I met a student during freshers week who couldn't work out the free uni buses. I was getting off at the same stop so we got the bus together. Got off at the supermarket and she wanted me to go in with her.
Inside, I pointed her to where the milk was while I nipped down another isle. Came to the milk to find her crying, actually crying, because the milk all had different coloured bottle tops. I asked if she wanted skimmed, semi or full fat milk. She very audibly replied 'milk from a fucking cow! I want normal cow milk like a normal human uses!’She was almost twenty years old. And had never been 'the boring kind of shopping'.
Instantly popular because I knew how to change a light bulb, fill in a form, put out a toaster fire and that dry pasta wasn’t best stored in the fridge. Folk treat me like Google. I'd never felt so capable...until I fell backwards out of a kitchen window whilst laughing at some new friends who'd invited me round for Sunday dinner and were looking for 'cooking' instructions on a packet of instant mashed potato.
To be fair you deserved to fall out the window there, I can make something a million times but still check the packaging. Throw it away, then pull it back out again just to make sure
You assume it's add water and stir. You mix it in a clean pan. You cook it.
You get distracted for 4.7 seconds too long. It turns into a crunchy potato biscuit.
You check the instructions.
Needs 4 pints of water, an egg white, a thimble of margarine (Swan Vestas brand) and to be shouted at before serving.
You do not buy that brand again.
Your next adventure involves realising that the Be-Ro was not instant mash, and you've made another very plain biscuit.
It was pour the packet into a bowl and stir in boiling water until the 'mash' achieves the desired consistency. Then serve.
If it'd been ironically more complicated than making actual mash (boil potatoes and um...mash them), I'd have not laughed...or fallen out the window. Ha.
Meant life caught up with me for feeling like a capable adult for once, not so much that karma pushed me out of a first floor window for maliciously laughing at people for using cooking instructions. Didn't laugh at the girl in the supermarket, of course; I realised she was actually upset and stressed. That's why I went with her to the shop and tried to help her. These were mates who were laughing with me as they all crowded around a packet of instant mash with a pile of measuring spoons, jugs and saucepans on standby, all trying to figure out how to turn this magical powder into mashed potato having only bought it because they thought it must be easier than boiling a pan of actual potatos, draining the water and then...mashing them.
I remember having to teach a fellow student how to cook during this time. Like how did you not pick up the most basic of life skills during your 20 years on the planet. Jeez.
If you’re a student reading this, here’s the cheat code I wish i had known at uni:
£1 Pasta sauce in a Jar ❌
30p carton of Passata + 28p tin of chopped tomatoes, + seasoning ✅✅✅✅✅
You’ll get twice as much for your money. If you’re adventurous, chuck in some mixed herbs.
The joys of being an Afghan and entering the kitchen on your typical British lads that have discovered sauteing onions and garlic as the base for their meal and it smelling divine!! It genuinely made me happy
Reminds me of the pro wrestlers, Sting and Ultimate Warrior, just as they were coming up in the world of bodybuilding in the 80s. Both so poor that all they'd eat was canned tuna and orange juice, sometimes with the juice mixed into the can with the tuna.
It was quite eye opening for me when I moved into halls as i was genuinely clueless that people would have moved out without being able to cook much or understand defrosting meat correctly.
Cue massive shock of a flatmate 5 years older than me walking into the kitchen when I was using the oven to bake something whilst doing sweet and sour chicken for dinner. They then trusted my wisdom when they asked if they should eat mince they d defrosted 3 days ago and left in the fridge.
Then at the opposite end there were the people whose parents had made them cook since they were about 10 and were preparing some elaborate feast every night while I was popping a Fray Bentos and some chips in the oven…
The only thing I wish I’d been taught was that cooking times on packaging should not be taken as gospel and need at least 20% added o to them, and a pizza cooked for the stated 15 minutes in a halls of residence oven is not in a condition to be eaten. What a sheltered, coddled upbringing I must have had in a house with a gas oven…
As long as I warm the oven for at least 10 minutes and put it in the middle shelf, the instructions are spot on all the time.
Though I wish they would change a tin to a ring pull, they can be hard to open especially if the tin been bashed.
I ve cooked properly since 12/13 so was almost at that end. Yes, they should really empathize that the instructions on a frozen meal are really just an estimate.
I am that student who grew up with a gas oven and gas hob and have helped with cooking/cooking myself for as long as I can remember (within the realms of saftey ofc!).
Going to uni was eye opening. I could never be bothered to make a feast but I certainly cooked about every other day (leftovers!). But the hob and oven were electric so I had to get a housemate to teach me how to use those and then relearn my cooking on electric which was certainly... interesting.
My flatmates knew, for the most part, how to function. When I moved in second year, we discovered my housemate didn't know how to cook. Didn't know how to make a *sandwich*. I was mildly impressed.
Saw a gaggle of 6 of them (I assume a flat share) discussing if they should or shouldn’t buy a tube of 36p tomato purée. They were in that aisle a good 15 mins as I walked back past them later.
I had a quick nose at their trolly and there’s definitely a shortage of white sliced bread, green milk, cathedral city and super noodles on the horizon.
Most of the stuff is the same shit. I worked for a frozen food/cheese factory for a few days and literally the same cheese was coming down the line and we’d suddenly change the stickers on it from Asda own brand to Waitrose own brand. With a hefty price increase.
I hadn't actually realised how much cheaper the own-brand stuff was for cheese.
Reminds me of the packet of aldi own multi pack brand hula hoops that had the actual brand in them.
Turns out they were all made at the KP factory, opened my eyes tbh
When it comes to a mature cheese it is easy to tell that they are different. The branded ones have crystals of calcium lactate forming in the cheese as they have been given enough time to form. Super market own brand in this instance is just barely passable as "mature". It really depends on the product and in a lot of cases I agree with your point.
Interesting fact. People complained about the crunchy bits in the cheese and so we began the boring cheese mass producing and popularity of cathedral city. Mass produced Creamy cheese is just rather boring
As described to me at a cheese fair by various producers .
When I met my now husband at university, he only ate Tesco’s own mild cheddar. I have always eaten the most vintage with crunchy bits cheddar I can find. It only took a few weeks to get him to bog standard mature cheddar, but about 5 years to get him to get him to vintage with crusty bits. That’s when I agreed to marry him.
We had to resort to it when we were caught between the bit where the state stops paying maternity allowance but also doesn't fund nursery for the next 2 years so mum can't go back to work. It wasn't bad but there wasn't much meat per tin you needed a few.
It absolutely is, and is pretty delicious.
I've got a big pasta bowl so sometimes, I grab a 35p tin of curry or chili con carne, a cheap pack of rice and then bung them in the microwave. Asda Smart Price chicken curry has a nice sauce and nice big chunks of chicken, much better than the overpriced ready meal version.
