When Mia Jones left her home in Anglesey to go to university in London, she couldn't cook "whatsoever" - but quickly realised this had to change. "I couldn't live off pasta for the rest of my life," she says - and all the ready meals and pot noodles were starting to add up. "I'd be spending £45 a week on food," says the 22-year-old.
"That wasn't viable." So she started buying fresh ingredients. "Then I realised, 'Oh, I need to learn how to cook now'." She started following social media videos for tips and recipes, swapping out foods she didn't like. While there were some early disasters it was not long before Mia was proud to say she could cook.
"It made me realise I could function on my own and live on my own", she says. "[First year] me would not be able to believe it all". What's more, Mia cut her weekly shop by £20 - and found she had more energy.
"I was feeling a lot more awake in my lectures, which was very useful," she says. After finishing her masters degree she now shares her recipes online, hoping to help other students in the same position she was in. Rumella Dasgupta asks what dishes you should be able to cook when you leave home for the first time Mia and other once culinary-challenged students have shared the signature dishes they learned that were cheap, easy - and most importantly tasty.
All of the recipes can be made by stocking up a starter store cupboard for under £13. Then each meal uses additional ingredients for under £2.50 - which make several portions perfect for the next day or popping in the freezer. We asked retail tracking platform Assosia to find the rough cost of standard sized packs of ingredients using the average pre-promotion price across Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda & Morrisons on 11 September 2026.
Mia's first recipe is a chickpea curry: "It's very cheap and very nutritious," she says. This article contains content provided by TikTok. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies.
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