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How to Plan and Prepare for a Frugal Long-Distance Move

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“Don’t do your PhD at the same university you went to for your bachelor’s, and don’t postdoc at the same university you got your PhD from. You need to demonstrate success in multiple environments.” I heard this advice many times during my PhD training, and this is the path I followed: I did my undergrad in California, my postbac in Maryland, my PhD in North Carolina, a fellowship in DC, and now I live in Washington (for my husband’s first post-PhD Real Job). While there are certainly some PhDs who choose to stay in one certain city or region, the norm is to move a couple times or many times, even internationally. All this moving takes significant time and money to execute, especially once you start collecting possessions you actually want to retain. This article outlines how you can plan and prepare for a frugal long-distance move so that you minimize the cost to you in money, time, and stress.

frugal long-distance move

Further reading:

How Much Will Your Move Cost?

The price of a move runs the gamut from quite inexpensive at a few hundred dollars to quite expensive at several thousand or even on the order of $10,000 once all costs are accounted for. The main factors are:

  • the distance,
  • how many people and how much stuff you’re moving,
  • how much labor you choose to outsource, and
  • the wind-down and start-up costs in each city.

On one end of the scale, if you’re a single person and your possessions amount to a suitcase and a box, moving will be fairly inexpensive, perhaps a few hundred dollars for the transportation and whatever your start-up costs are in your new city (e.g., up-front rent and deposits).

On the other end of the scale, if you’re moving your family and all your stuff from a full house, your transportation costs will be quite high, your wind-down and start-up costs may be high, and you may choose to outsource some of the labor associated with moving to keep it time-efficient.

Buying and selling homes also add layers of expenses that I will not cover in this article.

Components of a Long-Distance Move

Long-distance moves can be expensive both in their direct costs and lost income.

The expense components of your move include:

  • Transporting yourself/your family, including housing and feeding in transit
  • Transporting your possessions, including storage in the new city if necessary
  • Transporting your car(s)
  • Packing materials and labor
  • Wind-down expenses for your old residence
  • Start-up expenses for your new residence, including scouting trips if necessary
  • Unpacking labor
  • Childcare

It’s also vital to plan for the income side of the equation. How much time will you take off between the end of your current position and the start of your next position and what does that translate to in missing dollars from your typical income? How much will maintaining your health insurance cost during that period up until you are covered by your new position?

There is often a trade-off between time and money when it comes to moving. Fast transportation costs more than slow transportation for long-distance moves, but slower transportation may necessitate more time away from work. It costs more to outsource labor such as packing, but if it allows you to take fewer days away from work it may be worthwhile.

When and How to Plan a Frugal Long-Distance Move

Moving long-distance is a major project with many moving pieces, so you should start your planning as soon as you know where you’re headed (if not before!).

Where Will You and Your Stuff Go?

Determine where your new home will be or at least when you will decide where to live.

This requires researching the housing market local to your new position.

If you plan to rent, figure out approximately when you need to sign a lease relative to your start date. The answer may be “not until you arrive in the city” or “several months in advance.” Know that you will have to conduct your housing search in earnest in the month or weeks leading up to that time, which may involve an additional trip to the new city.

If you plan to buy prior to your arrival, it’s never too early to start familiarizing yourself with the housing market and choosing a realtor.

Of course, finding appropriate housing is enormously important to your life and finances, but determining when you will take possession of your new residence will likely impact the method(s) you choose for transporting yourself and your stuff. Namely, when you and your stuff arrive in your new city, where will you/it go? Do you need to arrange for storage for your stuff and lodging for yourself for a period of time before you take possession of your new home?

How Will You and Your Stuff Get There?

Tackle the transportation question. You, your possessions, and your car(s) might travel together or separately, so there are a lot of combinations of methods available. Consider the cost, time, and stress involved in each method.

