One of the biggest worries for parents when you’re away at Uni is that you’re eating properly. They’ll grudgingly accept you being out until the small hours and crawling home, and even knowing it’s causing you to miss those early morning lectures, but when it comes to missing out on Mum’s home cooked meals, it’s a constant source of concern.

Supermarkets are doing very well from this – they’ve made it possible for Mums and Dads to send gift cards to their young students so that they know that you’ve got money to spend on the food shop. While that doesn’t guarantee that the money won’t get spent on the booze aisle, it does mean it won’t go over the bar after midnight when judgement is mildly impaired.

There’s also more ways for students to get more at the local supermarket, like shopping intelligently. There’s simple things like checking out the offers, as they all run plenty of multi-buy (buy two get one free) style offers and even price match between each other in the hope of winning our custom. Another great tip is to choose shopping times carefully, as visiting a store late at night will mean perishables are getting knocked down on price, and there’s less of a contest at the checkout when it’s quiet too.

Something we’re all prone to doing is missing out on offers in supermarkets because we don’t need 3 bottles of washing up liquid or a free bottle of coke with a pizza. But students tend to live with other students, so they can split the cost. Why not take advantage of lower prices all round by group buying the offers? You can really cut down on the total cost of your weekly shop this way, and help your mates do the same!

Finally, why not enter the huge number of competitions out there that let you win food vouchers? If you get lucky, you could get a whole term’s worth of free shopping.

So, make Mum and Dad worry about something else for a change and let them know you’re eating well and spending less.