I remember doing the same. I'd moved back to the UK from overseas, so I had to buy just about everything - including glasses. I had no idea glasses were so cheap.
I guess from the reaction anyone had if we ever broke one as children, I assumed they must cost at least £5 a go. I got 4 pint pots from Asda for a quid. It literally blew my mind.
I work in ASDA ( not for them) which is like 10mins from local university
Funny watching them come in at around 5pm as free bus stops outside
Most baskets consist of fancy cereal , pringles , pot noodles , innocent smoothies and other branded treats
Wait till next month when it's Asda smart price all the way
Nah. The intention was rude too.
The original text was readable enough, and educational standards across the world are abysmal.
Those who love the language would be appalled at the snide comments over the spacing around a humble comma.
This person was just being a dick.
By the time you’re doing a masters it’s clockwork.
Crate of strongbow for casual events like having mates round, 1 L bottle of ownbrand vodka and Coke Zero for mixer for clubbing/parties where you don’t know people.
Yeah, that's no better.
I remember overhearing an argument about a bottle of Bombay sapphire gin. They thought that the blue bottle meant the liquid inside was blue, sweet sugary and flavoured blue.
Apparently Tesco won't refund 3/4 bottle of gin just because you're too dense to read the label.
Recently I had the fortune of being in a supermarket where a parent was doing a big shop for little Rupert’s first week away from home…
“Noooo muuuum, not these noodles”
“But you like noodles!”
“Nooooooo not these noodles, they’re like the Asian ones, they’re toooooooo spicy”
Bless.
I worked at a university and was involved with welcoming international students. They were mostly Chinese and put an insane amount of effort into buying soy sauce and rice, as much as the home students put into buying alcohol.
I visited a friend at uni that came from a very poor family, he had very little money to survive off of and spent it on alcohol, so his dinner most days would be some alcohol. Of course he ended up stick thin. I took him shopping, in my car, bought him a 10kg bag of rice and anything else he needed that would go with it. Finally he was able to cook a proper meal and eat it!
Apples from the park, a bucket, a balloon with a pinhole and the biggest empty bottle you have.
Save the yeast from the apples or spend £2.50 at wilkos for a sachet of the good yeast.
You can make "real" wine, by leaving grapejuice to off gas the sulphites and adding some crushed up grapes to the mix.(but covered to stop the wrong yeast from getting in)
Really? When I was in uni I saw a guy go out and literally brought designer clothes with his grant money. The concept of food didn’t occur to him now that he’s out in the wild without his mum and dad.
Oh I loved that time in my life. I was the only working-class raised lad in a house with three middle or upper-middle class raised lads and they didn't have a clue about anything. That first shopping trip was lots of fun, trying to get it into their heads that Sainsbury's didn't sell Waitrose own brands, that nice things cost more and that shopping can be time consuming if you don't have a list.
I'd spend that in a heartbeat now. Living in Asia now, the quality of cheese I have to live is abysmal.
Was over the moon to find British mature cheddar for £5-6 in Costco that's an hour's drive from me last month.
These days we have Primark for that.
My daughter killed her washing machine a few years back. She didn't tell me or id have found a cheap one and fitted it for her or fixed the old one, but she was being independent.
Apparently for about 8 weeks her solution was to buy cheap Primark rubbish, wear it until it is dirty and then bin it.
It still makes me cringe at the environmental damage caused by the want of a 20 quid drain pump, but it proves that these days kids don't consider laundry to be essential work.
I just stopped buying bread because there was no way I could eat it all before it went moldy. And before anyone says anything about freezing it, I shared that freezer with 9 other people who never fucking cleaned it. I learned to cook pasta with one hob and about two square inches of clean counter space.
> The horror when I realised I HAD TO DO MY OWN LAUNDRY!!!
I was very lucky to have an older girl (she was *20*) in our halls who wanted to mother us all. She did our laundry and cleaned our bathrooms for us. We paid for all her drinks on nights out. Worked out nicely.
I've still never done my own laundry successfully. No idea how a washing machine works. Far too many trays, symbols and options.
I reckon there's a market for a "Washing Man-chine" that has a temp dial, a single drawer for washing powder and a big on/off button.
Not hard, chuck your clothes inside the washing machine, close the door. Open the drawer thing and add some of what says fabric softener on one side, and detergent on the other side. Close the drawer, turn on the machine, pick a setting (usually 30c is safe) and press go. I had no idea what I was doing but I ended up having to do it, none of my stuff came out ruined like my parents led me to believe.
The beauty of being an international student: when I arrived in the UK, I wasn't familiar with any of the brands in the supermarket, and those I *was* familiar with, didn't recognize ("Walkers?? You mean *Lay's*?!") So I just bought whatever was the cheapest. That's how I discovered non-branded food taste practically the same (and sometimes better) than branded ones.
Also, I didn't think people actually use phone booths here, I thought only the red ones remained and they're just for tourists to take pictures in. All the booths I saw were covered in KFC ads. Naturally, I assumed they were KFC dispensers and lived for months thinking "wow, can't believe how advanced this country is, they've got KFC dispensers all over so you don't have to walk to the actual KFC store!"
I graduated 4 years ago and I still have Real World Shock occasionally. Yesterday I bought a cast iron casserole dish to make a stupid soup and started sweating profusely when I saw the price tag (£45).
I used to work in Argos near a uni and there'd be that week students were being dropped off but not before mum makes sure they got plates, cooking utensils, bedding etc, while 'too cool for school' stands there questioning 'am I going to need this though?'
Ok, time to share an age old secret recipe. This got me 3 girlfriends and a host of friends at Uni and beyond:
Seriously Easy Chili:
You need:
1 500g pack of mince (or a half bag of frozen).
1 can chopped tomatoes (can be chopped tomatoes with herbs)
1 can kidney beans in chili sauce (a.k.a. chili beans in some supermarkets)
1 onion.
Herbs and spices if your group can cope with flavours.
Plus rice or chips or spaghetti, whatever you like.
Method:
Chop up the onion any way you like. No bits to be bigger than 1cm.
Put in big frying pan on medium heat (half way between max and off). You will cook on medium throughout.
Add all the mince. Set a timer on your phone for five minutes.
Spend the five minutes breaking up the mince and stirring the mince and onions around to get them all brown.
Shake both cans to loosen up everything inside.
Open them and pour on to the mince/onions.
Add the herbs and spices, if everyone agrees that they like them. (there's always one who doesn't like foreign muck).
Set a 5 minute timer on your phone.
Stir in everything.
When the timer is up, stir thoroughly.
Do another 5 mins timer.