Ways to transport yourself/your family:

  • Plane
  • Train
  • Bus
  • Car (yours or a rental)
  • Cab of a moving truck

Ways to move your possessions:

  • In a car (yours or a rental)
  • Moving truck/trailer driven by professionals
  • Moving truck or trailer driven by you
  • Pod
  • Shipping (mail, bus, plane)
  • Luggage with you while traveling

Ways to move your car(s):

  • Drive it yourself
  • Trail it behind a moving truck
  • Ship it
  • Hire a driver

Some of the simplest combinations of methods for long-distance moves are:

  • Fast and expensive, lots of stuff: Fly yourself with luggage and hire professionals to move your possessions and your car
  • Fast and inexpensive, little stuff: Drive yourself and your possessions in your car or a rental car
  • Fast and inexpensive, lots of stuff: Drive yourself and your possessions in a rented moving truck trailing your car
  • Slow an inexpensive, little stuff: Fly yourself with luggage and ship your possessions
  • Slow and inexpensive, lots of stuff: Drive your own car with possessions, ship remaining possessions in a pod or boxes

There are many transportation configurations possible, so settle on the one that best conforms with your desired amount of time off, how much money you have available for the move, and the degree you want to be involved with the transportation of your possessions. Be sure to get quotes from several providers of each service you are considering.

Settle on the Dates and Book Everything

Negotiate and finalize your end date for your current position and the start date for your new position. If you are using a professional moving service at any stage, book them as soon as you know the dates. Some services book out weeks and months in advance, and the summer is the busy season.

Prepare for the Move Logistically and Financially

Use the months and weeks leading up to your departure date to prepare for the move to make the final days as smooth as possible.

1) Designate a moving fund

In an ideal situation, you will pay for your move with cash, even if it will later be reimbursed by your employer. Set aside the total amount of money you expect to spend on the move, start-up expenses, etc. plus an extra 10% or more for unexpected expenses.

The more time you have leading up to the move, the more opportunity you have to redirect some of your ongoing savings rate or to earn additional money through side hustling.

If paying for your move with cash is not possible, carefully consider the least damaging type of debt available to you, e.g., a personal bank loan or a 0% interest credit card, and make a plan to pay it off as soon as possible with your new paycheck.

2) Start collecting moving materials for free

You’ll likely need at least some moving materials, e.g., boxes, packing material, tape. Boxes can be readily sources for free in your community. Ask nearby grocery and liquor stores when the best day is to pick up their excess boxes. You can also check craigslist, Freecycle, and Buy Nothing for free boxes. Collect boxes from these sources regularly over the weeks leading up to your move so that you can cover most or all of your needs. Don’t expect to find all the free boxes you need the day before you start packing!

If you end up buying new boxes, consider reselling them once you’ve finished with them to recoup some of your costs.

Packing material is more difficult to reuse so you can check some of the same sources for free material but you may need to buy some of your own.

3) Pare down your possessions

Generally speaking, the less stuff you have to move, the less expensive your move will be. Of course, if you sell vital possessions, there will be a cost to acquire them again in your new city. But think of your move as an opportunity to declutter and make sure you only retain what is most useful and/or important to you.

The possessions that you use frequently will have to be packed up or disposed of last, but in the time leading up to your move, you can go through your less frequently used possessions and either pack them or get rid of them. Selling your possessions is a great way to pad your moving fund, and the more time you give yourself in this process, the more likely you are to be able to sell your stuff. You can also give away your possessions that still have life in them through Buy Nothing or Freecycle or donate them to nonprofit organizations like Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity, the Salvation Army, etc. Your possessions without remaining value can be recycled or, as a last resort, put in the garbage.

Execute the Move

All your planning and preparation will pay off once you start your move! In the final days leading up to your departure, you will pack everything up and clean your old residence. It will take a lot of work so don’t try to cram it into too little time. If your movers show up and you aren’t fully packed, they will pack for you and charge you an arm and a leg!

A couple final tips:

  • Make sure to pack the things you will need during your move or upon getting into your new place separately and/or with clear labels. You don’t want to have to open all your boxes to find a saucepan or your work clothes!
  • Be prepared to spend above your normal levels on food as you pack and unpack your kitchen and as you devote your free time to packing instead of cooking.
  • Enlist your friends and family to help with packing and even childcare while you pack. (But return the favor when you have the opportunity!)

To hear my personal story of how my husband and I moved cross-country for his first post-PhD Real Job (not very frugally!), listen to my podcast episode dropping 5/27/2019!

Give Yourself a Raise: Inexpensive Entertainment on or Near Campus

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With respect to entertainment and socializing, graduate students are facing a bit of a catch-22: their university affiliation affords them tons of opportunities for free and subsidized entertainment, yet they often think they are too busy to take advantage. However, all work and no play makes for a burned-out PhD student. When you do manage to escape from the lab or library, there are numerous ways to have fun without straining your wallet. When you plan a night out with your peers or want to see a show, check on your free or subsidized options through your university before paying full price.

inexpensive entertainment campus

A version of this post was originally published on GradHacker.

