Cooking

After half a year of living off of tinned tomatoes on toast and jacket potato, I decided to venture into the world of cooking this year. I have a lot of time now that I seem to have figured out my routine and I can use that to stock up on meals. And I’ve found I quite enjoy cooking.

I think I like cooking for a number of reasons. I tend to do it on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, when there’s not really anybody else in the kitchen. It’s quite calming to slowly and carefully go through a recipe.

I worked towards a career in science for most of my school life and I’m so used to having a strict method to follow: this much of this substance, this much of that substance, this step follows that step and so on. This year has been a real break from all of that. There’s not really much method when it comes to journalism. Not in the same way there is science, anyway.

Cooking takes me back to what I know. Carefully measuring out all the ingredients, checking and double checking the recipe, following it as closely as I can. I feel in control when I’m cooking. It’s calming.

It’s also taking me away from work. Sometimes it’s difficult to pull myself away from work. There’s a need to always be doing something productive. Cooking is taking a break from that. I don’t feel guilty spending an hour or so cooking because I make enough meals for a week and it is something productive, but it’s something different too.

Budget Living

The stereotypical student is always skint, living on beans on toast and the cheapest of drinks. That kind of lifestyle is definitely true of some students, but it doesn’t have to be the case. I finished each term with more than a few pounds left over from my loan.

Halls: Halls is what the majority of my loan was spent on, and I was in the cheapest halls. It’s worth looking around at all of the halls options, because most expensive doesn’t always mean best. And cheapest does not mean bad.

Going out: Don’t. No, it is possible to go out, have a good time, and still stay out of your over draft. It’s about being able to limit your spending, though. DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, TAKE YOUR BANK CARD OUT ON A NIGHT OUT. Know how much you can spend on a night out and do not spend anymore.

It’s the case with most spending that you’re going to need to budget. Per week or per month, you need to know how much you can spend, and have the self-control to keep to that.

Food: It is unrealistic to assume you’re going to be able to eat from the take out every day of the week. Besides the fact that it’s extremely unhealthy, it’s expensive (although, if you have the budget for it, there’s nothing stopping you). Often, it’s cheaper to cook in “batches” than cooking individual meals. It’s easy to cool a giant pot of spaghetti bolognaise and to freeze what isn’t eaten for another day.

Shop around: sometimes things are cheaper at other shops and, if you’re serious about saving as much money as possible, it’s worth spending an hour or so to check out other shops. Include in that discount shops such as (in the UK) Poundland (and all variations) and Savers (especially if you’re a fan of brand name food stuffs).

It may also be worth looking into having a separate account from your current account. Having a savings account to move a portion of my money into helped me budget. With only what was budgeted for the month at hand and everything else put somewhere out of reach, it was a little less tempting to overspend.

Budgeting isn’t hard. It’s working out how much you can spend each week without going into your over draft. Budgeting isn’t the hard part, or living on the limited amount of money, but having the self-control to not over spend is a little more difficult.

Pros and Cons of Living in Halls

Most students will spend their first year at university in university halls, grouped together with a number of people their age who they have never met before. I have spent the last five months living in halls, sharing a flat with around twenty other students studying a range of degrees and from all across the country and beyond. There are pros and cons to living in halls. Some moments in these past five months have been brilliant. Some, less so.

Pros:

Meeting new people: There is no denying that I have met some amazing people through living in halls. When I applied for accommodation, the only choice I got as to who I lived with was if I wanted to stay in a mixed sex flat or an all-girl flat, and nobody in my flat knew anybody else when we moved in. Some of the people I live with are wonderful, and I’ve no doubt that I’ll miss them when I leave halls.

Finding future house mates: For a lot of students, its people in their flat that they chose to rent a house with in second year and beyond, rather than the friends they’ve made on their course, and staying in some other kind of accommodation limits your options for second and third year.

Living independently: For most students, living in halls is the first time that they’ve had to look after themselves for a significantly long period of time. Living in halls gives you access to a kitchen (some larger than others) if you’ve chosen self-catering accommodation, and there’s only so long you can live off of beans on toast before you decide to give the cooker a try. Living independently isn’t just about cooking, of course, but doing the washing, budgeting, and cleaning are all things you’re going to have to get used to before you start “real life” and you might as well start at halls.

Bills are included: Free WIFI (when it isn’t cutting out), heating and water included in accommodation price. Living in halls can be (if you chose the right halls) very cheap. Always a bonus when you’re living on a student budget.

Cons:

“When it isn’t cutting out”: A lot of people have problems connecting to the WIFI in our halls. This isn’t too big an issue most of the time, but is worth bearing in mind if you’re internet dependent.

Sometimes your flat mates are jerks: Sometimes you end up with a few flat mates who you don’t get along with so well. Some universities run a service that allows people to change rooms near the beginning of the year if you find yourself with a group of people you really don’t get along with. Sometimes you’ll just have to grit your teeth and bare it. One year isn’t that bad, right?

