A students guide on how to save money on lunch
By Julian Pla
the cost of living crisis has everyone saving every penny
Cost of living is going up; we all need to make cuts somewhere. As students is important, we have a good budget. There are many ways to save money like making use of the free bus scheme if you are under 22 or cycling to class. However, when it comes to food there aren’t many ways to be save money.
Groceries are expensive and let’s be honest as students most of us don’t have time or energy to cook proper meals or make packed lunch for the day after. A day-to-day realistic way to save on food is knowing where the best deals are when it comes to meal deals and how much you are willing to spend. The more expensive the meal deal the better the quality of the food, in some cases like Mark’s and Spencer’s, or Waitrose.
After comparing three of the top supermarket brands considering the price-quality ratio here’s the rankings:
1. Sainsbury’s Meal Deal.
Taking first place is Sainsbury’s. Costing only £3.50 you get a variety of options ranging from sandwiches to salads to pasta, plus a soft drink or juice and a snack like crisps, fruits, or sweets. The overall quality of the food is good, it tastes better than you would expect coming from a £3.50 sandwich.
2. Tesco’s Meal Deal.
It’s not the cheapest considering you need a Tesco Club card to get the savers price but getting a club card is free, so it balances it out. The price is the same as Sainsbury’s however you need a Clubcard for it, you get the same range of food and drinks the only part that gives it extra points is its snack section is simply better and bigger Is also ideal since finding a Tesco is fairly easy no matter in what part of town you are.
3. Marks & Spencer’s Meal Deal.
The food is by far superior to Tesco’s and Sainsbury’s however so is the Price costing £5 just the food without any drink or snack. For the whole deal it can vary from £7 - £12 however the food variety is more exciting having full plates of katsu chicken with rice and curry sauce or Spanish paella. In the spirit of saving money however is unnecessary to spend that much money considering that you can get a lunch deal on a restaurant for around the same price.