Low-Cost On-Campus Entertainment Ideas

University, school, and department social events

From happy hours to dances to sponsored outings, universities put on tons of free events year-round for students, anywhere from once per year to as frequently as once per week. Your graduate student government is probably the best place to start looking for sponsored activities and opportunities to socialize with your peers. The graduate student government at my alma mater hosted happy hours about once per month, paid for students to go bowling and to minor league baseball games, and hosted trivia nights and ice cream socials. Other student organization may sponsor similar nights out to bars or local attractions such as museums and planetariums.

Spectator sports

I have to admit that I was not a fan of any college sports until I got to graduate school, but I found my alma mater’s basketball culture irresistible. Grad students who enjoy watching football, basketball, or many other sports will be able to attend events for free or at a highly subsidized rate. Or if watching sports isn’t your thing, maybe tailgating is!

Intramural sports

Intramural sports are a great combination of entertainment, exercise, and socializing. There are most likely grad student teams competing against each other and undergraduate teams in softball, volleyball, flag football, basketball, etc. Because you are using university facilities, the fees to participate in such teams are typically nominal.

Theater, museums, movies, and concerts

Similar to spectator sports, you can likely attend student theater productions on campus for a very low price. There may be a museum or botanical garden on campus that is free for students. Free or subsidized concerts and movies are also common, though you might not see the newest releases. My alma mater screened both of the PhD Comics movies for free, which were wonderful events designed specifically for graduate students, and also hosted two large free outdoor concerts each spring.

Orientation activities

The start of the school year is a great time to find free entertainment as clubs are recruiting new members. You can keep an eye on club calendars for events that you might enjoy, such as stargazing, games, gardening, hiking, or volunteering.

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Low-Cost Off-Campus Entertainment Ideas

City events

Most cities cultivate a calendar of events for residents and visitors to reference. Over the summer months, these calendars burst with lovely outdoor activities that are often free or inexpensive, such as festivals, concerts, and movies. This can be a great way to stay entertained when the university’s calendar tends to be more dormant. Local bars and coffee shops in college towns also frequently host live performances that draw in a student crowd.

Theater, movies, museums, sporting events

Your graduate student ID almost always works just as well as an undergraduate’s for scoring reduced-price tickets in the community. Many venues such as theaters, sports stadiums, and museums offer discounted rates of entry to students on set days of the week or month or a few times per year. My husband and I held season tickets to the Broadway shows at our local theater for several years on Sundays or Tuesdays, which were the student discount nights.

Movies

You don’t need a subscription to Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime to enjoy watching movies in your home. Your university and local public library should have an excellent selection of titles that you can check out for free.

Do-It-Yourself Entertainment Ideas

Social gatherings

One of the best aspects of grad school is the built-in social network it gives you within your school or program. Parties can be easily planned alone or with a few other hosts in homes, at pools, in bars or restaurants, or in parks, and designating them as potluck, Dutch, or BYOB means that no one is shouldering the cost alone.

Watch parties

One of my favorite aspects of grad student life was getting together with other basketball fans to watch our team play away games on TV. We even had an informal arrangement with another couple that we would host watch parties for all the games that were broadcast over the air while they would host for all the games shown on cable (removing the primary argument for us to keep paying for cable). You can arrange watch parties at home and sometimes at bars for whatever kind of entertainment you enjoy – sports, popular TV shows, movies – as long as you know a few other people with that common interest.

How do you keep yourself entertained and socialize on campus and in your city without busting your budget? How have you used your student status to get discounts on entertainment?

How to Embrace the Frugal Life

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Frugality is an unavoidable companion throughout PhD training due to our limited incomes. For those of us who are not naturally frugal (I confess!), it might be quite an unpleasant companion initially, one you constantly struggle with and attempt to escape. This post details six strategies to help us change our attitude toward frugality and instead welcome and embrace it. Use these strategies to eliminate pain and discomfort from your practice of frugality.

embrace frugal life

A version of this article originally appeared on GradHacker.

1) Find Your Bigger “Why.”