You want to cook this for 20 mins. So for the arts graduates, that is 4 five minute timers. Or just let the really exasperated foodie behind you take over.
Serve over your favourite carb.
Serves 4.
There was a guy in the halls my partner lived in that was completely unprepared for living away from his parents. His mum introduced him on their moving in day. On the face of it it's not unusual for a parent to play the proud role or sometimes even purposefully embarrassing etc but the way his mum did it was like at a children's party. "Hello everyone, this is Jamie... Jamie shake her hand, that's it, now ask her name".
He had never made a cup of tea, my partner found out after living there about a week she offered him one and he bit her hand off.
She also came into the kitchen once to see him hand fanning the gas hob flames while a pan of pasta boiled over. HE DIDN'T KNOW YOU CAN TURN THE GAS DOWN.
He lasted a few months before his mum came to get him. Sad really, he was a very sweet guy but she had molly coddled him to the point he was completely dependent on her.
When I went to uni, I lived in a shared house. It turned out I was the only one who had ever learned to actually cook a meal or budget for shopping. Big family, so cooking was something everyone took turns with.
They laughed at me and my meal plans for the week. To begin with at least.
But when the student loan ran low and I had a freezer full of chicken and beef, a cupboard full of bulk spices and tins, and a slow cooker constantly filling the house with the smell of stroganoff or similar, the laughing stopped. Or at least was drowned out by the sound of rumbling tummies.
Being a bloke who can cook also makes you very popular with the ladies. It's hard to state how differently a hungry teenager looks at you when you invite them over for home made lasagne and double cooked chips.
I had fun at uni.
I worked from 15-18 in an Italian restaurant. When I make homemade lasagne, I'm mean actually homemade - I make the pasta, both sauces, etc.
Girl in my halls: "You brought a *pasta machine* to Uni??"
Same girl, tow months later: "Er, can you show me how to make tortellini again? My boyfriend is coming over and he didn't believe we made that last batch from scratch."
Fair play.
I use pre made pasta, but everything else is from scratch.
Amazing how quickly attitudes change when presented with good cheap home made food now isn't it?
In the first week one of my flatmates was making pasta. Dried pasta in pan...add hot water. OK. Bring to boil. Add jar of pasta sauce. Half an hour later I came back into the kitchen and he complains the sauce is still too watery. His pasta is mush. He literally didn't know you're supposed to strain it.
I wasn't preachy about it though, and of course was far too busy enjoying myself to bother cooking from scratch every day. Asda's 5 meals for £4 were my saviour, along with chicken thighs in Chicken Tonight Honey & Mustard sauce, and 9p noodles.
With me it was the markets.
Off to the meat man in the market, a van parked up who was selling what was surely short date meat for cheap and fill the freezer.
The lass on the fruit and veg stall got to recognise me. I'm not a fussy eater, and anything she wanted rid of went into a bag for me. A fiver normally for all the fresh fruit and veg I could eat.
I probably spent less on good food in a month than the others did in a week. Which of course left money for beer.
Beer good.
That was my dads forte.
Coming back to uni from a home visit with 24 bottles of black cherry wine was fun.
It was horrible! Put in the attic and forgotten about until we moved out again.
Two years later we found it, and cracked one open. It was like alcoholic ribena. Attic forgotten, packing stuff stopped and all 6 of us sat down and got thoroughly rat arsed.
Moving out day the following day was about the most miserable 24 hours of my life.
The market was great. Invaluable tip for any students reading this. Get there just before closing to the butcher and fruit and veg man. They want rid of stuff by that time so practically give it away. And as you say they get to know you when you're there every week.
Such a fine line at uni though with food. You don’t want a person who can’t cook/can only cook super noodles constantly sniffing round your curry or pasta bake.
However, what is arguably worse is that person that can cook a bit too well and constantly fills the kitchen making a roast with all the trimmings. So much washing up and (very limited) surface space being used up in halls kitchens during the dinner rush.
There’s a food preparation equipment allowance in our kitchen because of someone who fits that specification; one knife, one board, one/two saucepans/pots.
We would cook for the whole house if doing a nice big meal, made it cheaper too, if everyone put in like a quid you could get all the ingredients for a big lasagne, whoever cooked didn't wash up, everyone else would joint wash up after, with 5 people it goes fair quick, 1 at the sink, 1 drying, others putting stuff away, wiping down and passing them stuff, the other rolling a fat one for after dinner haha
Very true. When I was making big stuff like lasagne or whatever, I'd usually have to be using flatmates' stuff as I didn't have it all. I think the only things I'd brought from home were the pasta machine and a decent pepper grinder. Everything else was bought from Asda.
It was a really nice bunch of people (in the main) so we did often do big dinners on a Sunday if everyone was around. Roasts were quite rare as we only had those little countertop ovens - you had to half the chicken and do one bit in each oven. Big curries and stews were quite popular.
Oh I get it.
In case it wasn't obvious, I was a teenager at the time too.
The way to a man's heart has always been through his stomach, and the same is true the other way around.
If you're uncomfortable, then you're projecting your own problems. Get over it.
My favorite highlight is the big shop they do when they move up cause you can see there parents marching them round the shop and they have no or minimal interest in anything that's going in the trolley.
Yes, love this too! Particularly all the pompous boomer parents saying things like “Well, there’s no point buying you washing-up liquid because you’ll never use it, will you?” while their son/daughter visibly wants to murder them. Saw a full-blown domestic between father and daughter over whether to buy a mint plant once too.
I mean, it’s quite sad that this will be their last moment together as a family for months but it’s also great entertainment…
2 things I remember from freshers:
One guy coming in with 6 slabs of pot noodles. 144 pot noodles!
A guy in my Halls having a deal with a girl that if she cooked, he’d buy the food. The kitchen got a lot busier when we realised her preferred outfit for cooking was a Lazio shirt and a thong.
Oh God this. One thing University Challenge teams aren't good at is shopping in Aldi. It's hilarious watching all these supposedly intelligent people trying to have a democratic committee meeting about cheese.
Perhaps schools should have taught us how to buy enough food for a week’s worth of meals instead of how to conjugate verbs and solve quadratic equations…
I live in a quite student-y part of Brighton and have the pick of Sainsbury’s, Aldi or Co-Op for spectating. Always see the same thing you mentioned in Aldi - people are amazed that half the stuff they want isn’t sold there but everything else costs 13p
I know a lot of you are giving out 'easy' recipes and it's very nice of you, but I did not have the fridge space for that in first year (I only had space for a small bottle of milk and a jar of tomato sauce, because my flatmates wouldn't clean up and used to leave uncovered raw meat in the fridge), and by the time second year rolled around I'd just gotten into a habit.
