food parcel ideas

seasideshack

My son is also going to uni in a couple of weeks so thanks for all the great ideas on this thread. I am going to make him a little hamper to take with him now I have finished buying all the other stuff he needs.

THIRZAH

My DDs used to like home made cakes and biscuits. I would often freeze a few biscuits or make a small cake-in a mini loaf tin- every time I baked so I would have a variety of cakes to take them. I also used to take a couple of frozen home made "ready meals" such as lasagne or a small steak pie-the kind of thing they wouldn't cook for themselves.

I used to save anything suitable that was on BOGOF-shampoo, shower gel etc.That kept the cost of the parcels down a bit.

shellsmithcat

When my son was at Uni I used to really worry about him eating - as he had no idea - so every now and then I would do a Tesco online shop -and get it sent to his bedsit - and buy just cheap basics and fruit so I always knew he had something to eat - and toilet roll so he could keep that clean too LOL

zippychick

Not read all yet - but this reminded me of "Emergency Food tin" - just in cas it's useful. Sort of similar!

zippychick

how good a cook is he?

I would start with very basics storecupboard - salt/pepper/rice, pasta, mixed herbs,lazy garlic, bag of frozen chopped onions/peppers/peas - 99p from iceland a bag

Jam/brown sauce/red sauce/ mustard/chilli sauce depending on tastes and food consumed

Tins of beans/tinned toms/potatoes?/Cheap tinned soup/kidney beans/spaghetti

Failsafe recipes - Simple recipes written down to make from the ingredients you supply... Like veggy chilli, pasta sauce - also with costings per portion at the side so he can see the potential svings, and he always has a few meals "in the cupboard"

Then i would get some basics in baking stuff - if he will use them

then i would start on utensils and kitchen basics - again depending on his facilities

Gosh, it's harder than I thought to do this! So many possibilities !

borokat

I was in catered halls in my first year but needed to sort my own lunch, and evening meal on Saturday and Sunday. Two microwave ovens were provided for this purpose to be shared between 16 of us, plus a fridge. Things I would have liked/used:
UHT milk (for emergencies)
Cheap kettle, Cheap toaster (these could be kept in room)
Cereal
Tea & coffee
At least 2 mugs so you can make drinks for friends
Hot chocolate
Tins of soup
Batchelors pasta n sauce
Chocolate & biscuits
A microwave dish
Clingfilm

In second year had own house but still only 1 shelf in cupboard and 1 shelf in fridge so bear in mind storage will be quite limited. But to be honest anything that saves money would be welcome!

esmf73

As per others have said - find out what he has available to him cooking wise, and what he is allowed to have in his room. Might be nice to give him a combined Christmas present too - a mini oven with 2 ringed hob above which will sit in his room - or a microwave.

You could do a once a term style pack - gives you 12 weeks to shop for it so it doesn't eat into your budget too much of things like pasta, toiletries etc, then a once a month pack of perhaps a favourite snack - as in perhaps an Options hot chocolate sachet and a pack of chocolate bics. Or send through a supermarket delivery company enough for the last week of term (this is when I always ran out of money and ate some really wierd stuff!).

Anyone for spaghetti bolognese made with cabbage? (because I couldn't afford meat - disgusting but kept me on 1 cabbage for a week!)

carolinosourus

esmf73 wrote: »

Might be nice to give him a combined Christmas present too - a mini oven with 2 ringed hob above which will sit in his room - or a microwave.

Nice idea but when I was in halls (about 5 years ago now, :eek: wow time flies!) we weren't allowed anything like this in our rooms, no microwave, kettle, stove, toaster anything like that. However I think I was lucky as for 8 of us (I did go self-catered though) we had 2 ovens, 2 sinks, 2 hobs, a fridge and a freezer and at least one cupboard each. Funny thing was, it was amazing how many people went self-catering and had never ever cooked for themselves before. In my first week I had to take about 3 blokes to the supermarket as they'd never done it before and had literally no idea what to do...

Confuzzled

actually i think something important to consider is how well the student looks after themselves, if they aren't so good about it then i would of course take some of the more expensive goodies like sauces, spices etc for them to pep up cheap food but also enough fresh fruit for a week at least or perhaps some tinned fruit

students tend to skip the fruit and veg when money is really tight so that might just be the boost they need, also cartons of fruit juice could be a help and as someone else mentioned uht milk (which i find, in hostels at least) tends not to be 'borrowed' as readily as fresh milk

also if you can keep it fresh til you get there some nice cheese might be a good choice, cheese really makes cheap food tasty but it's not the cheapest thing to buy.

whilst students eat a lot of pasta, pasta is cheap and so they can usually squeeze it into their budgets along with baked beans etc etc, it's the more expensive things that make nicer meals like coconut milk or coconut cream (you can actually make coconut milk from coconut cream and it's much cheaper so it's a better option normally) balsamic vinegar, spices, garlic granules etc etc are sooo nice to received as gifts.

something else you might try is to take them out to the local shop and teach them how to find good bargains. teaching them your own money saving habits will stand them in the best stead they could hope to be in in this new venture in their lives... though they'll still happily take the goodies you bring