If you’re a college student with a tight budget and a heavy workload, eating three healthy meals a day might be quite a challenge. Yet, taking a trip to your local grocery store instead of eating fast food not only keeps more cash in your pocket but also puts healthier food in your stomach.
Begin with Basics
It’s a well-known adage that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’ve heard it all before, but even if it borders on cliché, it couldn’t be truer. Think of breakfast as a great way to get you energized for the day ahead that does not necessarily have to be time consuming. 
Instead of grabbing an expensive value meal from a chain or a bagel from the local deli, pick up a box of generic cereal. Generics (like Malt-O-Meal®) are very inexpensive, come in family-sized packaging and are just as nutritious as brand name items. They even passed the ABC News test, when a study conducted by Consumer Reports showed that generic cereals matched brand names in quality, flavor and nutritional value. And let’s not forget about that incredibly low ticket price.
Mid-Day Munchies
As for lunch, a hot meal like your mom used to make is only minutes away. With just water and a microwave, you can have Kraft Easy Mac Cups
, a personalized serving of macaroni and cheese that’s ready to eat in roughly 4 minutes and pretty darn tasty to boot. Pair it with some frozen vegetables and you’ve got a fast and healthy meal. Be choosy about your snacks though, they can get quite pricey.
If you’re in the market for an inexpensive and delicious potato chip, Utz® Snacks makes delicious chips at discount prices. For a miniscule $17.99, you can get a box of 60 snack-sized bags of chips in a variety of flavors. The quaint bag size even helps you keep the snacking to a reasonable level and keeps you chips fresher than a conventional-sized bag.
Dine in Style
Finally, we tackle the dinner menu. If you’re not willing to experiment, ramen noodles are still a cheap and effective way to fill yourself up. Nissin® Top Ramen® and Cup Noodles® are the gold standard, but lesser-known brand Smack® offers over 20 flavors and is often cheaper than the already bargain-priced Nissin items. 
If you consider yourself adventurous, Stouffer’s® Skillet Sensations® are low calorie and easy to prepare (all you need is a skillet), while Betty Crocker’s® Suddenly Salad line takes the mystery out of all those amazing pasta salads your aunt brings to the 4th of July cookout.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to make meal time healthy, cheap and easy. Just grab a shopping cart and go to it!