College

[wbucky71]

Hey, I'm currently in college and thus live on a very fixed budget. Buying mostly fruits and veggies tends to be expensive. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions or advice. Thanks.

[Punk_in_Drublic]

Beans! Or pasta tends to be easy to do, and a big bag of pasta will last you a while, same with rice.

[fadeaway1289]

Definetly beans, pasta and rice. Very cheap. Also see if there are any farmers markets around although they may be starting to close for the season. Also frozen veggies. Check the Sunday ads and clip coupons. I've been lucky to find that some of my grocery stores have a "discount" rack of damaged food..mainly cereals, rice, ect, boxes that are crushed or dented and they have a marked down produce rack of veggies/fruits. Honestly I'll go to a bunch of different stores just to get good deals but most of the stores are all on one street so its not like I"m wasting gas. Also check out chinese grocery stores where you can get tons of things like tofu/noodles/rice in bulk really cheap!

[Willowriver]

Dried beans and rice are insanely cheap.
But then ... in the grocery stores I've seen, I only spend a lot of money if I buy processed foods. Fruits and veggies (veggies especially - dirt cheap!), if you don't get them pre-sliced and stuff, are generally the cheapest things there.

[Starblossom]

beans and rice are great, as suggested. if you get bored of that you can try some other grain like couscous or quinoa. i'm not sure how cheap those are as i haven't bought them in a long time but i don't think they're too bad, especially if rice is driving you nuts. also, I find it helps to cook stuff in double batches if possible so you can freeze half. Then when you're hungry with no time to cook, you can defrost your cheap dinner instead of splurging on fast food. Oh oh and LENTILS! Lentil curries are sooo cheap and easy and awesome.