Let’s face it: College life is difficult enough without the added stress of living on a budget. Whether you’re majoring in humanities, biology or computer science, there’s numerous papers to write, confusing chemistry mechanisms to memorize and computer programs to code. That’s why we at the Clog are here today to help you resolve that stress by giving you some golden tips and tricks for eating on a tight student budget.

Sign up for free and discounted meal-delivery services

You know those Facebook ads promoting meal-delivery services? Sign up for each one on a major discount or free trial, and you’ll save your wallet a lot of stress in a short amount of time. Hello Fresh offers a 50% discount off of your first order, and Marley Spoon takes $30 off of your first order. Simply take advantage of the first-time discounts from the numerous meal-delivery services that are out there, and you’ll be fed — cheaply — for quite a while. As a bonus, you just might find a service to stick with for the entire year, saving both time and money spent on food.

Sign up for free snack boxes

Are you a snacking type of person? Do you just not have time to make and eat full meals between classes? Fear not, for there are plenty of healthy snack-delivery options for you to take advantage of! These include NatureBox, Graze, UrthBox and many more. Most of these snack-delivery services offer a free box for you to try out, so sign up for every service you can find — you’ll find yourself very well-nourished for weeks at minimal cost.

Buy lots of sweet potatoes — they make for a great snack or healthy meal any time of day

Sweet potatoes are an extremely versatile ingredient. What’s even better is that they’re extremely accessible and can be found easily at virtually any grocery store. Whether you microwave them for five minutes and add peanut butter for some healthy protein and fats or you slice them into wedges and oven-bake them to make sweet potato fries, you’re guaranteed an easy, delicious and balanced snack or meal.

Buy fruits in bulk and freeze for future snacking

Take advantage of the weekly specials on fruits at your local grocery store (or Whole Foods, now that Amazon lowered prices!). Buy as much as possible, then freeze any extra fruit you won’t be using that week in little plastic bags. This way, you’ll always have a supply of healthy, delicious produce in your freezer for smoothie-making, ice-cream toppings or even just plain frozen-fruit snacking. This strategy will prove to be much cheaper than buying a tiny pint of off-season strawberries for half your daily budget.

Invest in a Costco membership with a few friends

Split the cost of a Costco membership with some friends, and take advantage of the numerous exclusive money-saving deals that Costco offers to its members. Since you can get everything in bulk at Costco, you’ll probably be able to save on the number of grocery trips made overall, and you’ll save transportation time and money — an added bonus!