Sacrifice, by definition, is not fun. The key to embracing frugality rather than tolerating it is in identifying your motivation for practicing it. What life values is your frugality helping you fulfill? What are you able to do with the money that you free up through practicing frugality?

Personally, I wanted to handle my money responsibly. Being responsible is very important to me (eldest child much?), and when I started grad school that translated into living within my means, being financially independent from my parents, and starting to save for retirement. I learned to practice frugality in each of my budget categories, and it was satisfying because I believed that in doing so I was becoming more responsible. Money that I no longer spend on my everyday living expenses could be put into savings.

A couple years into grad school, I realized that traveling to see family and friends had also become very important to me. Finding a new way to be frugal in my monthly budget meant that more money was freed up to be added to my travel savings account. Making a sacrifice like canceling cable or ceasing eating out for convenience was made easier because I knew that the money would directly be put toward travel.

2) Widen Your Exposure to Frugal Strategies.

Not every frugal strategy you come across is going to work for your life; you can’t expect to happen upon a new frugal idea once every few months and implement 100 percent of them to fantastic success in your budget. Instead, you should expose yourself to lots of suggestions, knowing that you might only pick up on and start practicing a small fraction of them. In fact, you might even reject a frugal tip the first time you hear it, but cycle back around to trying it out a few months or years later when something in your circumstances or disposition has changed.

3) Keep a Lid on Your Large, Fixed Expenses.

When students start practicing frugality, they usually first turn to areas such as their food spending (a variable expense). However, the most effective and least onerous area of your budget in which to practice frugality is your large, fixed expenses. When you make a frugal choice in your large, fixed expenses, you lock in a rate that works well for your overall budget, meaning that there is less need to frugalize your remaining variable expenses, which require more willpower.

Your large, fixed expenses will almost certainly include your rent/mortgage and car payment (if you have one), but might also include your insurance premiums, certain utilities, childcare, etc. Finding and moving to an inexpensive home or shopping for and buying an inexpensive car is not easy, but it is a one-time decision that will pay off every single month in perpetuity.

4) Focus on Habit Creation in One Area at a Time.

The next best thing after reducing a fixed expense is to create a habit that reduces a variable expense. It’s very taxing to continually have to force yourself to practice frugality in a certain area, but once the practice becomes a habit, you do it effortlessly. So when you try out a new frugal tip, give it some time – a few weeks, perhaps – before deciding whether you’ll stick with it or not. The practice should become easier and easier as the habit becomes ingrained. Over time, you’ll also figure out how to best fit the frugal tip into your life; this might not be obvious the first time or two you try it, so don’t give up too quickly.

It’s not a great idea to try to frugalize every area of your spending simultaneously. It will take a lot of effort to remember all the new frugal strategies you have in play, and it will be exhausting and possibly time-consuming to take on so much at once. Instead, focus on creating one new frugal habit at a time before moving on to the next one.

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5) Experiment.

I think we’re sometimes reluctant to try a new frugal strategy because we can’t imagine practicing it indefinitely. But you don’t have to make a binding commitment to every frugal tip you try out.

I like to think of trying out a new frugal tip as a 30-day experiment. If you have been tracking your spending, you know how much you spent in the relevant budget category before implementing the tip (your control). Then, commit to practicing the strategy for just 30 days, noting how much less money you spend and how onerous (or not) you found the strategy. At the end of the month, evaluate whether the cost savings were worth the effort expended to decide whether to continue with the strategy.

6) Talk Openly with Your Peers about Frugality.

I recommend that you talk with your peers about money, specifically about your frugal aspirations.

First, this reveals to your peers that you are money-conscious and not likely to be a big spender. Frankly, this will probably come as a relief to most of your peers who are on just as tight a budget as you are. It helps to set the expectation in your social circle that entertainment and socializing will be accomplished without a large price tag.

Second, your classmates are going to be your best source of frugal tips, even better than the frugal wizards you can find online. This is because they have intimate knowledge of your university, your city, and your salary range. The first time I facilitated my workshop, Hack Your Budget, I was pleasantly surprised at the large number of frugal tips the participants shared with one another that were specific to their university and city – down to at what time and in what building a not-overtly-advertised pop-up discounted produce market operated. There was no way that an outsider like me could have generated that volume of frugal suggestions that were perfectly suited for that audience; it had to be crowd-sourced from a group of graduate students.

