what are your tips for cutting food costs at uni?

Food is one of those unavoidable food expenses but it is somewhere you can save a bit of cash; my best tips are if you can walk to a food shop is to find out what time they reduce their food (as some places can go as high as 75% off) on decent food that you can freeze or cook that night and to always plan your meals, by having a plan it means less trips to the shops so less temptation to spend more money.
what do you do to save money on food?

Cook stuff from scratch, buying veg and fruit from the cheapest local place when its on offer. Then make leftovers to eat during the week. And as otehrs have said Aldi is a good option. Sainssburys is the most expensive. ASDA is good for large families, but not for when you're alone. Then Tesco is kind of middle of the road and Aldi and Lidl are the cheapest.

Food is one of those unavoidable food expenses but it is somewhere you can save a bit of cash; my best tips are if you can walk to a food shop is to find out what time they reduce their food (as some places can go as high as 75% off) on decent food that you can freeze or cook that night and to always plan your meals, by having a plan it means less trips to the shops so less temptation to spend more money.
what do you do to save money on food?

My favourite place to be at 7.45pm most weekdays is M&S Bakery where they're usually selling all the day's leftover fresh bread and cookies for 5p each

1. Learn to cook
2. Cook in bulk, freeze.
3. Shop at Co-op, 10% NUS discount.
3. It's more economical to eat healthy, and to eliminate costly junk food and unhealthy snacks.
4. Quit alcohol. Screw the peer pressure. Drink on the odd occasion if you really must.
5. Learn to live like a monk. Live within ones means.
6. Hunt down student discounts but only when it's necessary to buy the thing. Not shopping for the sake of the discount.
7. Try and live on or near the campus, minimise unnecessary far travels outside the campus, except commuting home.
8. You don't need to buy the latest gadgets. Again, screw the peer pressure. Live within ones means.
9. Be money smart. Save save save.

I'm gluten free as I'm a coeliac so things aren't exactly cheap
But I'd say to check out what all the local supermarkets have (for me, it's mainly the gluten free section), that way you know what shops have items for a cheaper price or offer a better range/deals on certain items. Buying rice noodles and making my own 'ramen soup' thing is a quick and easy meal with a few added garnishes like mushrooms, spring onions or some meat and you can vary the stock flavour you use. And for me, bread/rolls (gluten free) go in the freezer as I won't be going through a whole pack before it starts getting grotty.

I'm kind of dreading going to uni as I'm not sure what the gluten free range in the local shops will be like.

The fact that you know how to cook, should hopefully help you keep your costs down a bit. Checking out all the shops is a brilliant idea.

I can cook to a certain extent

that's an amazing reduced deal, do you chuck the bread in the freezer?

Yeah it's brilliant - I think they always end up with far too many unsold baked goods though - despite those reductions they still seem to throw away quite a lot of bread pretty much on a daily basis I'm quite lucky to be living in walking distance. I don't have much freezer space unfortunately, so I usually pick up just enough for a few meals then make daily trips. Even if it's a day old it's good for toasting and soups anyway.

I think I've managed to become a regular now as well, the Bakery lady hates throwing things away so she's recently started giving me the odd freebie if there's still loads leftover by the time I get there. Pretty sure she's not supposed to be doing that but I'm not complaining