Lets be real – university life is expensive. Between textbooks, rent, social nights and the occasional cheeky takeaway, budgeting becomes an extreme sport. Add trying to eat healthy on top of that? You might feel like it’s impossible. But here’s the good news: you don’t have to sacrifice your health to stick to a student budget.
Why Nutrition Matters for Students
University life can be demanding – a whirlwind of lectures, deadlines, social events and part-time jobs. Amid all this, it’s easy to underestimate the importance of eating well. Research consistently shows that good nutrition is directly linked to academic performance, mental health and physical well-being – all of which are vital for student success.
Nutrition Supports:
Cognitive Performance: The brain consumes about 20% of the body’s energy, so it’s no surprise that what you eat affects how well you think (Gómez-Pinilla, 2008).
Mental Health: Eating high-quality food nourishes the brain and protects it from oxidative stress (Selhub, 2022).
Energy and Physical Health: Students who regularly skip meals or rely heavily on takeaways often experience irregular energy levels, poor sleep, and a higher chance of illness (Pengpid and Peltzer, 2020).
Long days of lectures, commutes or part-time jobs demand physical stamina. Nutrient-rich foods help (NHS Health Scotland, 2023):
Stabilise blood sugar, reducing energy crashes.
Support immune health, reducing the risk of illness after freshers week!
Improve sleep quality, which is essential for memory consolidation
Perhaps most importantly, university is often the first time students take full control of their own diet. The habits you form now can last into adulthood, influencing your long-term health, risk of chronic disease and relationship with food.
Note: While this slightly exceeds the £20 goal by £2, you can bring it back under budget by:
Swapping Greek yoghurt for a cheaper plain yoghurt.
Buying smaller meat portions or skipping mince.
Dropping optional extras like peanut butter.
Sample 3 – Day Meal Plan
Here’s a realistic, easy-to-cook plan for students:
Day 1:
Breakfast: Overnight oats with banana and peanut butter.
Lunch: Boil pasta and mix with tinned chickpeas and tomatoes. Add garlic or mixed herbs.
Dinner: Pan-fry chicken thighs with oil, garlic and herbs, serve with rice and veg.
Picture Source: (PixaBay, 2016)
Day 2:
Breakfast: Greek yoghurt with chopped apple and cinnamon.
Lunch: Use leftover chicken and rice in a wrap or with bread.
Dinner: Beef mince stir-fry. Cook mince beef with frozen veg and soy sauce or paprika. Serve with rice or pasta.
Picture Source: (PixaBay, 2016b)
Day 3:
Breakfast: Peanut butter toast with banana.
Lunch: Veggie omelette with toast. Just 2 eggs + frozen veg = power lunch.
Dinner: Jacket potato with baked beans and cheese (optional).
Picture Source: (PixaBay, 2020)
Best Places to Shop for Students
Lidl or Aldi – Budget-friendly staples and meat.
Tesco Everyday Value / Asda Smart Price – Affordable store brands.
Local Markets – Cheap fruit and veg (especially near closing time).
Pound Shops / Home Bargains – Good for spices, kitchen tools or tinned goods.
Tip: Sign up to loyalty cards (e.g., Tesco Clubcard) for more deals and always bring your own carrier bags!
Save More with Meal Prep & Smart Swaps
Meal Prep Tips:
Plan Ahead: Know what you’re eating before you’re starving.
Batch Cook: Make dinner, save half for lunch the next day.
Freeze Leftovers: Works well with pasta, curry, soup and rice.
Picture Source: (Dreamdecko, 2025).
Ingredient Swaps:
Use lentils to bulk out mince.
No lentils? Use chickpeas or beans.
Alternate meat days with plant-based protein like eggs or beans.
Buy cheaper cuts like drumsticks or chicken thighs.
Cooking doesn’t need to be perfect – it just needs to work for you.
Bonus: Mindful Eating = Better Living
It’s not just about eating cheap – it’s about feeling better. Cooking your own meals:
Reduces stress
Helps you focus
Saves you money
Builds confidence
If you can prep a week’s worth of healthy food for £20 now, imagine what you can do with a full-time salary later.
