A frugal university student has revealed how she saves money - including making her own oat milk.
Isabella Drake, 22, is in her third year of her business management and marketing degree at Leeds University.
To ease the burden of her university costs - which sees her rake out £9,250-a-year for her course and £650-a-month on her accommodation and bills - Isabella has adopted some money saving hacks.
As well as batch cooking all of her meals to last the week, she shops around for the best prices per item and goes to multiple supermarkets when it comes to doing her grocery shop.
Isabella also rarely buys drinks when she goes out opting to pre-drink before hand, and even brings her own tea bags with her on campus and buys a 30p cup of hot water to stop her forking out £2.40 for a cup of tea.
Isabella, originally from Shepperton, Surrey, saves around £60-a-month and said: "I was really broke in second year and I got to the end of the semester and decided to learn how to make oat milk.
"I soaked the oats in water and blended and strained it.
"I don't drink as much milk anymore but when I used to drink loads of tea, I would make it all the time and using it for cereal is good.
"I think it helped me save quite a bit month-to-month.
"Around £6 a month saved on buying milk, which is the price of a drink going out.
"I come from a single parent household, so I've always known how to budget, and I buy enough food to feed four people and bulk make meals by batch cooking.
"I think I save around £60-a-month on meal prep and using alternatives."
Isabella makes meals she can easily reheat and use throughout the week - saving her from regular shopping trips.
She said: "When you're a busy university student you want convenience.
"With spaghetti bolognese and chilli you can freeze that to keep for a few days.
"A lot of my housemates do it as you just can't waste food either.
"You know when you have those days when you don't want to cook? It's so tempting to get a takeaway but there's no need when you can just use your batch cooked meals."
But before making her meals, Isabella shops around for the best prices, buying food from different shops.
She said: "I go to different shops as well, not just the one, I shop around.
"Home Bargains has packets of coffee with milk already in for 75p and across the shopping centre in Morrisons they were much more expensive.
"It's also going to cost more going to a smaller local shop than a bigger supermarket.
"Morrisons had a certain pasta sauce on a good deal too, so I'd always go there and buy that instead of just getting all of my bits from one shop.
"The Too Good To Go app is also really helpful as you're saving food from going to waste and you can get a whole back of food for £3.
"One thing that I do that makes it cheaper is I don't buy chips, I cut potatoes and put them in the air fryer.
"Chicken as well - I always buy a whole one, instead of just two chicken breasts, so I can use it for more meals."
In a recent video posted on her TikTok, Isabella revealed how she often takes teabags on campus with her to save money on buying a cup of tea.
As well as encouraging people to buy an air fryer and make snacks out of leftover food rather than buying them.
When it comes to socialising and nights out, Isabella rarely eats or drinks when she goes out.
She said: "I always eat before we go out instead of going out for food.
"We have some pre-drinks at home as much as possible, so I don't buy as many drinks when I'm out.
"For events I always buy tickets as far ahead as I can when they're cheaper."
Isabella's tips -
Using multiple supermarkets for the best prices when doing a food shop
Making your own oat milk
Taking tea bags to campus
Batch cooking meals
Pre-drinking to avoid spending on drinks when going out
Buying whole chickens to use in multiple meals
Isabella Drake, 22, is in her third year of her business management and marketing degree at Leeds University.
To ease the burden of her university costs - which sees her rake out £9,250-a-year for her course and £650-a-month on her accommodation and bills - Isabella has adopted some money saving hacks.
As well as batch cooking all of her meals to last the week, she shops around for the best prices per item and goes to multiple supermarkets when it comes to doing her grocery shop.
Isabella also rarely buys drinks when she goes out opting to pre-drink before hand, and even brings her own tea bags with her on campus and buys a 30p cup of hot water to stop her forking out £2.40 for a cup of tea.
Isabella, originally from Shepperton, Surrey, saves around £60-a-month and said: "I was really broke in second year and I got to the end of the semester and decided to learn how to make oat milk.
"I soaked the oats in water and blended and strained it.
"I don't drink as much milk anymore but when I used to drink loads of tea, I would make it all the time and using it for cereal is good.
"I think it helped me save quite a bit month-to-month.
"Around £6 a month saved on buying milk, which is the price of a drink going out.
"I come from a single parent household, so I've always known how to budget, and I buy enough food to feed four people and bulk make meals by batch cooking.
"I think I save around £60-a-month on meal prep and using alternatives."
Isabella makes meals she can easily reheat and use throughout the week - saving her from regular shopping trips.
She said: "When you're a busy university student you want convenience.
"With spaghetti bolognese and chilli you can freeze that to keep for a few days.
"A lot of my housemates do it as you just can't waste food either.
"You know when you have those days when you don't want to cook? It's so tempting to get a takeaway but there's no need when you can just use your batch cooked meals."
