Thanks for your comments! I agree, I have recently started buying alot more fruit and vegetables fresh from a local grocer, it definately does reduce food bills compared with the standard supermarket, and I’ve got to try a lot of new types of fruit and veg I wouldn’t have considered before!

I do agree with you about the vegetables being expensive. Buying frozen is a good idea, however, there is one more thing – markets. Not farmers markets, which tend to be expensive for most students, but proper, wholesale city markets.

I live in Birmingham, and in the city centre itself we have the most amazing food market. I shop there regularly as a student, and if I take a tenner, I come away with literally ten days’ worth of fruit AND veg. The prices are incredible. In summer 2009 I am currently paying £1 for 10 nectarines, £1 for a box of broccoli (about 6 ‘heads’), 40p for bunches of herbs, £1 for a giant bowl of tomatoes (at leasst 2 kilos), £1 for same sized bowl of mushrooms…You get the idea. The market also has butchers (mince is half the price as in supermarkets, as is the fish) so as an enthusiastic student cook I managed to eat very well.

And yet the market is completely un-used by majority of students, even though it is easy to get to!

Also try shops like Aldi and Lidl. Brits do get snobby about them but my German and Dutch friends say everyone in their countries does most of their shopping in such shops. I regularly go there for pasta and tinned tomatoes, but also for fruit and veg which is very fresh and good quality (and from the EU so you don’t have to feel guilty about food miles!)

Being budget conscious, friends and I once sat down and compared our food bills – mine was 50% less, and I ate and cooked much more, plus had tons of fresh fruit.

Good luck!