Student Cooks

I guess I have a lot to say about my education lately ha. Oh well, it’s that time of year I guess.

I can’t talk about the typical student because I’m fully aware of the fact that every county has a different schooling system and the advantages (or disadvantages for students). That’s why I’ll only talk about the personal experience.

So when I still lived in a dorm, I had a great friend with me and we did almost everything together, go to lectures, go out, study, eat. But the main point for this WE COOKED. We made nearly every meal on our own. Now you might furrow your brows and scratch your head cause hey…. That’s normal. Well not exactly, here most people go out to eat because we have “student coupons” so you can eat in almost all restaurants for like, half of the normal price (or less). Naturally, everyone goes out to eat.

But we didn’t. Okay, we did, when we felt too lazy to cook, or when there simply wasn’t enough time to cook.

Now you might think… Why did we do it? We obviously had a cheap way to eat good food in a restaurant. The reason is, that we both LOVE to cook. Sometimes, when we knew all of our friends are available, we even made dinner for everyone and after we all hung out.

However considering that I didn’t work at the time and lived on my scholarship, so after paying for rent and everything needed I was left with 80€ of the budget for food. Now let me tell you that if I would go out to eat every day, I’d spend at least 150€ for food every month (I roughly calculated that using the price in the cheapest restaurant I know).

Because both my friend and I, had the same problem, with a tiny bit of money shortage, we decided to put our money together. We also only went to the store once a week (unless well you know, needed bread or something minor during the week).

At first, we struggled a bit. I mean you’re new to the whole “I have to take care of myself for real” thing so you have no idea how to actually sort your money to get by. But in a couple of months, we figured it all out and in the end cut the need for money to 120€ for both of us, including the occasional foodie events with friends.

Even now when I’m out of Uni (and once again in college), I still shop and cook as I would in the dorm, even though I live at home. And my mom could never hide the amazement for it. I mean she goes to the store and buys stuff for 50% more money than I would. So she usually drags me along to her grocery shopping trips because in that case we somehow manage to get what we need and not spend her whole paycheck.

And basically what I do is, quite simply, make a list of the things we need. So I only buy EXACTLY what I need and nothing more. Also because I got used to buying stuff on the budget, I learned how to find the best deals on stuff and get by as cheap as possible (even with not so cheap stuff).

What about you? Did your life in college/university change? Where did you learn to handle money? Or are you more like my mom, who knows no limits?