I personally find the dining hall to be unappealing. For instance, I was given stir fry on a particular occasion, which ended up basically cold noodle soup that tasted like it was drenched in soy sauce. That was the last straw. Well, that and 90 percent of dining hall food is unhealthy.
This semester, after starting at Rutgers, I decided about two weeks after to become a pescetarian. I rarely eat beef as it is, but I do love chicken, but I had to say goodbye to it. I'm only really doing it because I want to see what happens after a month or two, but if I wanted to succeed, I knew I needed to do it.
So as you probably guessed, I do my own food shopping. People who I've told that I'm a transitioning pescetarian often ask me how I afford to buy all that food, let alone healthy food. Well, it's really, really simple actually.
1. Keep your circulars! Circulars usually get mailed to your house or are sometimes on the store's website. Most of them change on either a weekly or bi-weekly basis. A lot of stores do the same reoccurring deals every time. Like smoothies? ShopRite usually does their frozen fruit sale every week, and it's 2/$5 or 2/$7, most of them being 12 ounce bags, but being that smoothies are made with a wide range of ingredients, your fruit should last a while. This, my friends, is just one of the many sales stores do.
2. Buy off brand products.
Most times store brand is cheaper than brand name foods. And they actually are all the same thing, it's just a different label (except for organic/vegan versions) and maybe a difference of a couple ingredients, but mostly they are all family. I usually buy Almond Breeze Almond Milk, but today I got off brand Almond Milk for almost a dollar less. A dollar less goes a long way believe it or not.
3. Go for the bulk sometimes.
Sometimes bulk is the best way to not only save a trip to the grocery store, but money as well. Try buying the foods you really like in bulk, because from experience if I like something I'll keep buying it. Places like BJ's and Costco will help you save money and get you more for your money at the same time. If you have a parent who has a membership card to either of these places, you can either have them take you or they can give you your own card so you don't have to pay for a membership, however, if you want your own membership it could be anywhere from $50-$60 a year.
Truthfully, if you follow these rules, it makes everything a lot easier on your wallet. Job or no job, we all know the struggle of having to spend even the smallest amount of money on things, but going to the food store once a month or longer and following these rules makes one heck of a difference.
