Photos of What's Inside British Students' Fridges

Food at university. It's not great, is it? It's a lot of beans and budget pasta sauces and penne cooked in such a way that each piece manages to fuse together and come out the pan as one solid, congealed, pan-shaped starch bomb that will make you feel gravely ill as soon as enters your stomach. That, or pints and pizza and chips and those chicken shop wings that have definitely been in deep freeze for as long as you've been in the education system.

Or at least it was like that for me. But since the hike in university fees, it makes sense that more students would be staying in, drinking less and spending less of their already stretched maintenance loans on takeout food. To find out, I toured a few universities and spoke to students about their fridges.

VICE: How much do you spend on food a week?
Libby: I probably spend more than I should – £30 or so a week. I'm really bad, but I love food, so I'd rather be eating something I enjoy. Actually, a lot of that is on coffee.

Do you spend more on alcohol or food?
Food. Definitely. Always. I do spend a lot of money on booze as well, though – probably too much.

Your fridge is pretty tidy. What state is your kitchen usually in?
We try to keep it quite tidy most of the time – usually just dishes on the side. We keep track of who's doing what, to make sure everyone is putting in the effort. I don't like coming back after a few days and the kitchen is a mess.

Are you a decent cook?
I'm OK – I've not killed myself yet. The best thing I've made for myself was chicken breast wrapped in bacon and stuffed with cheese. That cost about four or five quid. I'm still pretty big on beans and pasta, though.

Hi Zach. Are you clean? Do you keep your kitchen clean?
Zach: It's usually a shit-hole, to be honest. We used to clean it every Sunday, but then we realised it got to the point where we had to deep clean it every Sunday. There was only two of us doing it and we were the two that didn't make the mess – so we stopped bothering.

How much do you spend on food a week?
I've got to say: nothing, because I can't afford it, so I just nip home to my parents and pick up a bag of dry foods that keep for ages. I'll do this every three weeks or so. Accommodation takes up 99 percent of my loan now.

Wow. So that doesn't leave much for booze, presumably?
No. I don't go out really; I just go to uni and come home. I may have some friends around for drinks, but we don't go out.

What's been your best meal at university?
The guy who lives across the hall, he made chicken nuggets and chips once. That was a big moment in my life.

What's more important – booze or food?
Al: I'd rather spend my money on food. Clubbing can be quite expensive, so I only go out once or twice a month. People tend to do a lot of pre-drinking, so you don't see much alcohol on a night out.

How much do you spend on food a week?
It fluctuates. Some weeks I spend less than a fiver because I just buy milk, sandwich fixings and yoghurt. But then other weeks I'll spend more because I like to make recipes in bulk; I'll make 12 portions of something and then bung them all in the freezer. It makes my flatmates a bit mad, though, as I take up quite a bit of room.

What state is your kitchen usually in?
It can be pretty bad – we don't have a window in there, so it gets really overheated. One time, after a lot of food and plates had built up in there, we received a notice from the university telling us we had to tidy up within 48 hours or be fined.

Are you a good cook?
I think so. As I said, I like to cook in bulk, so I don't really end up cooking that often.

How much do you spend on food a week?
Zeinab: Maybe £20 for my weekly shop and then a further £10 here or there. I buy almond milk, sweet potatoes, onions, the usual groceries. Lots of fruit and veg because I try to eat healthier than a lot of my other flatmates. I've always had home cooked meals, so I try to replicate them. I have never bought a ready meal – not yet.

Do you spend more on food or alcohol?
If you'd asked me this during the first week then maybe alcohol, but right now it's food. I go out maybe once or twice a month – we'll have pre-drinks here and then only a couple of shots wherever we go.

What state is your kitchen usually in?
If it's after Saturday night then it's pretty bad, but on a usual weekday it's not as bad as I've seen elsewhere. We don't use a rota, just passive-aggressive notes to encourage everyone to clean.