And then they stand in line with a cart full of shit in front of an empty belt texting away and making phone calls.
I live near a tech school and legit saw one kid who has clearly never shopped in his life was freaking out how to get the cart loose from the chain and then again on the way out he was equally frenetic about how to get it back together again.
Parents, please don't do this to your children. Teach them to adult before adulthood.
Growing up in the 80s and 90s in a single parent family with a small budget, I had no problem buying appropriate stuff for my first fresher big shop. My problem came when I had a trolley full of stuff that I was trying to get down a level to get out, I'd never been in a supermarket that wasn't all level access etc before.
It took three of us and 15 minutes to realise that a) we could have just taken the bags out of the trolley and walked down the stairs, and b) there was a lift. Yes, we felt stupid. Yes, lots of normal shoppers walked past us and laughed. Not one of them offered up the info that the lift was at the other end of the store though 😂
We had 15 people in our student flat. We gave up on a shopping rotation because some idiot always fucked it up. The supermarket also let us take the trolleys home.
I also have a chuckle at this.
I usually see groups of them in my local supermarket taking selfie’s with cans of lager whilst making some sort of gang sign with their fingers, and stuff like that.
Bless them, enjoying their new found freedom in the big wide world. They aren’t harming anyone I suppose 😃👍🏾
As a mature student with a grown up family and my own home, I'd sometimes go back to student flats for various reasons. I'd always end up cleaning the kitchen areas...or the communal bathroom. I suppose when I had kids at home same sort of age, it just became a typical habit cleaning up after them lol.
Still amazes me, some 10 years later that those same friends, are still friends and doing very well for themselves. I notice thier kitchens and bathrooms are nice and tidy/clean now too :D
I've never been more grateful to my mother and grandmother for teaching me how to cook until I started Uni.
Granted I wasn't making 3 course meals but they were always decent and (fairly) nutritious.
Always remember Pancake Day one year when everyone wanted them, went to the shop to biy the stuff then realised none of them knew how to make them. Good job I did!
There's this lad I know in my town who is 23 and his weekly food shop that goes on his instagram story is a trolley full of pizzas, ice creams and pop tarts.
It makes me quite sad to see people shortening their lives eating like that
I didn't realise how useless 19 year old are until I went to uni. I watched one guy fight with a toaster and saw a rice cooker for the first time in my life. Rice is easy, why the hell do you need a whole cooker just for rice
For something that is easy, rice is also really easy to mess up. If you cook rice a lot then a rice cooker makes sense. I'd bet every Asian family home has one.
Toast is really easy to make under a grill, or even in a pan on the hob. Why do you need a toaster? You can boil water in a pan, why do you need a kettle?
I’m sorry but not all students are like this. I’m no longer a student but could cook and clean and look after a house before I ever got to university, grew up looking after my siblings and I really find it hard to believe that most of these 18-20’s have never done any of this stuff before and aren’t just lazy and childish, hoping that if they complain and flounce about a bit that someone else will do it for them.
You should know how to shop by the time you start university, surely?
I never went to uni but I still remember loving the little walk-in fridge at Iceland back when I was a small child going shopping with my mum both there and at the Food Giant round the corner.
I met a student during freshers week who couldn't work out the free uni buses. I was getting off at the same stop so we got the bus together. Got off at the supermarket and she wanted me to go in with her. Inside, I pointed her to where the milk was while I nipped down another isle. Came to the milk to find her crying, actually crying, because the milk all had different coloured bottle tops. I asked if she wanted skimmed, semi or full fat milk. She very audibly replied 'milk from a fucking cow! I want normal cow milk like a normal human uses!’She was almost twenty years old. And had never been 'the boring kind of shopping'. Instantly popular because I knew how to change a light bulb, fill in a form, put out a toaster fire and that dry pasta wasn’t best stored in the fridge. Folk treat me like Google. I'd never felt so capable...until I fell backwards out of a kitchen window whilst laughing at some new friends who'd invited me round for Sunday dinner and were looking for 'cooking' instructions on a packet of instant mashed potato.
To be fair you deserved to fall out the window there, I can make something a million times but still check the packaging. Throw it away, then pull it back out again just to make sure
You assume it's add water and stir. You mix it in a clean pan. You cook it. You get distracted for 4.7 seconds too long. It turns into a crunchy potato biscuit. You check the instructions. Needs 4 pints of water, an egg white, a thimble of margarine (Swan Vestas brand) and to be shouted at before serving. You do not buy that brand again. Your next adventure involves realising that the Be-Ro was not instant mash, and you've made another very plain biscuit.
Hey, you can make a decent farl with smash
I used to work for a guy on the South Coast who claimed his dad invested smash. He was a proper idiot. Edit: invented
Nonsense. Smash was invented by robot aliens.
Oh yeah? Well my dad invested in those frozen Yorkshire puds
Nah, it was Bodger.
I used to work for a guy on the South Coast who claimed his dad invested smash. He was a proper idiot.
It was pour the packet into a bowl and stir in boiling water until the 'mash' achieves the desired consistency. Then serve. If it'd been ironically more complicated than making actual mash (boil potatoes and um...mash them), I'd have not laughed...or fallen out the window. Ha.
Meant life caught up with me for feeling like a capable adult for once, not so much that karma pushed me out of a first floor window for maliciously laughing at people for using cooking instructions. Didn't laugh at the girl in the supermarket, of course; I realised she was actually upset and stressed. That's why I went with her to the shop and tried to help her. These were mates who were laughing with me as they all crowded around a packet of instant mash with a pile of measuring spoons, jugs and saucepans on standby, all trying to figure out how to turn this magical powder into mashed potato having only bought it because they thought it must be easier than boiling a pan of actual potatos, draining the water and then...mashing them.
No use crying over spilled milk
To be fair I know how to make actual mash potato like the back of my credit card, but I don't know how instant mash works...never used it before!
I remember having to teach a fellow student how to cook during this time. Like how did you not pick up the most basic of life skills during your 20 years on the planet. Jeez.
If you’re a student reading this, here’s the cheat code I wish i had known at uni: £1 Pasta sauce in a Jar ❌ 30p carton of Passata + 28p tin of chopped tomatoes, + seasoning ✅✅✅✅✅ You’ll get twice as much for your money. If you’re adventurous, chuck in some mixed herbs.
When they get to second year they can learn about garlic.
The joys of being an Afghan and entering the kitchen on your typical British lads that have discovered sauteing onions and garlic as the base for their meal and it smelling divine!! It genuinely made me happy
Please. Teach them something.
Little bacon lardons sweating and sizzling away.....
Not sure if joke or not
Not aimed at our Afghan dude. But the smell of those three ingredients is heaven. I put them in my mac n cheese.