The core purpose of frugality is to minimize your monetary expenditures in areas that matter less to you so that you can redirect your money toward areas that matter more. Therefore, the areas of your spending that you try to frugalize (and how you use your money instead) is unique to you. It takes time and effort to develop that frugal fingerprint, but the end result should not feel difficult or uncomfortable.

Heading to a Conference? Tack on a Vacation, Too.

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The opportunity for travel is one of academia’s most attractive perks. In just about any field, you can attend conferences and establish collaborations with far-flung colleagues. Certain fields also provide opportunities for travel through field work or archive visits.

A version of this article first appeared on GradHacker.

But what’s the fun in traveling to a new city or country if you only work while you’re there? It’s natural to want to combine personal activities with the professional duties that are the primary motivation for the trip. I recently surveyed (former) grad students to find out how they combined personal travel pursuits with professional travel opportunities.

conference vacation

Adding Personal Activities to Conference Travel Is Popular

Nearly all of the respondents to my survey shared experiences of adding on personal travel to conferences.

The easiest and lowest-stakes way to accomplish this is to spend the time you’re already not at the conference, such as the evenings, however you like. Grad students reported sightseeing, attending cultural events, sampling the local cuisine, hiking, and visiting friends or family during their personal time. Ron from Duke University suggested maximizing your time: “Use the “extra” time you have – evenings out for dinner and in the city, free time the day before and after the conference if your flight is late.”

The next level up is to add days to your trip that are purely personal time. A student at Yale University who did this frequently advised: “Tack on a couple days either over a weekend or on ‘going and coming’ days to hang out.”

Jenn from Duke University attended an American Chemical Society meeting in Puerto Rico. She vacationed on the island for four days before the meeting started, timing it so that she only missed two workdays. This was a unique travel opportunity for her, as most of her other travel during grad school was obligation travel. “This was the only trip I took where I felt it was a true/real vacation (ironic that it was for a work conference). I took a trip for me to do something I loved, in an exotic location. I still talk about it to this day 8 years later. I would 100% do it again.”

It’s also possible to make it a family vacation! While at the University of Michigan, Katy Peplin (Katy Peplin Coaching) visited the Scottish Highlands with her husband before attending a conference in Glasgow. Jennifer Polk (From PhD to Life) spent a week in a villa in Italy with her parents and friends before traveling to London for a conference while she was at the University of Toronto. Mariana from the University of Brasília typically spends one month of each summer in North America vacating and attending an annual association meeting with her fiancé. They even scheduled their wedding and honeymoon to coincide with one of these trips!

Conference Selection Based on Location

Some students took their personal travel desires into consideration when applying to conferences. Diane Burgess from Simon Fraser University advised: “Give some thought to picking conferences that will combine excellent networking opportunities with the chance to travel. I try to select conferences that are in cities I’d like to visit.” Alex from Duke University concurred: “Go to legit conferences that have academic value, but in places where you can also enjoy the outside stuff. It’s usually easy to do both.”

Who Pays?

Unsurprisingly, the personal aspects of these trips were only subsidized to the degree that they overlapped with the professional itinerary and available funding. Some students paid for their professional travel entirely out of pocket, but most survey respondents received partial or full funding for the professional aspects of the travel. Extra nights of lodging, personal activities and their corresponding local transportation, meals on bonus days, and airfare for family members were always paid for by the students.

Lauren wrote, “Conferences were a great opportunity to explore new cities, and taking a few days prior to or following the conference on my own dime was totally possible. Use conference funds for the conference, and self-fund personal travel surrounding it.”

A student from UC Davis suggested ways to stretch the conference funding: “Find flights on different days that are cheaper or equal price to the flight you would normally take so that the air travel is completely covered, minimize spending during professional events, and take advantage of any provided meals so that you can use your per diem to cover meals on the extra days you are traveling.”

Should You Ask for Permission to Add on Personal Travel?

The majority of the grad students who responded to the survey did not explicitly ask for permission to add personal travel on to their professional travel. A few told their advisors that they would be taking some additional time away from work, and a couple cleared their requests for staying extra time with the person who paid for their travel. However, the advice given by some of these grad students was to just be upfront with your advisor about your plans. A student at UC Davis who visited San Diego in conjunction with a conference wrote, “It’s pretty expected to do personal travel; it’s a not a big deal to ask about.” Ron from Duke University added, “The structure of the events and hints from coworkers made it clear that I should enjoy some sightseeing.”

