WHAT I SPEND IN A WEEK *on groceries* (as a university student in Rotterdam, The Netherlands)

good morning if you're new to this channel hi it's nice to meet you my name is melena and if you're a returning subscriber so i am currently a second year university student at erasmus university rotterdam which is in the netherlands and i study economics so you can expect that i know how to budget it's one it's actually a large part of my course if you have watched my other videos then you do know that i was spending some time with family for the last couple of months but now i'm back to my student house i'm living with a few friends and today i want to talk to you a little bit about student budgeting specifically how i budget my groceries so since this was my first week back i had to get the basics you know like olive oil salt pasta rice things like that things that you kind of need for a lot of the meals that you'll make in your student life and so i was expecting it to be somewhere around like 50 euros more to the more expensive side of the spending spectrum on a usual week i used to spend around 20 to 30 euros per week so when you first moved to your own place you need to make sure that you have all the good basics to start off since i lived here before i had a few spices and things left over so i didn't have to buy those which is great but usually those things are also included in i guess the first week of grocery shopping when you move into your own apartment all right so i moved in on a saturday and so that coming sunday i went out to buy most of the basics and for that i went to the lidl i have a passion a love for the little because i think that's their slogan it's low prices high quality and they oh they really do live up to the name and so little is the best place for picking up some bread or pastries or grains those type of things are usually very low price there and also of good quality i personally always get that bio bread that they have which are really like crunchy crust and they have this wild machine that if you put it in it you can choose how like thick the slices are so they can cut it there so that it also doesn't like lose humidity it's wild i swear that bread cutting machine at little is my disney world i i think that even if you are on a budget it doesn't mean that you shouldn't be able to enjoy everything you want to just have to go a couple extra kilometers to find your nearest little but i surely recommend that one as a good base place to go do your grocery shopping i bought two packets of rice some hummus some peanut butter strawberry jam um apple mousse i'm not quite sure how to say that in english apple puree apple puree then we had some brown beans which i just always like to have at home and some cashew nuts i got a really big package and that one pretty much lasts me maybe like two months so those are all my snacking needs and then i got a kilo of cereal a cucumber which was really low priced so i was i was kind of excited about that one some digestive cookies olive oil which is usually one of the most expensive things that you have to buy but lidl actually has quite affordable ones and also good taste and then since i'm lactose intolerant i went and got some almond milk which also titled almond drink but to be honest i don't really like the plant-based milks that they have at little just because they're usually kind of watered down for those for that specific item i actually go to a different store but then i got some spaghetti i got some fusilli and basically just having a variety of pastas at home i got some tomatoes that bio bread that they make fresh from their bakery aubergine some of those dry biscuits we call them biscuits not quite sure i'll i'll figure out what they're called and lastly i got some flour because i just like having all the ingredients for a cookie at home just in case all right so at the little i spent 28 euros and 88 cents on that sunday and then on monday i wanted to get some ingredients for some asian recipes that i like to make and so i always go to the wah nam hong supermarket which is in the market hall and even though everything in the market hall is extremely expensive like all the little huts it's great for tourists because it's like a whole experience but i wouldn't say that locals like go there on a daily basis however this supermarket is extremely affordable and so every time i go there i usually get some noodles japanese rice maybe some frozen dumplings i always make sure to buy asian sauces in bulks like soy sauce or oyster sauce just because i pretty much put them in everything that i i think needs a little bit of extra flavor and so on that day i didn't get any snacks but they have oh they have such good snacks you know i don't know if you guys have had those those uh shrimp shrimp chips love those and so also for students who eat a lot of ramen or instant ramen they have great variety there so that's a place to hit up i guess all right and so at this supermarket i think my biggest pro tip would be that this is the place where you should get tofu if you eat tofu they have great options but also very affordable ones i bought a kilo of tofu for around a euro and i don't know if you're a frequent tofu eater but that's that's a that's a that's a good price we like that and so that day i picked up one kilo of firm tofu some pak choy i think a kilo of bok choy um some soy sauce those really big one liter bottles which was a little bit more expensive but will last me i think until the end of the year so we'll be fine and then also some chinese me the one thing though that you do need to remember about the tofu is that it usually has a really short validity date so you are expected to eat like one kilo of tofu within four