There is a running joke that college students live off day old pizza, Ramen noodles and free food from random events around campus.
Now for some people, that’s the life. Pizza three meals in a row and the perfect excuse, “I’m in college, I’ll have time to eat healthy later.” That is perfectly fine for a while, honestly that was me my first couple years of college.
But how about when fried food and cheap sodium soaked noodles starts getting old, and eating out 5+ times a week starts to make your wallet cry.
Over Winter Break, and into spring semester, I have started packing my own lunch. I still eat out here and there but overall it has saved me money and I am able to eat healthier.
One of the great things I love about it is customization. Packing my own lunch enables me to eat healthier, surprisingly cheaper and have what I actually want to eat.
Another great benefit is accommodation for dietary restrictions. Ever notice how most vegetarian options are cheese related? Yeah, I can’t eat cheese. First time I walked into the Tartan marketplace with a friend, the only thing we saw on the menu I might actually be able to eat was cheap fries and possibly a salad.
This outing was immediately followed by the thought, “I could make my own salad for cheaper.” Thus the idea of making my own college student lunch box was born.
I have a few tips when it comes to creating your own lunches. First, have a basic idea of what your going for. Eating healthy is going to look a little different for everyone, for me it’s a lot of veggies with some grains and fruit. In other words, I eat like a rabbit.
Figure out what is healthy for you and use that as a template. If you aren’t quite sure, a good start is balancing your food groups and cutting back on fried and fast food.
Second tip, to an extent it’s cheaper to make from scratch then to buy pre packaged. For example, my typical lunch is a salad and some sides. I could buy a pretty good pre made salad at Kroger and put that in a cooler, but that salad is probably between four and six dollars.
I have classes five days a week so that is about $30 in chopped greens. Let’s say I also spend four dollars each meal for my sides, now we are close to $50 a week for lunch.
I cut that almost in half when I started packing my own lunches.
A big container of mixed greens at Kroger is about four dollars, and it lasts me two weeks. I change up my toppings a lot but it’s easy to keep those cheap and simple. A couple fresh vegetables, some canned olives or beans, basically anything can be a topping. Overall I now spend maybe $20-$30 a week on lunches.
My last tip is to find three to four lunches you like or want to try and just make them. You can branch out once you’re comfortable. Pinterest has almost limitless possibilities when it comes to pack lunches, and I will even be sharing some of my own in some upcoming articles.
Cerridwyn Kuykendall
Associate Editor