One of the most important things that you must master in college is learning how to eat on a college budget. I’m going to give you some tried and true tips for eating cheap and discuss some of the “staple” foods that should be in every college students diet. This is going to be a sort of guide through the “college food triangle” if you will.

Ramen Noodles

Let’s start with the basics: Ramen Noodles. Regardless of how you pronounce them (Raymen?! RAHmen?!), the Ramen noodle can be considered the backbone of every college student’s diet. They come in a variety of flavors, beef, chicken, oriental, and many others. I personally am a chicken kind of guy, but to each his own. The most important characteristic that the Ramen noodle has, the one that makes it so popular, is it’s price tag. You can buy a Shit Ton of Ramen for only a few dollars. I’m talkin like 20 packs for 2 bucks, yeah, 10 cents a piece. Also, Ramen is easily prepared on the stove or in the microwave. You can’t beat a 3 minute prep time for such an awesome food.

Tip: Try eating the noodle cake raw before you cook it. Good stuff huh?

Hot Pockets

Next up we have the very popular Hot Pocket. Hot Pockets just freakin rock, plain and simple. You can throw one of these bad boys into the microwave, and before you know it you have a quick grab and go food that burns the hell out of your mouth and hands. Can it get any better? Hot Pockets, like Ramen, come in many flavors. In fact I even think they do some kind of breakfast thing too, but I haven’t tried it yet. Hot Pockets are also cheap, I usually buy the big ol’ bulk pack from Costco and live off of them for a few weeks. Good stuff.

Tip: Hide these suckers in the back of the fridge, they are notorious for getting picked off by roommates and random friends.

Hamburger Helper

This has to be my favorite college food. Just brown yourself a little beef and then toss in a bunch of crap out of a box, and then BAM 10 minutes later you have a ton of Hamburger Helper. Now I know we are moving into a more advanced stage of college eating, but come one people, you have to learn to “cook” some day. Like any good cheap college food, Hamburger Helper comes in a ton of awesome flavors like Bacon Cheeseburger, Cheesy Italian, and Lasagna. Who knew that a little beef and some noodles could do so much? You have to watch out for this one though, sometimes it calls for complicated ingredients like milk and butter. Always gets me…

Tip: You can cook double the beef and throw in some random extra noodles (spaghetti noodles work) to make a double batch.

Cereal

I’m not just talking any cereal here, I’m talking about the stuff in the bags. You can get this type of cereal at Wal-Mart and it is dirt cheap. My personal favorite cheap-bag-cereal is Berry Colossal Crunch. However, let me issue a warning. For some reason, Berry Colossal Crunch is notorious for cutting up the roof of your mouth, I don’t know why or how, but trust me it happens. There really is nothing better than a big ol’ bowl of cereal when you are craving a random quick non-nutritious snack. Plus this stuff is fun to shop for, you have  to squat down and walk like that guy on the commercial used to do when he was shopping for cheap cereal. You know the commercial I’m talking about.

Tip: If you don’t mind soggy cereal, let it soak in the milk for a little bit to reduce the amount you shred the roof of your mouth.

Beer

Last, but definitely not least we have beer. With 110 calories in a good ol’ bottle of Bud Light, you can get quite the “meal” from beer alone. Beer and college have seemed to go together better than anything else over the years, it’s as if by some divine power beer was bestowed upon college campuses for us to enjoy. You gotta love it. If you don’t know how to drink beer, or you don’t like the taste of it, well to damn bad. The skill of drinking beer is a must have skill of every college student (much like playing pool and smoking the occasional cigarette). Mentioned earlier, my cheap beer of choice is Bud Light, but I’m no stranger to the likes of PBR and Nasty Light. We’ve all been there. Oh ya and, don’t drink and drive, seriously.

Tip: Did I mention don’t drink and drive?

This one was just for fun! Keep it sleazy! -Stone

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