College is a wake up call for people who never paid attention to how much a $4 Starbucks coffee cost until they were the ones paying for it. Now that I am in college and paying for my own food, if I am going to spend $4 on anything, I better get an entire meal out of it.

My college size budget is $7 a day, and I try to only spend that on food by saving money on things I used to spend money on. I have found a few ways to spend the least amount of money as possible while still getting a high quality meal.

Get a store card at your local grocery store

This is a great way to save a lot of money when buying groceries, because stores always have sales on food and give discounts for store card members. Getting a store card is free, ask the cashier at the check-out for a store card and you can start saving money instantly. Another great thing about some of these store cards is they sometimes go towards saving money on gas when paired with a local gas station.

Find inexpensive restaurants in your area

If you google ‘cheap restaurants near me’ you can discover cheap restaurants that won’t break your bank. Know how much a meal out is going to cost you before you walk into a restaurant. Skip the appetizers and order an entree to save money. Split food with a friend and ALWAYS take leftovers home! Drinks are the easiest way to waste money at restaurants. Order water instead, and lemons and limes are free way to flavor your water.

Know what store brand products are worth the cost reduction

I’m no fan of store brand products for certain foods. I prefer my waffles to be brand name and my cereal to come with a toy, but that doesn’t mean there are some things that are worth buying store brand! Try store brand olive oil, flour, pasta, cheese, etc. And ALWAYS look for the cheapest price for a product. Sometimes the brand name is on sale and cheaper than the store brand. Other times, you can buy in bulk and buy more at once for less.

Shop your fridge

Before you buy more food, look in your fridge and see if you can substitute anything for dinner. Look up the ingredients you have on hand and you can usually find a recipe that will work for what you have in your fridge already.

Don’t buy prepackaged products

Even though it's easier to get the grapes that come in the plastic container, it's much cheaper to buy the bag of grapes. Buying packaged, pre-sliced or washed products is a waste of money for a chore you can easily do yourself and save money on convenience.

The hard part with a lot of the ways I now save money is that it requires a little bit of extra work and planning. But it's worth it, because I get to eat more by saving more.