Featured Student: Grocery Shopping

I must admit…grocery shopping is one of my FAVORITE parts of the week! I could wander the grocery store aisles for hours! But then I would also end up spending a fortune on all of the things I wanted to try. However, as much as I’d like to buy all kinds of exciting ingredients and cook all day, that just isn’t realistic on a college student’s budget.

That doesn’t mean I live on ramen noodles and frozen dinners though! It just means I have to be a little thrifty and creative at times. Something that helps me is having a set amount of money for groceries each month. When it’s gone, it’s gone and I have to work with what I’ve got. That really keeps me from a lot of those impulse buys and has lead to some pretty good meal creations.

I also get the ad for a few of the local grocery stores e-mailed to me each week so I can see what’s on sale. Since all of the grocery stores are in the same area, it isn’t hard for me to stop at a couple of different ones to get the best deals. When I make my grocery list, I make note of some of the advertised prices I saw so that I can easily compare while shopping. I might be at one store and see that blueberries are $2.00, then look at my grocery list and see that they were only 88 cents somewhere else. Those savings can really add up when you’re on a budget!

Many people say that it’s just too expensive to eat healthy foods. I would disagree! Sure, if you think you have to purchase foods that come in packages loaded with health claims, you would end up spending quite a bit. But, if you just stick to real foods, you can eat quite well on a budget. Some of my favorite ways to do this are buying canned or frozen fruits and veggies, canned or dried beans or lentils for protein, whole grain breads and pastas (without high fructose corn syrup), and whole grains such as brown rice, rolled oats, steel cut oats, or millet, which can be found in the bulk foods section of your grocery store for really cheap. Fresh fruits and veggies are also a great deal when they’re in season! Milk and yogurt are also affordable, nutritious, whole foods that I always make sure to have plenty of.

So, maybe it’s my inner dietitian, but I think it is totally possible to enjoy a healthy diet on a budget. Who says you have to fall into the stereotypical college diet of pop, chips, overly processed packaged meals, and take-out? All it takes is a little thought and planning to eat great….and feel great too! Another thing I’m thinking about trying this semester is planning out some of my meals for the week before my grocery trip and using the things I buy in multiple recipes throughout the week to change my meals up a bit. I’ll blog later about how that goes!

- Sydney Messick