Chapter 5
Food
I was a bit of a wannabe foodie as a fresher. I arrived at uni with more than just a couple of boxes of ‘Pot Noodle’ – I had woks, colanders – I think there might even have been some nutmeg in the mix. But it was all a sham – hey, I said I was a wannabe foodie. I had great intentions about cooking every day and popping the leftovers into a ‘Tupperware’ for the next day’s lunch, and I really intended to make big batches of soup and take out a little portion every day… But it just didn’t happen. During freshers’ week I got into the habit of eating food I hated in the college canteen, because I wanted to be with other people rather than stirring a saucepan of foodie goodness on my own in the kitchen.
So don’t feel bad if you get into a similar pattern of eating out with friends at the start of uni. It’s important to meet people, and eating is one of the best ways to bond. Absolute independence is never going to be a jam (or even a baked bean) sandwich from the word go. What is important, though, is that once you start slotting into a regular routine with lectures and sports or a job or whatever, you start thinking about what you’re eating. If you follow Chapter 2’s budgeting advice, this will crop up anyway – because by writing down what you’re spending, you’ll soon notice that eating out, and eating junk, are both expensive ways to fill up your tummy. They’re also not that healthy – most freshers find their waistline growing at the same pace as money worries in those early days.
Instead, eating a balanced diet and healthy food will help you to feel better and stay healthy at university. And you don’t have to pay loads to eat well – healthy ingredients like vegetables are cheaper than greasy takeaways or supermarket ready meals.
If possible, it’s a good idea to have a guided tour of What To Do in the Kitchen with someone before you go. Andy, a UCL physics student, did this because he had concerns that his diet as a fresher might damage his health – he’d represented the UK in sport at an international level. ‘I was really worried about eating well, so before I came to my halls of residence, I asked my dad to teach me how to cook some basic dishes,’ he says. ‘Learning was quite fun, and meant I wasn’t forced to tuck into a ready meal every night.’
How to go food shopping
Even though I knew how to cook at home, suddenly, at uni where I was sharing a tiny kitchen with ten other students, it all seemed a bit different. I remember my first solo supermarket shopping trip really well. I’d done supermarket sweeps before, of course, but then it had been for my whole family, and the receipt was always reimbursed… So on my first uni supermarket trip, feeling a bit clueless, I bought the same big packets of things like salad leaves, ketchup bottles... Click here to purchase the complete Guide to Uni Life |