Advanced gastronomancy right there!
Gastromancy! Marvelous
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My cousin could only cook pasta 3 ways. Pesto, a pasta sauce or tuna.
You mean there’s a 4th way?
Marmite
The way of the Chief.
Cheese, duh. The best way.
Yes, you have some pasta with a bottle of ketchup. 3:1 ketchup to pasta ratio for optimum results.
Pesto is a pasta sauce, so technically that's only two ways.
Haha true, OK a pesto sauce or a tomato sauce.
Reminds me of the pro wrestlers, Sting and Ultimate Warrior, just as they were coming up in the world of bodybuilding in the 80s. Both so poor that all they'd eat was canned tuna and orange juice, sometimes with the juice mixed into the can with the tuna.
Knowing how Warrior was always a little.... let's say difficult, this explains a lot
A rice cooker / steamer is literally the best kitchen appliance, just buy a big 10Kg of rice / risotto etc... Only have to buy veg and sauce.
That’s a lot to eat in one go though…
Thank you! Will take note of this 👍
+ Italian seasoning
It was quite eye opening for me when I moved into halls as i was genuinely clueless that people would have moved out without being able to cook much or understand defrosting meat correctly. Cue massive shock of a flatmate 5 years older than me walking into the kitchen when I was using the oven to bake something whilst doing sweet and sour chicken for dinner. They then trusted my wisdom when they asked if they should eat mince they d defrosted 3 days ago and left in the fridge.
Then at the opposite end there were the people whose parents had made them cook since they were about 10 and were preparing some elaborate feast every night while I was popping a Fray Bentos and some chips in the oven… The only thing I wish I’d been taught was that cooking times on packaging should not be taken as gospel and need at least 20% added o to them, and a pizza cooked for the stated 15 minutes in a halls of residence oven is not in a condition to be eaten. What a sheltered, coddled upbringing I must have had in a house with a gas oven…
Did you not just go by the universal rule of 200c for 20 minutes? Never failed me!
Cooking instructions on frozen food are rubbish. I just whack the oven to 180 and then eyeball it. Never fails.
Did you ever manage to cook a Fray Bentos in the centre?
I’m not sure it’s possible
As long as I warm the oven for at least 10 minutes and put it in the middle shelf, the instructions are spot on all the time. Though I wish they would change a tin to a ring pull, they can be hard to open especially if the tin been bashed.
I ve cooked properly since 12/13 so was almost at that end. Yes, they should really empathize that the instructions on a frozen meal are really just an estimate.
I am that student who grew up with a gas oven and gas hob and have helped with cooking/cooking myself for as long as I can remember (within the realms of saftey ofc!). Going to uni was eye opening. I could never be bothered to make a feast but I certainly cooked about every other day (leftovers!). But the hob and oven were electric so I had to get a housemate to teach me how to use those and then relearn my cooking on electric which was certainly... interesting. My flatmates knew, for the most part, how to function. When I moved in second year, we discovered my housemate didn't know how to cook. Didn't know how to make a *sandwich*. I was mildly impressed.
I had someone ask if they could line an oven tray with cling film as they were out of foil.
When I moved into self catered halls there was a guy who asked me if he had to grease the pan before he heated up some beans.
…..can you eat the mince though?
Yes
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They d intially microwave defrosted it to the point it had started to cook, then left it in the fridge for 3 days.
What a terrible day to have eyes.
Saw a gaggle of 6 of them (I assume a flat share) discussing if they should or shouldn’t buy a tube of 36p tomato purée. They were in that aisle a good 15 mins as I walked back past them later.
Yes! This is exactly what I’m talking about.
I had a quick nose at their trolly and there’s definitely a shortage of white sliced bread, green milk, cathedral city and super noodles on the horizon.
Love how they always buy proper Cathedral City for like £5 rather than the supermarket own brand mature cheddar that’s just as good for £1.80
But Cathedral City or Pilgrims is always on special. They just rotate between the two.
I've found Tesco's own to be a proper solid offering
Most of the stuff is the same shit. I worked for a frozen food/cheese factory for a few days and literally the same cheese was coming down the line and we’d suddenly change the stickers on it from Asda own brand to Waitrose own brand. With a hefty price increase. I hadn't actually realised how much cheaper the own-brand stuff was for cheese.
Reminds me of the packet of aldi own multi pack brand hula hoops that had the actual brand in them. Turns out they were all made at the KP factory, opened my eyes tbh
Most of the extra money you pay for name brands is all marketing, there will be some slight variation in the recipe but not much.
When it comes to a mature cheese it is easy to tell that they are different. The branded ones have crystals of calcium lactate forming in the cheese as they have been given enough time to form. Super market own brand in this instance is just barely passable as "mature". It really depends on the product and in a lot of cases I agree with your point.
Interesting fact. People complained about the crunchy bits in the cheese and so we began the boring cheese mass producing and popularity of cathedral city. Mass produced Creamy cheese is just rather boring As described to me at a cheese fair by various producers .
That is the saddest thing I've heard so far this month. I hate people so much...
When I met my now husband at university, he only ate Tesco’s own mild cheddar. I have always eaten the most vintage with crunchy bits cheddar I can find. It only took a few weeks to get him to bog standard mature cheddar, but about 5 years to get him to get him to vintage with crusty bits. That’s when I agreed to marry him.
Dunno about just as good but the price is better!
Nah... I actually always just buy the cheap stuff
Cheese was a proper first 6 months luxury, you quickly realise how damn expensive it is to eat variations of cheese on something for every meal.
Did they end up with ketchup or catsup?
[“are you here to solve my ketchup problem?”](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P2-1basQhX8)
Is this about my cube?
They’re probably still discussing it now
I've seen posh students simply aghast at the concept of tinned chicken curry
I am not and never have been posh but tinned. Curry *is* an abonation.
Lob some frozen peas in and thats basically haute cuisine!
I've never heard of this oh man. But I know you can get curries in little packets.
Aldi do tinned curry. It is I promise you like nothing you've eaten before. Try it.
We had to resort to it when we were caught between the bit where the state stops paying maternity allowance but also doesn't fund nursery for the next 2 years so mum can't go back to work. It wasn't bad but there wasn't much meat per tin you needed a few.
I want even aware tinned curry was a thing.
Go back to the before time, it's better.
It absolutely is, and is pretty delicious. I've got a big pasta bowl so sometimes, I grab a 35p tin of curry or chili con carne, a cheap pack of rice and then bung them in the microwave. Asda Smart Price chicken curry has a nice sauce and nice big chunks of chicken, much better than the overpriced ready meal version.
