) completely in charge of what you eat.
Theoretically, you could have pizza at every meal for a week. Or hit a different restaurant every night. Neither of those plans are particularly good ideas, but still, you could.
Realistically, you need to think about your eating habits and how they contribute to your spending, or future spending.
There is a reason why the “freshman 15” exists. You have a meal plan (which probably gives you access to more food than you ever really needed) and you’ve never been fully in charge of your eating, meaning you’ll be tempted by all the delicious and oftentimes unhealthy things you have at your disposal.
Much like any other situation, your eating habits during your first year of college will establish a baseline of what you expect for the rest of your collegiate career. If you eat too much and load up on “crap,” that is what you’ll expect/crave down the road.
If you avoid utilizing your meal plan and turn to any of the phenomenal local eats that you have access to, then when you start living on your own you will spend too much.
Like establishing a budget, you should do your best to stick to a routine in eating, balancing healthy eating with not-so-healthy eating and making sure you eat the right amount so that you don’t compromise your health or your wallet down the road.
Living off campus is a huge challenge when it comes to spending money on food. The least expensive option is also the most time-consuming: cooking for yourself.
Cooking for yourself involves grocery shopping, prep time, cooking time, and, if you’re good about saving money, research time to figure out where the deals are. And as a college student, the time you spend on these things is time that could be used for studying.
The alternative, of course, is to simply eat out most of the time.
The downside to this option is that while it is time efficient, the amount of money it costs compared to cooking for yourself is ridiculous. (Note: The IU MoneySmarts Team does a great presentation on the difference in costs). Eating out all the time will cause you to go into deep debt. So what do you do?
Obviously, the goal here should be to spend as little money as possible, but still keep your satisfaction level high.
When it comes to cooking/grocery shopping, if you have roommates, make eating a communal thing.
Set aside a day each week to grocery shop with your roommates. Then cook together, making food for multiple days. It’s a great way to save time and money.
If you don’t have roommate(s) you can still do the exact same thing, and you could still invite friends over to help out.
If you don’t already, you should make your lunch as many days as possible. Even if it’s just a standard PB&J, chips, fruit, and water, that’s a considerable savings over buying your lunch somewhere.
As a quick reference point, a homemade PB&J costs about 45 cents. The next time you’re out, compare a restaurant’s price for that same sandwich and you’ll see how much you can save. The bottom line is that while bringing your lunch isn’t glamorous, it will save you tons of money over the course of your college life.
Now, while we advocate cooking and packing your lunch as often as possible, we also want you to enjoy your dining options across town.
We also want you to reward yourself for doing a good job in school or at home with your cooking.
We think that eating out twice a week should be enough to keep you happy without digging you into a deep debt hole. This is also a great habit to continue, even after college.
