How To Cheaply Eat At University

My kitchen last year.

TO UNIVERSITY
So it's getting to about that time where people are starting to go back to school, and for some of you that might mean starting university. I'm in my second year of uni and so I've gained a little bit of uni knowledge during this past year, that I thought I would pass onto y'all.

It's a known fact that students are generally poor and so it can be hard to eat well when you're living on such a budget. However, I ate pretty well whilst living in halls last year, and for pretty cheaply too. And I'm gunna tell you how so you can all go to university and eat like the little hobbits you are.

PORTION
You can use this trick with most food things, but it's particularly effective when it comes to meat. Firstly, when you're in the supermarket look for the offers. I always used to buy my meat in sainsburys where they had the rad offer of 3 of $10 (the dollar sign should be a pound sign but I can't find that on my keyboard so just pretend). That meant I could but chicken, minced beef and salmon all for just $10. YAY. Then I'd make it last for ages by portioning it. So for example, the mince: I would split it into four, put each portion into separate containers and freeze it. That way I got four dinners out of one thing and I wasn't wasting anything. Heck yeah.

BUY OUT OF DATE STUFF
Okay don't actually buy out of date stuff, but look for the food that is going out of date in the next couple of days and is freezable, like bread. I used to buy bread for like 50p because it was going out of date the next day, chuck it in my freezer and boom cheap bread that isn't actually going to go mouldy because it's now frozen. (Please don't buy out of date stuff and then eat mouldy things because you will be very ill.)

BULK BUY
Places like Costco and Makro are the best for when you need cheap food. Bulk buying food that you know you eat a lot (for me that was pasta... I eat pasta so freaking much) will help keep the cost down, because you won't have to keep buying it every day. Same goes for everyday things like toilet rolls, bulk buy them, it's cheaper.

FRUIT AND VEGETABLES
They're cheap yo, so eat them. Plus your mum will be proud.

ACTUALLY COOK
Buy cookery books, take cookery classes, get your chef friend to show you simple recipes, I don't know, but actually cook things. When you're cooking your own food it's probably going to be slightly healthier (well depends what you're cooking really but it's probably better than takeaway pizza), and you won't be spending your money on takeaways every day. Plus, if you just learn to make really simple things that smell amazing, your housemates that can't cook will be hella impressed, which is a bonus.

GOOD LUCK
Some of these tips might be obvious, but if you're student going to uni for the first time then hopefully this helped you out a little bit. Uni is pretty rad, don't worry.

Thanks for reading! If you have any other tips for surviving in the kitchen then leave them in the comments.

Love Chloe x


BONUS TIP
Be careful with knives. I stabbed myself in the hand whilst cutting an avocado and had to get it glued up in hospital. It was disgusting and hurt like hell. Also v. embarrassing because I was wearing stupid socks and had a lot of medical people in my room trying to help. So yeah, don't do that. 

May Favourites

FAVOURITES TIME
My May favourites video was just uploaded. I have a tonne of favourites this month in the categories beauty, clothing, film and tv, object, experience, music, and youtuber! I'd really appreciate it if you went and had a watch of it! And if you fancied subscribing while you're over there that would be even more rad, I'm nearly at 200 subscribers - my next milestone :o

Hope you're having a lovely day.

Love Chloe x

LINK: https://youtu.be/dw-TBvOyedo

Human Stories // AMBER LILLY PAYNE

BEFORE WE BEGIN...
I just wanted to quickly explain what this is. So basically I had this idea for a series of blog posts called 'Human Stories', in which I ask a bunch of people some questions about their lives and the stories within their lives. And so that's what this is, it's the first one and today you'll be meeting my dear best friend, Amber. Make sure to look out for future Human Stories and there will be opportunities to get involved with it at a later date too! Enjoy! :) x

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Human Stories // AMBER LILLY PAYNE

This is Amber...

Why do you like this photo of you so much? What is the story behind it?

I chose this photo because I can’t use Jade’s photo of me as Merida and so here’s the runner up :’) This photo was a headshot done by my good friend Tom Ridgeway, and oh the giggles we had trying to get to the photography room when the doorway was blocked by piles of artwork and things, we were still laughing between shoots. I feel like this photo actually shows me, and not just my face, I mean you can get an idea of who I am and what I’m like just looking at this photo. I think it’s pretty neat that a photo can reflect personality as well as personal appearance.

The Basics

• Name? Amber Lilly Payne

• Where do you live? On weekdays I live at Bracknell Forest, Berkshire. I spend my weekends in drinking tea in Narnia.

• Favourite food? Either margherita pizza (toppings are too much if planning on devouring an entire large pizza) or carbonara pasta.

Describe yourself in one sentence

“I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious.”

Childhood - What is your favourite childhood memory?

My favourite childhood memory is probably exploring my Nana and Popa’s garden in New Zealand. Think of the film The Secret Garden, then add random animals walking through occasionally because of the farm which you have to go through a hidden pathway to get to. New Zealand is magical.

Dreams - Do you have a dream for your life? Is there are story about how this dream came about?

I want to act, more than anything. I especially want to become a well known actor because I have had Generalised Epilepsy for six years, and more recently have developed Gilbert Syndrome (laughably harmless) and Asthma (I call them Effie, Gilbert and Annie for short). I didn’t know of many performers at all who had conditions that could potentially stop them from performing or from doing anything else major and I think it’s really important to have people there that people like me, with conditions, can relate to when times are tough. I want everyone to know that illness doesn’t have to define you. You are not your illness.

What don’t we know?

I plan on learning at least five languages by the time I’m old and grey. I’ve got English down, I’m currently learning British Sign Language, Dutch and French. I hope to start learning either Finnish or Swedish and Spanish soon after I become more fluent in the previously stated languages.

Storytime - Tell us an interesting story about yourself.

Back in my college days I was the shortest person there (at a staggering height of 5”1), and so whenever something was lost out of a window or in a small space I would retrieve the items with the help of fellow students by hanging out of the window (with someone holding my legs of course, safety first children!) and use a litter picker to grab a hold of the revision book or whatever it was that had gone out the window. Thinking back on it, maybe my heroic deeds hanging out of windows is what made me so tired at college? I may have fallen asleep and woken up to find my friends had been piling things on me…

Social Media - Where else can we find you?

You can find me on Facebook as Amber Lilly Payne, and Instagram @amberlily.