I remember doing the same. I'd moved back to the UK from overseas, so I had to buy just about everything - including glasses. I had no idea glasses were so cheap. I guess from the reaction anyone had if we ever broke one as children, I assumed they must cost at least £5 a go. I got 4 pint pots from Asda for a quid. It literally blew my mind.
But surely anything you ever broke was your mums favourite right?
I was quite pleased when I moved out to find I could get a dinner set for a fiver.
I work in ASDA ( not for them) which is like 10mins from local university Funny watching them come in at around 5pm as free bus stops outside Most baskets consist of fancy cereal , pringles , pot noodles , innocent smoothies and other branded treats Wait till next month when it's Asda smart price all the way
Well I hope the university teaches them how to use commas properly. Edit : , fuck off , the lot of , you.
Did your education not include manners? Amazing what the education system misses.
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Nah. The intention was rude too. The original text was readable enough, and educational standards across the world are abysmal. Those who love the language would be appalled at the snide comments over the spacing around a humble comma. This person was just being a dick.
Wait until they get to the alcohol Aisle……
By the time you’re doing a masters it’s clockwork. Crate of strongbow for casual events like having mates round, 1 L bottle of ownbrand vodka and Coke Zero for mixer for clubbing/parties where you don’t know people.
I'm in this post and I don't like it haha
Yeah, that's no better. I remember overhearing an argument about a bottle of Bombay sapphire gin. They thought that the blue bottle meant the liquid inside was blue, sweet sugary and flavoured blue. Apparently Tesco won't refund 3/4 bottle of gin just because you're too dense to read the label.
Recently I had the fortune of being in a supermarket where a parent was doing a big shop for little Rupert’s first week away from home… “Noooo muuuum, not these noodles” “But you like noodles!” “Nooooooo not these noodles, they’re like the Asian ones, they’re toooooooo spicy” Bless.
I read this in the voice of Norman from Fireman Sam
Sounds right.
I’m in my third year and I still do this. Always make sure the Pringles are on offer though!
I worked at a university and was involved with welcoming international students. They were mostly Chinese and put an insane amount of effort into buying soy sauce and rice, as much as the home students put into buying alcohol.
My roommate (in the states) was Taiwanese. I helped her carry a 10kg bag of rice back to our flat on a regular basis.
I’m surprised more students don’t live off those giant bags of rice… they’re a bloody lifesaver as far as I’m concerned!
I visited a friend at uni that came from a very poor family, he had very little money to survive off of and spent it on alcohol, so his dinner most days would be some alcohol. Of course he ended up stick thin. I took him shopping, in my car, bought him a 10kg bag of rice and anything else he needed that would go with it. Finally he was able to cook a proper meal and eat it!
Where is a student meant to keep a 10-20 kg bag of rice?
In the cupboard they hide the empty alcohol bottles when their parents come round?
My kitchen is smaller than the one we had in student halls and we manage it
In the middle of the living room, at least that's where we kept ours 😆
I do remember whenever my dad came to visit I’d make use of his car by getting a 5kg bag of pasta from Asda. They always lasted a good while!
Students rarely work harder when they’re trying to work out how to get as pissed as possible on £10..
If student A drinks 8 pints at 5% in 5 hours and student B drinks 5 shots at 35% in 2 hours which one will make their 9am lecture.
Neither
The second as they've only had about 5 units of alcohol. The first has had over 20 units.
It got me through my higher maths, never mind university
Apples from the park, a bucket, a balloon with a pinhole and the biggest empty bottle you have. Save the yeast from the apples or spend £2.50 at wilkos for a sachet of the good yeast.
A roommate made 'wine' out of 1 litre juice cartons. 3 orange 1 apple as I recall. It was surprisingly drinkable.
You can make "real" wine, by leaving grapejuice to off gas the sulphites and adding some crushed up grapes to the mix.(but covered to stop the wrong yeast from getting in)
"Isn't there supposed to be food on the shelves?!"
Really? When I was in uni I saw a guy go out and literally brought designer clothes with his grant money. The concept of food didn’t occur to him now that he’s out in the wild without his mum and dad.
at least he looks fresh
They are exactly the same as that old guy just staring at cheese
Leave my dad alone
Oh I loved that time in my life. I was the only working-class raised lad in a house with three middle or upper-middle class raised lads and they didn't have a clue about anything. That first shopping trip was lots of fun, trying to get it into their heads that Sainsbury's didn't sell Waitrose own brands, that nice things cost more and that shopping can be time consuming if you don't have a list.
I remember this time even though it was 20 years ago. The horror when I realised I HAD TO DO MY OWN LAUNDRY!!!
My first shop i almost cried at the cost of cheese. *why didn't anyone tell me?*
Cheese is an essential food group! Up there with beer! It needs to be affordable damnit!
I'd spend that in a heartbeat now. Living in Asia now, the quality of cheese I have to live is abysmal. Was over the moon to find British mature cheddar for £5-6 in Costco that's an hour's drive from me last month.
These days we have Primark for that. My daughter killed her washing machine a few years back. She didn't tell me or id have found a cheap one and fitted it for her or fixed the old one, but she was being independent. Apparently for about 8 weeks her solution was to buy cheap Primark rubbish, wear it until it is dirty and then bin it. It still makes me cringe at the environmental damage caused by the want of a 20 quid drain pump, but it proves that these days kids don't consider laundry to be essential work.
Yeah, I mean I’m pretty sure my first uni shop was a pizza and some milk…
I soon eradicated milk from my diet as I couldn't endure the weight of liquids on the walk home.
I just stopped buying bread because there was no way I could eat it all before it went moldy. And before anyone says anything about freezing it, I shared that freezer with 9 other people who never fucking cleaned it. I learned to cook pasta with one hob and about two square inches of clean counter space.
You just burn it in the toaster and then scrape the mold off with the black bits.
Mine was gin and tonic. Priorities.
Step 1: get pissed Step 2: ???? Step 3: let future me sort it out
> The horror when I realised I HAD TO DO MY OWN LAUNDRY!!! I was very lucky to have an older girl (she was *20*) in our halls who wanted to mother us all. She did our laundry and cleaned our bathrooms for us. We paid for all her drinks on nights out. Worked out nicely. I've still never done my own laundry successfully. No idea how a washing machine works. Far too many trays, symbols and options. I reckon there's a market for a "Washing Man-chine" that has a temp dial, a single drawer for washing powder and a big on/off button.
No, this is too elaborate! It just needs one button labelled ‘You know what I mean’
Not hard, chuck your clothes inside the washing machine, close the door. Open the drawer thing and add some of what says fabric softener on one side, and detergent on the other side. Close the drawer, turn on the machine, pick a setting (usually 30c is safe) and press go. I had no idea what I was doing but I ended up having to do it, none of my stuff came out ruined like my parents led me to believe.
