Why meal prep?

Meal prepping is my go-to strategy for saving time and money. It's convenient during busy periods like exam season when skipping meals or forgetting to eat is easy. With meal prepping, you can set aside just one day a week to cook, ensuring you have enough delicious, healthy meals to see you through the rest of the week. It's all about planning and organisation, and it's a game-changer.

How to meal prep on a budget

You also want to ensure your meal prep is cost-effective.

The most obvious way to prepare a meal on a budget is to spend as little as possible on food. Too Good To Go is an excellent place to start if you want food ingredients or ready-made meals for a small fee.

In the evening, many grocery stores put yellow stickers on food items that are soon reaching their use-by date/best-before date. If you plan to cook before the use-by date, then it's a win-win.

If you are not fussed by the brand of your food, buying a supermarket brand or another alternative works better to avoid paying higher fees for branded items.

It can also be very cost-effective to follow recipes on food websites rather than experimenting because this will prevent you from buying things you don't need or buying them in excess quantities than is necessary.

It is also better to purchase ingredients you can use for various dishes. Buying in bulk is always cheaper than buying single items, and meal prepping lets you take advantage as you could get the cost-benefit of buying in bulk while also using all these products and avoiding wastage.

Lidl shoppers, please use the Lidl Plus app! You can get discounts for spending a certain amount or even choosing to buy certain products on offer. If you shop in other grocery stores that use loyalty schemes or spend more, save more schemes, make sure to use these too. All these little tips will make meal prepping so much more affordable.

To get started with batch cooking have a look at our Student Cookbook. This week’s recipe of Spinach and Pepper Pasta is a great idea to batch cook!

Additional support

For further money-related support, contact Student Funding Support by email (studentfunding@warwick.ac.ukLink opens in a new window), phone (024 7615 0096), or come to the Wellbeing Reception in Senate House (10 am-3 pm Monday-Friday).