Beyond Conferences

Conferences are not the only professional travel opportunities that can be combined with vacation. A student at Miami University travel to Peru and Thailand for 10-day field expeditions, after which she took two weeks of vacation. She hiked to Machu Picchu, went birding, and scuba dived during these vacations. Kirstin from Baylor University traveled to Israel for excavations, adding on time to visit family and friends.

Vacationing Is Self-Care

Taking vacations during graduate school is challenging but necessary for basic self-care. Mariana from the University of Brasília lamented that “it’s virtually impossible to take vacations when you’re a grad student.” Combining vacations with personal travel rejuvenates students for a fraction of the money and time that might otherwise be spent.

A student from UMass Amherst wrote, “Adding personal travel gives you the opportunity to unwind before/after trip. Often nice way to take a break/reward oneself after a big professional accomplishment since our research/writing commitments can be so demanding at times and it can be hard to prioritize celebrating oneself.”

“Grad school is grueling, find some vacation time when you can,” implored Nicole from the University of Kansas.

Don’t Miss Out on this Opportunity

Professional travel to conferences or for research also presents an opportunity to recharge, experience something new, and visit friends and family. None of the participants in my survey reported any fallout from combining professional and personal travel, and many exhorted other grad students to follow suit. You can determine whether it’s better to leave your personal travel and activities unspoken or to ask for explicit permission, for example if you are extending your trip, as you know your advisor and field best. Piggybacking personal travel onto professional travel is a fantastic way to vacate while spending less time and money than you otherwise might. Don’t forgo this fantastic perk of academic research!

Give Yourself a Raise: Prepare Your Own Food Even with a Busy Schedule

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Grad students and postdocs typically spend a significant portion of their income on groceries and restaurant food; these budget categories are often targeted by trainees who want to cut back on their spending in favor of reaching other financial goals. Forming new habits around cooking and eating is challenging but certainly not impossible, even for busy researchers.

prepare food busy schedule

A version of this article was originally published on GradHacker.

If you are looking to “give yourself a raise” by reducing your spending on food, the go-to suggestions are to:

  • Reduce the number of meals you eat in restaurants or as take-out.
  • Prepare food from base rather than pre-processed ingredients; shop the perimeter of the grocery store.
  • Buy food in season.
  • Don’t waste food.
  • Buy in bulk.
  • Plan your menus.
  • Stick to your shopping list.
  • Patronize alternative food retailers.

Sometimes trainees justify their high food spending by citing long hours on campus and variable schedules. They tell themselves they don’t have time to plan, shop, or cook or they can’t commit to being home by dinnertime. They are often inexperienced in the kitchen, which means they rarely cook or are slow when they do.

Early on in my grad school career, I fell into some of these high spending patterns. I ate out with classmates because I wanted to bond with my peers. I wasn’t very capable in the kitchen, subsisting largely on sandwiches, fruit, salads, and canned goods. When I did cook, I picked rather involved recipes from cookbooks with several ingredients I wouldn’t use again, and making each meal took a large investment of time. I often stayed late on campus, and I ate far too many meals at Panda Express because I hadn’t planned ahead.

Over the course of my grad school career, I slowly improved both my time management and food preparation skills to the point that I was able to reduce the amount of money I spent on food while still feeling satisfied with what and with whom I was eating. My health also improved in parallel with my nutrition.

Sometimes the stumbling block in our efforts to reduce our spending is not that we don’t know how to spend less but rather that we don’t understand how to adjust our lifestyles to meet our new goals. The remainder of this post will not focus on how to spend less money, but how to make typical strategies for spending less money on food more palatable to a grad student or postdoc.

Think ‘Food Assembly’ or ‘Food Preparation’ Rather than ‘Cooking’

Novices in the kitchen may be intimidated out of preparing much of their own meals because they don’t know how to replicate, especially in a time-efficient fashion, the meals they are accustomed to eating in their parents’ homes, dining halls, or restaurants. But feeding yourself doesn’t have to involve skilled or elaborate cooking; you can reframe it as food assembly or food preparation.

Identify a few simple (components of) meals that you like that have only a single or a small number of ingredients and may or may not involve ‘cooking.’ You’re the only one you need to please with your meal, so don’t worry about whether it would be worthy to bring to a potluck.

