Crappy food you ate as a student

[ALemonyPea]

I was reminded today of the really cheap frozen shepherds pies I used to buy as a student. £1 for 6 of them from Tesco, served with frozen peas. Was an absolute feast circa 1998.

Or instant noodles with grated cheese. I like to have that every now and again, proper comfort food.

Peperami used to do their own instant noodles, they were nice.

Baked beans, cans of tomato soup, pasta and if I was feeling flush I would put a teaspoon of pesto on it. Canned sweet corn, lots and lots of canned sweet corn.

The chicken shop over the road used to do a 2 piece and chips for £1 special. Guess what I ate rather a lot of.

Alcohol, we were so classy. If it wasn't the Saturday night bucket parties we used to drink Special Brew watered down with lemonade.

I ate pretty well but there were times when I definitely went for cheap and convenient, when I was particularly busy with revision or my final year project. Such delights as half a tin of ravioli with frozen sweetcorn, toasted sandwich made with yellow sticker Ed cheddar and frozen "minute steaks". I ate a lot of turkey sausages because they were cheap and quite meaty.

My grant (early 80s) was about three groats to last the term so it was a bit tight on the budgeting front.

I used to frequent the indoor market to pick up cheap damaged fruit and veg at the end of the day - there was also a stall that had giant bins of pulses that you could scoop into paper bags to make student stew, which resembled tidal estuary mud on a good day.

Once I decided to invest in a large bag of dried figs, which I worked my way through at my desk that day. By mid afternoon the ominous rumbles of thunder were rolling around the colonic hills and valleys - a warning sign I should have not ignored, given that my studio was on the fourth floor and the loos were in the basement. In all I think I lost about three stone and caused significant damage to the porcelain.

@MrsMarigold the OP asked for crap student food stories, not smug i never ate badly, I’m so healthy stories!

Pancakes for every meal 😂

I also are those manky value chicken kievs, lots of value garlic bread and £1 raspberry ripple ice cream pots - think there was about 8 for a pound.

Chicken Kiev, pasta and sauce, value fish fingets and value sausages. Every now and then I would go home and raid the kitchen and eat well for the next week or two.

A bloke I House shared with was partial to ‘ magic mushrooms’.
He used to eat them in tinned mushroom soup in a bowl with a chicken and mushroom pie chucked in.

I was veggie at university, and did eat pretty well with lots of pulses. However, I was tight on money and lived a long walk from college in all but one year so needed to take lunch with me. A lot of the time this would be 'rice salad' which was cooked rice, chopped onion, raisins and dressing made of veg oil and vinegar. Maybe some raw mushroom too.
Later I discovered you could buy huge tubs of worthy natural peanut butter very cheaply, and that worked for the next few years when I started my first job

Kwiksave eco burgers. I didn't know how to cook so I just microwaved them so they were all grey and floppy.

The cheapest Sainsbury's sausages in sliced white bread with plastic cheese and fried onions was my ultimate treat/comfort food as a student. Can remember when they put up the price of their value sliced bread from 17 to 18p - had to go home empty handed!

I don’t think I ate any fresh vegetables or fruit other than mushrooms and bananas in term time whilst at university!

Pretty sure I lived off toast and cheese or pasta with pesto. I simply can't recall eating anything else.

It was a very small town, few shops. There was a Kwiksave (forgotten it's spelling), least I think it was. Sometimes if I scabbed a lift I could get to the out of town Sainsbury. Can't recall what I bought though.

Circa 1990:
Greggs cheese and onion pasty, followed by
Greggs iced ring doughnut.

One term mum and dad sent me with a sack of spuds so my house dined almost entirely on microwaved jacket spuds for a month or so.

End of Saturday market veg perma stew. We'd make an enormous cauldron of it before going out, come home to a bowlful with value cheese grated on top. It would last all week with ever more chilli & value beans chucked in...

My favourite was noodles, fish fingers, & sweet & sour sauce made from ketchup plus the juice from a can of pineapple rings. Pineapple for pudding. Yum!

Bean feast also a staple (well into my 30s actually ).

Ready made prawn cocktail from m&s.
10 calorie soup.
Minnestrone slim a soup.
Smash made with water.
Half a milky way.
One of these would be a meal for a day. I did have an ed, so maybe not the best.
I also used to smoke 40 a day
I cannot look at any of those foods without feeling sick. Happily, food consumption has gone up even if I still eat one meal a day. Cigarette consumption way down too.

Findus crispy pancakes the cheese ones. I saw some beef ones in farmfoods the other day.
One of my housemates couldn't cook and her mum used to send her back with individual portions of food to reheat.
No idea how my uni boyfriend survived her couldn't even cook a spag Bol before he met me. His mum was a SAHM and didn't teach him how to cook

Coleslaw sandwiches

Chicken curry made with cheapest chicken nuggets, it was cheaper than buying the cheap frozen chicken to make it with. Also sausage square and waffle sandwiches, noodles, broken biscuits and tesco value orange juice. And that amazing value mixed fruit jam on cheapest white bread.

Not a student but there was a time when I was paying off debts and earning a very low wage and only had £15 a week food budget. I lived off toast and pasta bake.

God yes - Beanfeast! Does that still exist?

I used to buy tins of ratatouille and mix in a tin of tuna, heaped on pasta with loads of cheese. Loved that.

Sainsbury's individual chicken Kievs, with different fillings - there was a curry sauce one, a mushroom one and a garlic butter one.

They were either 49p or £1.49, but either way I thought they were so sophisticated.

Noodles from the Chinese supermarket
Pasta and pesto - with cheese
Chicken nuggets, curly fries.
Cous cous with tomato sauce.

Instant noodles and cheese was food of the gods.

Chicken kebabs or curry late at night, which were really good.

One year lived above a corner shop that sold fresh, hot baguettes, we’d go down in PJs then drench them in butter. Pure glocose/fat rush!

Good times.