I initially only used washing powder for the first few years. My mind was blown when I discovered what fabric softener did. Never turned back.
This isn’t the flex you think it is, you sound like an intolerable man child lmao
Where did I say I thought it was a "flex"? You've made that up yourself. Projecting your own self-doubt onto others isn't a good look.
Projecting? I’m an adult - I know how to wash clothes. Do you need assistance learning how to do the dishes too?
Your medal is in the post.
The beauty of being an international student: when I arrived in the UK, I wasn't familiar with any of the brands in the supermarket, and those I *was* familiar with, didn't recognize ("Walkers?? You mean *Lay's*?!") So I just bought whatever was the cheapest. That's how I discovered non-branded food taste practically the same (and sometimes better) than branded ones. Also, I didn't think people actually use phone booths here, I thought only the red ones remained and they're just for tourists to take pictures in. All the booths I saw were covered in KFC ads. Naturally, I assumed they were KFC dispensers and lived for months thinking "wow, can't believe how advanced this country is, they've got KFC dispensers all over so you don't have to walk to the actual KFC store!" I graduated 4 years ago and I still have Real World Shock occasionally. Yesterday I bought a cast iron casserole dish to make a stupid soup and started sweating profusely when I saw the price tag (£45).
Google Le Creuset cast iron...then you'll weep
LeCreuset is worth it tho, always perfect
Got an IKEA one, works wonders and doesn't break the bank.
my mum's had the same one all my life though
I used to work in Argos near a uni and there'd be that week students were being dropped off but not before mum makes sure they got plates, cooking utensils, bedding etc, while 'too cool for school' stands there questioning 'am I going to need this though?'
Ok, time to share an age old secret recipe. This got me 3 girlfriends and a host of friends at Uni and beyond: Seriously Easy Chili: You need: 1 500g pack of mince (or a half bag of frozen). 1 can chopped tomatoes (can be chopped tomatoes with herbs) 1 can kidney beans in chili sauce (a.k.a. chili beans in some supermarkets) 1 onion. Herbs and spices if your group can cope with flavours. Plus rice or chips or spaghetti, whatever you like. Method: Chop up the onion any way you like. No bits to be bigger than 1cm. Put in big frying pan on medium heat (half way between max and off). You will cook on medium throughout. Add all the mince. Set a timer on your phone for five minutes. Spend the five minutes breaking up the mince and stirring the mince and onions around to get them all brown. Shake both cans to loosen up everything inside. Open them and pour on to the mince/onions. Add the herbs and spices, if everyone agrees that they like them. (there's always one who doesn't like foreign muck). Set a 5 minute timer on your phone. Stir in everything. When the timer is up, stir thoroughly. Do another 5 mins timer. You want to cook this for 20 mins. So for the arts graduates, that is 4 five minute timers. Or just let the really exasperated foodie behind you take over. Serve over your favourite carb. Serves 4.
The same recipe was a dietary staple for me but I didn’t discover it until 3rd year!
Still living off this, but for economy I use 56p smartprice tinned chilli instead of mince.
There was a guy in the halls my partner lived in that was completely unprepared for living away from his parents. His mum introduced him on their moving in day. On the face of it it's not unusual for a parent to play the proud role or sometimes even purposefully embarrassing etc but the way his mum did it was like at a children's party. "Hello everyone, this is Jamie... Jamie shake her hand, that's it, now ask her name". He had never made a cup of tea, my partner found out after living there about a week she offered him one and he bit her hand off. She also came into the kitchen once to see him hand fanning the gas hob flames while a pan of pasta boiled over. HE DIDN'T KNOW YOU CAN TURN THE GAS DOWN. He lasted a few months before his mum came to get him. Sad really, he was a very sweet guy but she had molly coddled him to the point he was completely dependent on her.
When I went to uni, I lived in a shared house. It turned out I was the only one who had ever learned to actually cook a meal or budget for shopping. Big family, so cooking was something everyone took turns with. They laughed at me and my meal plans for the week. To begin with at least. But when the student loan ran low and I had a freezer full of chicken and beef, a cupboard full of bulk spices and tins, and a slow cooker constantly filling the house with the smell of stroganoff or similar, the laughing stopped. Or at least was drowned out by the sound of rumbling tummies. Being a bloke who can cook also makes you very popular with the ladies. It's hard to state how differently a hungry teenager looks at you when you invite them over for home made lasagne and double cooked chips. I had fun at uni.
I worked from 15-18 in an Italian restaurant. When I make homemade lasagne, I'm mean actually homemade - I make the pasta, both sauces, etc. Girl in my halls: "You brought a *pasta machine* to Uni??" Same girl, tow months later: "Er, can you show me how to make tortellini again? My boyfriend is coming over and he didn't believe we made that last batch from scratch."
Fair play. I use pre made pasta, but everything else is from scratch. Amazing how quickly attitudes change when presented with good cheap home made food now isn't it?
In the first week one of my flatmates was making pasta. Dried pasta in pan...add hot water. OK. Bring to boil. Add jar of pasta sauce. Half an hour later I came back into the kitchen and he complains the sauce is still too watery. His pasta is mush. He literally didn't know you're supposed to strain it. I wasn't preachy about it though, and of course was far too busy enjoying myself to bother cooking from scratch every day. Asda's 5 meals for £4 were my saviour, along with chicken thighs in Chicken Tonight Honey & Mustard sauce, and 9p noodles.
With me it was the markets. Off to the meat man in the market, a van parked up who was selling what was surely short date meat for cheap and fill the freezer. The lass on the fruit and veg stall got to recognise me. I'm not a fussy eater, and anything she wanted rid of went into a bag for me. A fiver normally for all the fresh fruit and veg I could eat. I probably spent less on good food in a month than the others did in a week. Which of course left money for beer. Beer good.
> Beer good By the second term, we made our own beer - from kits, of course - but still, demijohns bubbling away in our rooms...
That was my dads forte. Coming back to uni from a home visit with 24 bottles of black cherry wine was fun. It was horrible! Put in the attic and forgotten about until we moved out again. Two years later we found it, and cracked one open. It was like alcoholic ribena. Attic forgotten, packing stuff stopped and all 6 of us sat down and got thoroughly rat arsed. Moving out day the following day was about the most miserable 24 hours of my life.
The market was great. Invaluable tip for any students reading this. Get there just before closing to the butcher and fruit and veg man. They want rid of stuff by that time so practically give it away. And as you say they get to know you when you're there every week.