Some of my favorite meals during grad school that involved little to no cooking were spinach salads loaded with vegetables and hardboiled eggs or ham, curry tuna salad paired with fruit, tuna mashed with avocado, a taco bowl, and a bunless cheeseburger with steamed broccoli.

Get into a Groove

Repetition is an amazing time-saver when it comes to eating out of your own kitchen. You don’t have to master every cooking technique out there; you just have to become competent at preparing a small number of meals that you like. Rotate through each meal in your wheelhouse at whatever frequency you need to keep from getting bored; add in new foods and techniques slowly so you don’t become overwhelmed.

Some personalities are more amenable to this strategy than others. My husband has eaten virtually the same breakfast and lunch nearly every weekday for years, and before we were married he only ever cooked a handful of different dinners; this amount of variety is satisfying to him and certainly has cost him very little in terms of time and money. Disabusing myself of the idea that I needed (or wanted) a different meal every day of the week was one of my big breakthroughs in committing to preparing my own food while pursuing my PhD.

Establishing patterns in your weekly or monthly meals also makes grocery shopping much easier; you don’t have to spend much time making a list or running to the store for forgotten items.

Acknowledge Your True Schedule

I didn’t have many peers in graduate school who seemed to keep a fixed work schedule, and I don’t remember any non-parents doing so. On top of the large number of hours many researchers put in each week, the nature of research often demands time flexibility. I frequently found myself staying on campus well past what my body told me was dinner hour to finish up labwork, meet up with classmates for a study session, or knock out some administrative tasks.

Early on in grad school, I didn’t plan ahead for these evening workday extensions; while I was quite consistent in bringing lunch to campus daily, I was ‘forced’ to buy dinner on campus if I wanted to stay late. Once I acknowledged that I would be eating dinner on campus from time to time, even if I didn’t know exactly on which days of the week that would occur, I started to plan for it. I prepared a few refrigerator-stable, microwavable, single-serving meals each week to keep in my office for the late nights, replenishing my supply as needed.

My favorite microwavable dinners to keep on campus were chili, split pea soup, flaxseed meal pizza, Mexican lasagna, and pasta with sauce. Full meals aren’t even needed in many cases to help you resist the convenience food available on campus; there’s really no reason to not keep some snacks around to tide you over. Easy room-temperature or refrigerator snacks to keep in your office are instant oatmeal, nuts or nut butters, yogurt, hardboiled eggs, cheese, raw vegetables, and fruit.

Don’t Allow Yourself to Get Too Hungry

‘Never go to the grocery store hungry’ is great advice; hunger can sap our willpower to stick with our eating plan, causing us to overbuy expensive, unhealthy, or unnecessary food. As a graduate student working sometimes long and late hours, I realized that allowing myself to become quite hungry caused me to make poor eating choices on campus and at home in addition to at the grocery store. It’s pretty difficult to arrive home hungry and take the time needed to prepare a meal, especially for a slow cook.

I started flipping my schedule around; nearly every weekday evening, I ate a pre-prepared dinner (or snack) right when I arrived home, and then cooked subsequent days’ meals later in the evening when my hunger was already satisfied. An alternative is to do as much food preparation as possible in advance (washing, chopping, saucing, etc.) so that finishing your meal when you arrive home takes a minimal amount of time.

Batch Cook

Acquiring a slow cooker halfway through grad school absolutely revolutionized how I prepared food; it was my introduction to batch cooking. Batch cooking is preparing multiple meals at once to freeze or refrigerate until they are consumed. Slow cookers are not the only way to batch cook, but they are an incredible tool for preparing large quantities of food at once with relatively little active work or skill needed. Batch cooking usually doesn’t take any or much more time than preparing a single meal, so it’s perfect for a busy trainee. A single person can prepare a meal of 4 or 8 servings and eat for a week off that one-time effort!

Socialize Economically

The connections you make in graduate school are very important for your career; I would not suggest that you skip chances to engage socially with your peers simply because you are trying to spend less money on food. You can, however, often socialize in a manner that limits the damage to your budget. For example:

Changing your eating habits is certainly not easy. However, by overcoming the challenges to eating out of your own kitchen while you are still a student or postdoc, you can effectively give yourself a raise both during your training and throughout the rest of your life.

How have you kept your food spending low as a graduate student or postdoc?