Son losing weight at uni etc

[toomanycatsonthebed]

Hi - Just wanted to check in with otheruns who have kids at Uni experience. My son's just started uni. He has taken budgeting seriously and says he is spending £10 for food a week!! He is buying lunch at uni on top of that ( sandwich and drink I think) and I left him some supplies (4kg of pasta lol).

He is very hard to contact - one reply to ten of my texts and one phone call a week. He says he is either working or out a lot. I do see occasional pics of him on Instagram and he looks thin. He was a beanpole anyway even though he could eat a lot. He's become veggie recently. I'm not sure if I should worry or is this normal? I'm going to ring him tonight and have a chat but he can be unforthcoming on the phone ( chattier in real life).

£10 on food, unless you work really hard to make your purchases (trailing all over town, going to the market at closing time etc.) and have a decent knowledge of cooking and nutrition probably means he isn't eating right.

DD (uni student and DS before her) is/are pretty hot on the above, although she doesn't go to the market (DS did) she does shop in cheap shops and cook healthy food, she spends about £23 of the thirty we give her on food. The rest I suspect is spent on alcohol.

At £10 a week I bet he lives on toast and cereal.

He says £10 in LIDL gets him tortellini box, box mushrooms, box tomatoes, 1red pepper, onions, dry pasta, a salad bag, seeds, cauliflower bakes. He then tops up from the Co-op reduced section with NUS discount...He looks like he's socialising a lot and having fun but he looks drawn and thin :-(

Obviously you do need to keep an eye on him, but it could just be a change of routine, stress over moving, lots of extra work as well as wanting to fit in and socialise.

I spend £45 on food a week for two adults plus one teenager (£4 of this goes on a bottle of wine). We don't go without, eg I've had museli, two pieces of fruit, last nights leftovers (a large portion) for lunch and I'm about to tuck into my fourth biscuit. I'm sure to have another snack before tea. Don't know about DH, but DD had a full bowl of shreddies and a banana this morning, she didn't want sandwiches so has a mandarin, cucumber slices, protein bar, chocolate bar and crisps in her lunchbox. She'll probably have fruit and a babybel or nuts before tea We don't eat loads of meat, but like fish, pasta, beans, nuts.

Your son will certainly be able to buy what the says from Lidl as their prices are so much cheaper, ie a box of cherry tomatoes 49p, cucumber 29p, large cheddar cheese £1.55 (would be £3.50 in Tescos) - savings on every product add up.

I had a friend who left uni with his degree and malnutrition.