HC How To: Staying Healthy On A Student Budget

Don’t want to spend £13 a month on a gym membership – understandable! For many of us with busy schedules it sometimes feels like fitting in time to visit the gym will never happen. But this is absolutely no excuse not to do exercise! The NHS recommends 150 minutes per week of exercise. This could be 30 minutes of walking per day – very easily done! Why not spend half an hour cleaning up your flat or going for a jog down to the beach? Get out and breathe that wonderful North Sea air! There are also plenty of ‘at home workouts’ available on the Internet for you to try. Don’t let the cost of a gym membership stop you – get out (or stay in!) and get active!  

Drink water! I know you’ve heard it all before – 8 glasses per day blah blah blah. But seriously, water is one of the best ways to keep your body healthy. Drinking water helps maintain the balance of fluids in your body, it keeps your skin looking good, it’s the lowest calorie drink available and it’s FREE! Most of us don’t actually realise that we are dehydrated a lot of time. Spending all day sitting in the library where the air is stuffy means that you are more likely to get dehydrated. Many of us will think that our bodies are hungry and will fill it with tasty treats when actually all it’s begging for is a glass of water. So next time you get the library munchies, reach out for some water first and see if you’re still hungry after drinking.  

Meal preparation and planning is one of the key ways to stay healthy on a student budget. You can either do this with your flatmates or alone. Look up some recipes for your favourite dishes or try experimenting a bit? Sit down on a Sunday and plan what you’ll eat for the week ahead. By cooking in batches and then freezing/refrigerating your meals you’ll save time and money later in the week. If you know what you’ll be having for dinner each night you’re less likely to pick at snacks and cook unhealthy meals. By freezing your meals you are also ensuring that no food goes to waste – great money saver! 

COFFEE! As students, coffee is our number one best friend (maybe after chocolate?). With lots of great coffee hang-outs on campus such as Kilau and Starbucks, there is always the temptation to treat yourself to a caramel latte or four. However, this is not only ridiculously expensive but also not helping your health kick one bit! A Starbucks latte has around 200 calories per drink and costs almost £3! By carrying a flask to uni with coffee from home you will not only save yourself the pennies but will also save those calories for something more delicious.  

Breakfast baby! Recently many of us will have been feeling the pressure to create Instagram worthy breakfasts – whether it be granola, berries and natural yoghurt or toast with avocado and poached eggs. In reality, when it gets to the end of the month who can afford to buy a £4 bag of granola? By choosing your breakfast wisely you can keep the cravings at bay for most of the morning saving both your money and your health. Low cost, fibre breakfast cereals such as Bran Flakes or Fruit and Fibre are great for filling you up and preparing you for the day ahead. By avoiding high sugar breakfasts and stocking up on those slow release calories you find in fibrous cereals, porridge and bananas you can keep the cost down and stop the snacking before 11!  

Use by/best before. Brits throw away 7million tonnes of food every year from their homes. Not only is this bad for the environment, but it is also such a waste of money. It is important to know the difference between a “best before” date and a “use by” date. Best before does not mean that when it reaches the date specified on the packet you must throw it away! It is merely the producer’s recommendation of when best to enjoy the food. However, if a product has gone past its “use by” date then put it in the food waste bin. As young adults we should now be sensible enough to judge when a product looks a bit worse for wear, but making sure you’re not throwing food out prior to its expiration will help to spare those pennies.  

Get your lunchbox out. In the UK people spend up to £10 on lunch per day! As a student this is utter madness! I know I’m guilty of a cheeky trip to the Hub on campus where it’s easy to spend over £5 on snacks to keep you fuelled throughout your day, however, eating the processed food found in supermarkets is not the way to a healthy lifestyle, or a healthy bank balance. By making your lunch in the morning (or the night before if you’re super organised) you can control what you’ll be putting in your mouth throughout the day. Swap bags of crisps for crunchy vegetable sticks and a chocolate bar for a dried fruit and nut mix.