Tip: Try pairing your meals with a short walk, water bottle refills, and decent sleep. Small Changes = Big Wins!
Student Voices
“Meal prepping saved me at least £15 a week compared to eating out! Now I find it easier to save money to spend on things I enjoy”
– Josh, 2nd Year Psychology Student
“I Stopped skipping meals once I knew I had food ready in the fridge. Meal prepping helped me become more organised and less stressed”
– Amelia, Final Year Nursing Student
“I used to skip breakfast to save time and money, but once I started prepping overnight oats, I noticed I had more energy for my 9am lectures”
– Cameron, Third Year Physio Student
Try this £20 Meal Plan This Week!
Want to see how far your food budget can stretch? Try this 3-day plan and tag your creations with #StudentFuelChallenge. Let’s normalise healthy eating on a student budget.
Question for the readers: What’s your go-to cheap and healthy meal at uni? Drop it in the comments below!
Popular trends, hacks and tips to ensure your living room & dining room furniture stands out from the crowd
Blog Introduction
Are you seeking out living and dining room inspiration? Do you aspire to fill your home with stylish decor helping your home stand out from the crowd? Then this furniture blog is for you
The fitted or freestanding furniture debate which is dependent on room size and the living room is known for being the “beating heart of your home”. Do you wish to furnish your home with bold statement pieces?: farmhouse styling on a budget, then look no further than this contemporary blog, guiding you through the do’s of interior design. Supporting you in your journey to build your dream home room-by-room, matching furniture to your life experiences. (Decorilla – 2024)
Are you a savvy interiors enthusiast who is captivated by bold colours? then look no further than this informative blog, whether your interests lie with hosting or require a safe haven you can call home. Living rooms are a statement piece of the 20th century, associated with ornamented parlours. Living rooms have evolved in the 21st century best known for entertainment after dinner which has gained popularity since the 20th century. Living rooms are the “public face of a household”, displaying a home owner’s wealth. (Salvatori – 2022)
Main Blog Section
Are you seeking to indulge in purchasing a new corner sofa or in desperate need of an aesthetic upgrade?, luckily you’re in the right place to learn about styles known for their uniqueness. Does this style sound like your current situation?, Carry on reading this blog to learn how to make subtle budget-friendly changes to leave your living room looking aesthetically pleasing. Sofas act as a home centrepiece setting a home’s colour pallette. (Foster – 2025)
Bold colours: vibrant, lively emerald green, deep blue, rich jewel colours are shaping buying habits. Customers are often drawn to bold colours that act as a focal point in people’s living spaces against neutral walls and wallpaper. Geometric-patterned, colour-drenching, curved shaped furniture and curved-shaped sofas, multifunctional furniture, maximalist aesthetics, quiet luxury style, warm wooden tones, bringing the outdoors indoors & chrome and metallic elements. Colour-drenching is known for making statements by using one furniture colour hue. (Foster – 2025)
Kitchens are known as the hardest working space in the home & customers are searching to remodel kitchen layouts, striking a balance between modern and budget-friendly aesthetics and helping customers save money amidst a cost-of-living crisis. Open plan kitchens practically blur the boundaries between kitchen cooking, dining room hosting, entertaining. (Wylie-Harris – 2025), (Exe Kitchens – 2025)
Blog Conclusion
Multipurpose dining rooms are popular in 2025 driven by social trends: consumers wanting more from their dining space than its traditional usage of catering for special family occasions, transforming spaces into an all-purpose corner of the home with various uses from dining – working office. Customers require more than just a makeshift space, repurposing their space for office working, watching TV or as a hobby table. Customers are making their homes multifunctional using creativity to maximise space keeping their rooms ready to share with friends and family when hosting gatherings enjoying evenings in dining rooms. (Oak Furnitureland – 2021)
Complete the survey below to be in with a chance of winning a £2000 living room makeover
Have you just walked into a plain, beige and boring room? Your uni room should reflect you and your personality. It should be an inspiring place to be for the next year as you do your assignments and hang with new friends.
We’ve rounded up budget-friendly and renter-friendly trends to help you create a stylish space without losing your deposit!
Maximalism is making a massive comeback this year with many people choosing the “more is more” approach to decorating their home. This is a trend that you can truly infuse your personality into. Medium dives into why maximalism and why now here.
