Student food "staples" parcel - suggestions?

Sligo

My daughter is going back for 2nd year this weekend.

I suggest ready to wok noodles, soy sauce and chinese 5 spice powder. Great for a quick stir fry with or without chicken. Also the sachets of chinese sauces are very handy for livening noodles up.

Baking tray - very useful, but was binned at the end of last year due to the state of it! A decent tin opener, corkscrew/bottleopener and a couple of sharp knives - bright coloured handles make them easier to keep track of!

Another vote for putting covers on quilt and pillows before you go up. Also my girl loves her warmy furry blanket/throw - for wrapping in when sick/hungover!

We will be food shopping when we get there after unpacking cos she likes to do her own shopping (on my card!) and car will be packed to roof anyway!

Fable

I'm a student now, and what I'd value most would be heavy items. I don't have a car at uni, so having baked beans, cans of soup etc can be difficult to travel on public transport from a shop.
So bulky or heavy things like canned food, as it'll last better as well.
Also some treats, anything which is a favourite treat at home or would make her day better, and remind of of home of she feels homesick.

ThinkingOfLinking

When I started university, I made myself a stockpile of staple items:

Salt, Pepper, Mixed Herbs, Dried Chilli Flakes
Various stock cubes (beef, chicken, ham, vegetable)
Ketchup, mayo, mustard
3kg bag of pasta
Large bag of rice from the local ethnic store
Large bag of potatoes
Flour
Vegetable oil (for frying), olive oil
Sachets of soup and pasta with sauce
Cake mix sachets
Fresh eggs
UHT milk
Porridge
Tins of spam, tuna, baked beans, various vegetables, spaghetti, etc
Tea
Sugar
Cocoa
Marmite, marmelade, honey
Dried vegetables (in sachets)

Gr33ng1ng3r

I would agree with much of what has been said. DD1 just graduated and DD2 returning for final year. Both have agreed that the best thing they took with them was a slow cooker - brilliant for batch cooking and freezing.

Would also suggest Long life milk. When I visit I normally supply the fresh fruit and veg but dried fruit (blueberries or apricots usually!) goes down a storm when snacking and working.

Don't spend a fortune - things will not come back, name your items in the fridge if it is important to you cos stuff will disappear. A tip my daughter was given by the lady who set up her student account at the bank - add a drop of green food colouring to your milk because it stops it being stolen!

Good Luck!

babyshoes

Some good ideas here.

I'd suggest a pack of the BIGGEST coffee mugs you can find.
For the 'making new friends' week, a big jar of hot chocolate is great, along with biccies and a bottle of cream liqueur - it is great in coffee or hot choc. When I was in res, whoever could afford the cream liqueur had everyone in their room!

A door notepad and pencil was popular when I was at Uni for 'I popped in but you were out' or 'come to my room for coffee later' type of notes, and nice to look back on when you find them years later.

For homesickness, childhood nostalgia sweeties/snacks can be comforting. When my best friend went to uni a year before me, I made her a box full of wrapped items including sweeties, chocs, notes, photos, cuddly toys etc. The idea was that when she felt homesick, she could pull out a random happy memory or comfort item.

Back then, phone cards were a popular item so you could phone home from the phone booth in the res (just the memory makes me feel old!). I suppose now the equivalent would be mobile airtime if she's on PAYG.

Quaint1

Possibly a bit late to post this now, but just in case anyone else might find this of use - My family has a Christmas 'tradition' of buying joky and cheap presents for Boxing Day - toys from one of the various Pound/99p shops, free makeup/shampoo/tea/coffee samples, that sort of thing (for which MSE comes in very handy).
Last Christmas, I decided to go slightly more practical for my then about-to-start-at-Uni nephew, so filled a cardboard box with stuff from a supermarket 'basics' range - and was surprised at what I could find there! Some of it will, no doubt, be less than perfect, but some of the staples (pasta, tea/coffee) will be acceptable, and some (chocolate) is better than the 'regular' stuff! IF nothing else, it gave the lad an idea of what was available - I didn't spend more than 50p per item, and much of it has been useful to him (he could already cook well)
He did also get a top-uppable supermarket gift card, just in case!

If there is a freezer available to the student, I'd suggest some freezable storage tubs and the recommendation to batch cook and portion/freeze stuff like stews, Lasagna, etc. And a lot of mince based dishes can be stretched out with the addition of a tin of beans - even the 'basic' kind!
Au Res.,
Paul

savetosave

Pesto, my boys could live on pesto and pasta with grated cheese.
I've made my son his own cookbook with his favourite home food including the 'poorly soup' I make when he's not feeling well.

moneysavingnomads

A microwave and a crock pot are a good ideas...crockpot needs a bit of pre-planning I grant you but you can cook big hearty meals using chicken or cheaper meat cuts and it uses so little electricity.
And when they are hard up...sausage casseroles?:

bauhaus_modern

cleaning products - fairy liquid, washing powder, cleaning cloths and bleach
toilet rolls, toothpaste, soaps and shampoos
pasta and jars of pasta sauces
cous cous mixes
tins/packets of beans, tomatoes, sweetcorn, coconut milk, spices (chilli, cumin, curry, oil, soy sauce)
basmati rice, noodles.
biscuits like abernethys, nice, tea, digestives, ginger snaps etc!
maybe even a few emergency pot noodles!

everything else like onions, peppers, potatoes, bread, vegetables they can buy on an ongoing basis.

you could live like a king on that lot for a long time!!

lynsayjane

If it was something you were regularly looking to contribute too I did see in a large supermarket a gift card that had two parts, one was for the student and the other was kept by the parent etc to top up.
Maybe something like this where they can buy what they require hopefully not all in the alcohol aisle!