Milk wars: Or just general fridge wars. Whilst it’s possible to put a lock on your cupboard or keep your food in your room, most halls won’t let you have a fridge in your room, and you’re going to be sharing one with the rest of your flat. And there is nothing you can do (besides sitting guard all the time) to stop your milk being drunk by other people.

(Fun story: one time someone in my flat drank the last of my milk. It was about a week out of date, but I was being a stingy student and doing the “sniff check” to ensure it hadn’t gone off yet. I’ve no idea if whoever drank my milk did any checks. If not, I’m sure karma got them)

Other fridge war stories include fighting over your shelf, having other food stuffs stolen, and people changing the temperature on the fridge.

Noisy, messy people: Your flat mates can be the nicest people in the world, and still make a mess and keep you up all night. Another thing to bear in mind.

Some Things They Don’t Tell Freshers (Or They Do But They Don’t Listen)

Fresher’s flu is real. Not only is it real, but it is annoying. I suffered from fresher’s flu for a whole half a day. This is mainly because I don’t drink. Judging by the amount of coughing in lectures, the Fresher’s flu stuck around campus for nearly a months. Let’s be realistic, there are different germs all over the country, most of which your body has never seen before. Mix alcohol with that (or don’t, in my case) and you’re probably going to see an effect. Get some soothers and some pain killers (though the latter may be for hangovers rather than colds) and get over it.

Your student loan (at least in the UK) won’t come through until your university had told student finance that you are attending the university. This happened for me when I got my student ID card (not when I turned up on the first day or when I enrolled online). It then did not come through for another week. You are going to have to live for this time. Food. Bring some, but bring a little money too (some that isn’t for partying), because having to eat dry pasta and Lettice sandwiches because you have no money and you’ve already used up most of your food isn’t very fun.

When you have online tutorials, it is probably a good idea to look at them. Not look at them whilst you’re cooking beans on toast. Or look at them whilst you’re rushing to get ready. But really actually watch the tutorials and make sure you understand what’s going on. It’s probably important.

You need to sign on with the doctor if you go to a university away from home. You may never get ill, but there’s a chance. And you do not want to waste your time back at home waiting in a doctor’s waiting room to speak to them if something is serious. Ok, the queue to sign on during freshers may be huge, but it will be worth it. And you may have pee in a tube, but you’re a grown up now.

It’s ok to miss home. A lot of people get home sick when they move away. A lot of the time you leave your friends behind and it is ok to be down about this. It’s also ok to not miss home. A lot of people don’t. University is a different experience for everyone, and don’t judge yourself against other people’s experience.

 

Food at university

The one thing everyone I have spoken to is excited about when they talk about going home is food. Just thinking about the amount of food I’ll have in a meal when I go home over Christmas makes me feel a little sick, because I know it’s going to be more than I’ve eaten in an entire day since starting university.

Last week, whilst I was on the bus going to do my weekly shop, I overheard a conversation between two older ladies. As we went down the road that leads from my halls of residence to the university one of them began pointing out how many fast food restaurants there are on the street (there are a lot). The conversation continued into how lazy students are and how we should learn to cook whilst we are at university.

At the time, I was a little angry, but didn’t say anything. Thinking about it now, I’m still annoyed. I cannot speak for anyone else, but I don’t cook elegant meals every night because I simply do not have the time. With homework, coursework, and all the extracurricular I do, I don’t have time to spend half an hour cooking and then another half an hour eating and cleaning up. I need a bowl of spaghetti hoops in the microwave for two minutes that can be eaten whilst I try to finish my maths coursework.

My diet is awful. I know it is. I’m constantly pestered by my friend to eat better, but there simply isn’t the time.

But not all students are like me. For example, one of the boys on my course made ratatouille the other week. He also frequently makes his own hummus (he’s experimenting to find the right combination or ingredients. I do not know how he has time for that). He’s eating meals I commonly associate with posh restaurants and Disney movies every day.

I don’t understand why there are so many fast food restaurants on that road, but I am almost pretty sure it isn’t because students are too lazy to cook. I’ve never even seen another university student in one of the many chip shops of Chinese restaurants on that street, and the only time I’ve heard about someone getting something from there is after a night out or Two For Tuesdays where my flat mates brought a huge amount of pizza.

Aside from everything else, we don’t have the money to go to these restaurants every day. I visit the chip shop once a week, when I have a meeting on campus at six but I don’t get back to campus until half past five. Whenever I’ve gone in there, the only other people I’ve seen are secondary school children and a handful of “adults”.

I don’t have the healthiest diet in the world, and I’m accustomed to not needing as much food now. But this is not because I’m too lazy to cook or learn to cook. I don’t think I know a student that fits that stereotype.

Food at university for me is cheap and fast. It’s not the same for all students. But we do all miss home cooking.