How to apply it to your student room:
You can’t drill holes or make permanent changes so you have to be clever with how you make changes to your room. For this specific trend you’ll need:
Removable patterned wallpaper
To make it budget friendly only add it to one wall and make it a feature!
This one from Dunelm caught our eye with reviews claiming it’s very easy to remove!
Colourful, textured or patterned bedding
Your bedding makes the biggest difference to your room because it’s the biggest part of your room, make it bold!
You can usually find bedding on sale too, this one from Argos is only £12.
Artwork
Funky artwork applied with command hooks is where your personality is truly going to come out.
You’ll want to head to charity shops to find funky frames and use your library printing credits to print off your fave art, it doesn’t get more budget than that!
You may not have heard of this, it essentially means: bring the outside in. Being inside studying might feel like a drag but the BBC proved that this style can actually make you more productive and happier here.
How to apply it to your student room:
This one looks difficult and expensive! The first question you need to ask yourself is: “Can I keep plants alive?”. This will help you to decide whether to go fake or real! Now onto the shopping list:
Potted Plants
If you have the time head to your local tip store, they usually salvage lots of pots that people would have just thrown away.
Then head to Gardening Express for a selection of indoor plants for only £2 each, this is a lucky dip so you don’t know what you’ll be getting but we think it’s worth it for the price!
Looking to go fake? IKEA have great fake potted plants from just £1.
Nature Inspired Artwork
Canvases like this from Wilko can bring the outdoors in for only £3.25 each!
Use natural materials
Using stone and wood in your décor can really bring in that outdoor feeling.
These wooden tealight holders are a simple example of adding natural materials into your space. These are from The Range , they also have a stone option.
Earthy neutrals such as clay, terracotta and sand are a trend that’s not going away according to House Beautiful. This décor is going to make your room feel very warm and cosy.
How to add it to your student room:
This trend is hard to get wrong, as long as your colours are warm, you’re doing it right.
Rugs
Getting the right rug adds warmth to your space and makes it feel elevated with little effort!
This rug from H&M Home brings texture, colour and pattern for only £19.99
Curtains
Changing your curtains from the boring standard ones to something more elevated and in your style is going to make a huge difference.
Curtains like these from George Home still let in the light and brighten up your space whilst still offering privacy.
Bedding
Now that you’ve added texture through your rug and curtains, add a pop of colour with your bedding.
This rusty, terracotta colour from Next is a great simple and affordable option to bring a little colour to your earthy toned uni room.
4. Multifunctional décor
You’re likely to have a small space to decorate whilst you’re a student. Finding pieces that have more than one function is not a moment but a movement according to Studio Budworth.
Furniture that can help you to easily transition from work to socialising, to relaxing will make you feel like you’re living in a home rather than a room.
Foldable furniture
Folding chairs, tables, clothes airers and treadmills can be found at Argos for a great price. This makes it easy to use your space for multiple purposes and fold it all away when you’re done!
Utilise your wall space rather than floor space
Pegboards are a great way to store items that would usually clog up your desk space. These pegboards from IKEA have tons of storage options for the board so you can personalise it to your items.
Optimise storage
You’ll often find that you have too much stuff and nowhere to put it. You’ll also discover that when mates come to visit you quickly run out of seating. These storage seats from IKEA are the solution to both problems. Plus, they’re only £15!
Smart homes are becoming “the future of living” according to this Mintel report. With everything being automated or controlled by a remote.
How to add it to your student room:
With smart tech becoming more affordable it’s the perfect time to experiment and make your uni bedroom work for you!
Smart LED Light Strips
You’ll be spending so much time in your room, having mood lighting will make a huge impact on how your room looks and feels. These strips from IKEA are only £5 but you could spend more for colour changing options.
USB Desk Fans or Lamps
A lamp that you can move around without having to unplug and plug in, yes please! This one from Argos is the perfect stylish solution!
Bluetooth Speakers
When you need background music or a housemate dance break, you’ll be glad you got your Bluetooth speaker! The one pictured is from Wilko
Which trend would you try first? Let us know in the comments or tag us in your room makeover pics!
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