What's the best meal you've had in your flat?
Everyone has their own eating habits, so we don't really cook together. We're not the most cohesive flat. I shop at Aldi, so I feel like I can buy whatever ingredients I want and still keep the cost pretty low.

How much do you spend on food a week?
Natalia: Including dining out and takeaways, about £40. Soon after payday I try to keep it healthy with vegetables and fruit, but as the days go by I start buying meal deals and less healthy food. By the end of the month I start to get creative. I once mixed peanut butter with a pot noodle. Peanut butter is good. Pot noodle is good. It could have been a beautiful mix, but I got it so wrong.

What do you spend more on – food or booze?
I prefer to spend it on food, but I probably spend more on drinking. I used to drink a lot of spirits but now it's mostly liquors and beers. I try not to go out too much, but sometimes I just think fuck it and end up spending £50 on a night out.

What state is your kitchen normally in?
If 100 is clean and zero is disgusting, then I'd say a lot of the time it's a 50, or a 60. Maybe a 40.

What's the best meal you've made at uni?
It was huevos rancheros. I heard about it first on Breaking Bad. I think Jesse has it for breakfast one time. It's a Mexican dish with eggs, peppers, chillies, spring onion – it's delicious. Very easy to make and very cheap as well. It's a big crowd pleaser.

So you're a decent cook then?
When I try, I can be. The pot noodle was a low point in my career.

Yours is the first fridge I've seen alcohol in. What do you spend more money on – food or booze?
Joe: Alcohol. Or that's the way it's been at the minute. When I go out I'm pretty savvy about what I'm spending, so I'll take some pocket pints – secret cans stashed away. There's a lot of art shows and openings that have free alcohol, so sometimes I'll try and smuggle a bottle of wine home.

How much do you spend on food a week?
I did a shop earlier that was 13 quid. I guess I try to spend no more than 20, but I'm always out and about, so it's hard to keep tabs on. Most of it goes on sausage rolls from Iceland – £1.50 for eight. I'll buy in whatever's cheap and will keep me alive. I used to go to Lidl, but the one around the corner has been demolished, so it's now Tesco's reduced section at midnight, every night. I find myself fighting over bits of 54p meat.

What's the best meal you've had so far?
At Christmas we all chipped in a fiver and had a big feast. There was like sweet potato mash, chicken, pigs in blankets – always pigs in blankets, great stuffing, normal mash, broccoli, sprouts.

Are you a decent cook?
No. Not at all.

Fair enough.

How much do you spend on food a week?
Simon: It varies from £25 to £35. That's just the food I eat at home. Occasionally I'll dine out at Pizza Express when there's 40 percent off, because that's cheap as fuck.

What do you spend more on, alcohol or food?
I'd rather spend my money on going for a drink, but I understand the necessity for me to sustain life – so I guess the priority is on food. We pre-drink a bit, but these halls are right above a Wetherspoon's, so that's kind of a blessing and a curse.

What's the best meal you've made at uni?
I made a vegan creamy pasta thing – but it was good. It had all sorts of wanky things like shallots and almond milk in. I contemplated using an onion, but I went to Waitrose and bought a shallot instead.

How much do you spend on food a week?
Polly: It depends how much I eat out, so it can vary from £50 to £70. But other times it could be much less. I try my best to not eat out, but often you just don't have time to make food beforehand so it's that or starve. Food is the hardest aspect of living independently.

What state is your kitchen normally in?
They inspect the kitchen once a week, so usually it's tidy on Thursdays. There's a girl who lives here who's really anally retentive about the kitchen – she always makes us wash up, etc, etc. Usually it's like a four out of ten. Sometimes it's disgustingly awful, but it's never super-disgustingly awful.

Are you a decent cook?
No, definitely not. I mean, I can cook – I just don't know enough about cooking. I don't know how long things take to boil. The best thing I can make is pasta, because I'm Italian.

Thanks, Polly.

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