But before making her meals, Isabella shops around for the best prices, buying food from different shops.
She said: "I go to different shops as well, not just the one, I shop around.
"Home Bargains has packets of coffee with milk already in for 75p and across the shopping centre in Morrisons they were much more expensive.
"It's also going to cost more going to a smaller local shop than a bigger supermarket.
"Morrisons had a certain pasta sauce on a good deal too, so I'd always go there and buy that instead of just getting all of my bits from one shop.
"The Too Good To Go app is also really helpful as you're saving food from going to waste and you can get a whole back of food for £3.
"One thing that I do that makes it cheaper is I don't buy chips, I cut potatoes and put them in the air fryer.
"Chicken as well - I always buy a whole one, instead of just two chicken breasts, so I can use it for more meals."
In a recent video posted on her TikTok, Isabella revealed how she often takes teabags on campus with her to save money on buying a cup of tea.
As well as encouraging people to buy an air fryer and make snacks out of leftover food rather than buying them.
When it comes to socialising and nights out, Isabella rarely eats or drinks when she goes out.
She said: "I always eat before we go out instead of going out for food.
"We have some pre-drinks at home as much as possible, so I don't buy as many drinks when I'm out.
"For events I always buy tickets as far ahead as I can when they're cheaper."
Isabella's tips -
Using multiple supermarkets for the best prices when doing a food shop
Making your own oat milk
Taking tea bags to campus
Batch cooking meals
Pre-drinking to avoid spending on drinks when going out
Buying whole chickens to use in multiple meals
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FunTranscript
00:00 Ways that I save money when I'm a student and when I'm broke.
00:04 I mean, I don't even just do this when I'm a student because...
00:08 Cost of living crisis.
00:09 Firstly, I don't buy milk. I make my own oat milk.
00:13 I'm not vegan, I don't regularly drink oat milk. I do drink dairy, but...
00:17 Cost of living crisis.
00:19 Secondly, I just don't buy fruit, really.
00:22 Thirdly, I don't really buy bread. I feel like it just goes mouldy.
00:26 Or I do buy bread, but I freeze it straight away.
00:28 Thirdly, I bulk make meals.
00:32 So I make a meal and it'll serve four, but I'll just put three portions in the freezer or the fridge.
00:37 Also on the dairy front, I wouldn't really buy yogurts or anything.
00:40 I do buy butter, but I won't buy spread. I buy real butter.
00:46 You can also make your own butter if you buy cream, but I think they're the same price.
00:50 Also, I buy frozen vegetables instead of fresh ones.
00:53 Because peppers and stuff to put in meals bulk it out.
00:57 Ways that I save money when I'm at uni, part two.
01:00 Last one was kind of food, this is more general stuff.
01:04 Firstly, if you're one to travel home a lot or in a long distance relationship, this is a really good tip.
01:09 Book your train three months in advance.
01:11 I know it's hard to plan that in advance, but I booked my train for September to go back to uni in July, and it was only £10.
01:19 And that's from London to Leeds, so it's definitely worth it, because normally it's like £40-50.
01:23 Second tip is looking out for free stuff at your university union.
01:26 My first year, me and my housemates all got free plants.
01:29 So just look out on their website for stuff that's coming up, because they love to give out free stuff.
01:33 This one's kind of obvious, but just pre-at-home, use vodka and squash, that kind of thing.
01:37 Because pre-ing out actually costs you so much more money.
01:41 This is such a cheap thing that I sometimes do.
01:43 I bring tea bags with me to the library and stuff, and then get them to just give me a cup with hot water to save money on tea.
01:50 Making tortilla chips out of tortillas that are leftover.
01:53 Having an air fryer saves so much electricity.
01:56 This video did so well, and I'm so surprised, because I just thought these things were quite common-sensey.
02:01 But then I also thought, maybe people don't think of these things.
02:04 Meals that I make for this kind of thing is things like shepherd's pie, chilli con carne, spaghetti bolognese, curries.
02:10 Another way I save money is buying a whole chicken instead of little bits of chicken.
02:14 I cook the whole chicken, and then I use the rest of the chicken for different meals, like curries.
02:19 My favourite kind of chicken is to buy spatchcock chickens, because they cook in under an hour, and they're normally already seasoned.
02:25 And they're like £4-7.
02:27 I'm trying to think of meals I also make.
02:29 Pastitsio, which is like a Greek dish, but it's like pasta, kind of like lasagna.
02:34 You could make lasagna.
02:35 If you like fish, I guess you could make fish pie, but I don't like fish.
02:38 One meal I liked to make last year was birria tacos, because it is kind of more pricey, but you can, like, the meat can go a long way.
02:46 You can put it in jacket potatoes and stuff.
02:48 And jacket potatoes is also a really good meal if you're poor, because you literally just make, like, baked potato, add a filling.
02:54 It's great.