days and so make sure that you can eat all the tofu you buy because i've had enough wasted tofu where i was like maybe i should have eaten this tofu faster but no it was just a wild amount of tofu for one person to eat in three days and at that point i already had most of the basics so sauces and grains and all those things and so on tuesday on tuesday i went to the black market and the black market which is basically the farmer's market in front of markt hall that is the gold mine for fresh veggies and fruits this farmer's market is open on tuesdays and saturdays from 8 a.m to 5 p.m if you ever move into a new neighborhood do ask around about farmers market usually they do have farmers markets in like different places it's just you know further away or at a very specific time and so if you ask locals they usually can help you out with that one this is the best place to buy fresh veggies and fruits in bulk that's one thing you have to remember that you can't buy like a little bit of everything they usually come in wild amounts i personally don't eat meat but this farmers market is a great place to pick up some chicken or some fish and so if that's something that you like i recommend going there because again it's usually very fresh and so my pro tip for the farmer's market is that you should go early as the earlier you go the better products you can get because people usually you know they touch everything and then they're like oh this one's squishy we don't want this and so around i guess like 2 p.m the products that are left over are kind of not the best ones and probably the ones that are gonna go bad sooner than the others so do go early i always do and don't forget to bring your own bags the first couple of times that i went i always forgot to bring my own bags and so i was left carrying a bunch of individual plastic bags and also just straight up some of the bags aren't strong enough and so while you're walking home they could easily rip so always make sure that you have a bag with you and always bring an extra one because you're going to find something that you want you didn't know that you wanted a kilo of cruciate until you saw that one kilo of courgette so make sure to do that one and so on that tuesday i got some courgette for one euro and they came in those one euro buckets and so on the farmers market you'll start seeing that a lot of people have one year old bags or one year buckets which is literally just a bulk buying of vegetables and fruits you never really know how good they are because you know it's in a bucket or it's in a bag which is kind of intentional since i guess like 20 of what's in it is not gonna be edible soon but the other percentage i think that's really that's pretty okay then i got also a bucket of graffiti eggplants which was also a gyro so this was last week and i still have a lot of vegetables left over as long as you store them in your freezer or your refrigerator they honestly last so long then i also got some spring onions for a euro 50 which i share with my roommate and then also some apples which were 1 euros something i must say one euro 50 and yeah that basically covered all the basic vegetables and fruit that i wanted to pick up during the farmers market and so by tuesday i had basically everything that i needed to make complete meals but on friday i went to kreitzvold and guy's fault was where i picked up a lot of my snacks see in the netherlands kreitfalt is basically the miscellaneous of stores you can buy anything there a yoga mat cookies crack you can't buy crack i need to specify this you cannot buy crack at kai's fault and so i usually go there for rice crackers or cookies or well i'm lactose intolerant but they're also a great place to pick up chocolate [Music] okay so my friend just arrived because we're gonna have lunch together so i'm gonna need to pick up the pace this is vivian and vivian's gonna let me finish the video and so on friday i also went to the aldi which is a very very cheap store and basically has a variety of things specifically they have a lot of sauces like barbecue sauce garlic sauce and so i picked up a wrap a packet of wraps for 80 cents and that brought my total to around 46 euros and 38 cents for my first week back which was more or less what i expected if you live in the netherlands or you have come to the netherlands you might realize that i didn't mention albert hine and the albert hine is basically the largest supermarket chain in the netherlands but i usually don't buy a lot of things from there just because a lot of products that they have i feel like i can find in a different place and for a much more affordable price so the main thing that i do buy at the albert hine is usually plant-based products just because i haven't found any good quality ones in the different places that i shop and so i usually go for all pro products and that's usually where i pick those up the albert hein is for sure much more convenient because it has everything in one place and the quality is always consistent which is not always the case for uh products that you buy at the farmer's market but at the same time if you are looking to save up some cents here and there and really get your budget nice and slim then i do recommend going to the different places that i mentioned in the case that they are nearby and available don't forget to subscribe for more content like this and honestly good luck with your first week i'm sure that you're gonna do great if you keep on with these tips that i have mentioned your budget will be skinny a skinny budget okay take care stay safe social distance bye

Channel: Milena Mitiko

Views: 31,050

Keywords: 24-04-2021

Id: KwaVspfgwO4

Length: 12min 0sec (720 seconds)

Published: Fri May 14 2021