How to eat well on the cheap when you're a student

Dunedin law and global studies student Renata Herrera Rojas is determined to get young people feeding their brain properly, without busting the budget.

"Not only do the students not have those [cooking] skills, they don't know where to get those skills," she tells host of RNZ's Thrift podcast, Katy Gosset.

Renata, of Chilean heritage, says food is a big part of her family's culture - she and her sister had a solid repertoire of recipes from the age of 10.

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"It meant that we became self-sustained a lot younger," she says.

The fourth year student has written a manual, the Beginner's Guide to Nourishment, to make cheap and healthy student eating easy. It covers meal planning, a pantry guide, equipment info, some advice about storing and choosing produce, and where to shop.

Follow and listen to Thrift on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, YouTube Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

Nutrition should be a priority to fuel the brain, Renata says.

"I've always really been into this topic because I grew up in a house where we cooked from very little."

If children are taught to cook, not only can parents take a night out of the kitchen, they're also preparing kid for life out of the nest.

"It was so easy to transition from living with my mum and dad to living alone," Renata says.

She reckons healthy eating has a lot more impact than some students realise.

"For quality of life and being able to have your brain functioning properly."

Consider making a big meal and splitting it up into portions to freeze, defrosting one when you need it so nothing is wasted.

Renata always aims to have leftovers, but she does consider how many nights in a row she will want to be eating the same thing.

"It's actually a biological thing that we get sick of eating the same thing because our brain thinks that it's gone bad because we're eating the same thing over and over again," she believes.

Renata suggests having a well-equipped kitchen so cooking feels easy, and one is less likely to reach for a packet of noodles. She has the right knives - bigger ones for root vegetables like pumpkin and potatoes, a serrated one for fruit and bread.

"Blunt knives are actually more dangerous because if they can't cut through the vegetable properly they can slip and cut your fingers." And wash your blades by hand - dishwashers will blunt your knives.

She says good tools make food taste better.

"The [chopping] boards can pick up flavours or smells ... you don't want your morning breakfast to have like an onion-y taste to it," she tells Thrift.

And opt for a wooden board over plastic - they will last longer. Get good stainless steel pans, and learn how to use them properly.

"With stainless steel, if you learn how to use it and you make sure that it's properly hot, it'll actually become non-stick itself... You just have to be a little patient but in the long run, it's going to last you way longer. So it's a little bit about long-term investment."

Renata shops at a small Indian supermarket in Dunedin, but there are similar independent vege shops all over New Zealand.

Find bulk bins of dry legumes and seeds where you can scoop out how much you need and avoid overshopping.

"I end up paying basically nothing," she says. "It's such a steal."

Consider how fruit and vegetables are stored to make them last longer, she says.

"At room temperature, the fruits and vegetables release gases that make other vegetables ripen quicker."

Renata juggles her produce between the fridge and the fruit bowl to make sure that nothing gets wasted. She keeps leafy greens with their roots on in the fridge.

"Eating the way that I do is costing me about $150 a fortnight," leaving her wiggle room to go out for dinner or buy something new.