Eating well on a student budget in the Netherlands: where the cheap protein is
Food is the budget line students underestimate most, and the one where a little local knowledge saves the most. Dutch supermarkets are not expensive, but they are expensive in different places than the ones you are used to.
The cheapest protein per euro
- Eggs. Consistently the best value protein in any Dutch supermarket.
- Dried lentils and chickpeas. Slow to cook, close to free, and filling in a way that survives a long library day.
- Tinned tuna and mackerel. Watch for offers, buy several.
- Kwark and skyr. The Dutch dairy aisle is unusually good and unusually cheap. A tub of kwark is often better value than a protein shake.
- Chicken thighs rather than breast. Cheaper, harder to overcook, more forgiving.
- Whole milk and cheap block cheese, if you are not counting calories.
Which shop for what
Lidl and Aldi for staples, dairy, tinned goods and their weekly vegetable offers. This is where the bulk of your money should go.
Albert Heijn for convenience, opening hours and the bonus offers, which are genuinely good if you shop the promotions rather than the shelf. The AH Bonuskaart is free and worth having.
Jumbo sits between the two and often wins on fresh meat.
The Markt on Wednesday and Friday mornings in Maastricht is where vegetables get cheap, especially in the last hour before stalls pack up.
Turkish and Moroccan supermarkets are the quiet answer for rice, pulses, spices, nuts and bread at a fraction of supermarket prices. Every student city has them and every student who finds them wonders why it took so long.
The apps worth having
Too Good To Go sells surplus food from bakeries and supermarkets at the end of the day for a few euro. Supermarket own apps flag reduced items. Neither is a hobby, both are ten minutes a week.
The habit that saves the most
Cook once, eat three times. A pot of lentil soup or a tray of roasted vegetables and chicken thighs on Sunday is four meals you do not buy on campus at €7 each. The saving is not in being frugal at the supermarket; it is in not being hungry and unprepared at two in the afternoon.
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