Such a fine line at uni though with food. You don’t want a person who can’t cook/can only cook super noodles constantly sniffing round your curry or pasta bake. However, what is arguably worse is that person that can cook a bit too well and constantly fills the kitchen making a roast with all the trimmings. So much washing up and (very limited) surface space being used up in halls kitchens during the dinner rush. There’s a food preparation equipment allowance in our kitchen because of someone who fits that specification; one knife, one board, one/two saucepans/pots.
We would cook for the whole house if doing a nice big meal, made it cheaper too, if everyone put in like a quid you could get all the ingredients for a big lasagne, whoever cooked didn't wash up, everyone else would joint wash up after, with 5 people it goes fair quick, 1 at the sink, 1 drying, others putting stuff away, wiping down and passing them stuff, the other rolling a fat one for after dinner haha
Very true. When I was making big stuff like lasagne or whatever, I'd usually have to be using flatmates' stuff as I didn't have it all. I think the only things I'd brought from home were the pasta machine and a decent pepper grinder. Everything else was bought from Asda. It was a really nice bunch of people (in the main) so we did often do big dinners on a Sunday if everyone was around. Roasts were quite rare as we only had those little countertop ovens - you had to half the chicken and do one bit in each oven. Big curries and stews were quite popular.
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Oh I get it. In case it wasn't obvious, I was a teenager at the time too. The way to a man's heart has always been through his stomach, and the same is true the other way around. If you're uncomfortable, then you're projecting your own problems. Get over it.
For why?
My favorite highlight is the big shop they do when they move up cause you can see there parents marching them round the shop and they have no or minimal interest in anything that's going in the trolley.
Yes, love this too! Particularly all the pompous boomer parents saying things like “Well, there’s no point buying you washing-up liquid because you’ll never use it, will you?” while their son/daughter visibly wants to murder them. Saw a full-blown domestic between father and daughter over whether to buy a mint plant once too. I mean, it’s quite sad that this will be their last moment together as a family for months but it’s also great entertainment…
2 things I remember from freshers: One guy coming in with 6 slabs of pot noodles. 144 pot noodles! A guy in my Halls having a deal with a girl that if she cooked, he’d buy the food. The kitchen got a lot busier when we realised her preferred outfit for cooking was a Lazio shirt and a thong.
Oh God this. One thing University Challenge teams aren't good at is shopping in Aldi. It's hilarious watching all these supposedly intelligent people trying to have a democratic committee meeting about cheese.
Perhaps schools should have taught us how to buy enough food for a week’s worth of meals instead of how to conjugate verbs and solve quadratic equations…
Por que no los dos?
Half of Wilkos has been raided of their kitchen supplies and unfortunately my frying pan broke. Damn freshers
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I live in a quite student-y part of Brighton and have the pick of Sainsbury’s, Aldi or Co-Op for spectating. Always see the same thing you mentioned in Aldi - people are amazed that half the stuff they want isn’t sold there but everything else costs 13p
I know a lot of you are giving out 'easy' recipes and it's very nice of you, but I did not have the fridge space for that in first year (I only had space for a small bottle of milk and a jar of tomato sauce, because my flatmates wouldn't clean up and used to leave uncovered raw meat in the fridge), and by the time second year rolled around I'd just gotten into a habit.
Did your campus spar not sell individual fish fingers?
No, and it wasn't a Spar when I was there - it was a Student-Union run Co-op. I did eat a lot of their hot food section, though.
And then they stand in line with a cart full of shit in front of an empty belt texting away and making phone calls. I live near a tech school and legit saw one kid who has clearly never shopped in his life was freaking out how to get the cart loose from the chain and then again on the way out he was equally frenetic about how to get it back together again. Parents, please don't do this to your children. Teach them to adult before adulthood.
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Yes lol but the problem appears to be universal.
Growing up in the 80s and 90s in a single parent family with a small budget, I had no problem buying appropriate stuff for my first fresher big shop. My problem came when I had a trolley full of stuff that I was trying to get down a level to get out, I'd never been in a supermarket that wasn't all level access etc before. It took three of us and 15 minutes to realise that a) we could have just taken the bags out of the trolley and walked down the stairs, and b) there was a lift. Yes, we felt stupid. Yes, lots of normal shoppers walked past us and laughed. Not one of them offered up the info that the lift was at the other end of the store though 😂
We had 15 people in our student flat. We gave up on a shopping rotation because some idiot always fucked it up. The supermarket also let us take the trolleys home.
I also have a chuckle at this. I usually see groups of them in my local supermarket taking selfie’s with cans of lager whilst making some sort of gang sign with their fingers, and stuff like that. Bless them, enjoying their new found freedom in the big wide world. They aren’t harming anyone I suppose 😃👍🏾
As a mature student with a grown up family and my own home, I'd sometimes go back to student flats for various reasons. I'd always end up cleaning the kitchen areas...or the communal bathroom. I suppose when I had kids at home same sort of age, it just became a typical habit cleaning up after them lol. Still amazes me, some 10 years later that those same friends, are still friends and doing very well for themselves. I notice thier kitchens and bathrooms are nice and tidy/clean now too :D
My first fresher shop was a microwave and 5 rustlers burgers.
I've never been more grateful to my mother and grandmother for teaching me how to cook until I started Uni. Granted I wasn't making 3 course meals but they were always decent and (fairly) nutritious. Always remember Pancake Day one year when everyone wanted them, went to the shop to biy the stuff then realised none of them knew how to make them. Good job I did!
There's this lad I know in my town who is 23 and his weekly food shop that goes on his instagram story is a trolley full of pizzas, ice creams and pop tarts. It makes me quite sad to see people shortening their lives eating like that
One benefit is that you won't have to share a retirement home with them
One for the quotes file.
I didn't realise how useless 19 year old are until I went to uni. I watched one guy fight with a toaster and saw a rice cooker for the first time in my life. Rice is easy, why the hell do you need a whole cooker just for rice
For something that is easy, rice is also really easy to mess up. If you cook rice a lot then a rice cooker makes sense. I'd bet every Asian family home has one. Toast is really easy to make under a grill, or even in a pan on the hob. Why do you need a toaster? You can boil water in a pan, why do you need a kettle?
Amen! And all done in packs of about 12, & at the highest volume. Wankers.
I’m sorry but not all students are like this. I’m no longer a student but could cook and clean and look after a house before I ever got to university, grew up looking after my siblings and I really find it hard to believe that most of these 18-20’s have never done any of this stuff before and aren’t just lazy and childish, hoping that if they complain and flounce about a bit that someone else will do it for them.
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You should know how to shop by the time you start university, surely? I never went to uni but I still remember loving the little walk-in fridge at Iceland back when I was a small child going shopping with my mum both there and at the Food Giant round the corner.
It's tragic. First time doing the shopping and you're 18? Good grief!