Good thing I’m an art student! Because giving away old school assignments is the perfect super cheap art school student gift. If they’re your family, they’ll probably love to see some of your new artwork. They’ll love it even more if they actually get some of it! This also conveniently solves the problem of “where the heck am I going to store all this stuff?” Because the walls and shelves of your relatives are the perfect place to display your work.

If none of your assignments are worthy enough to be gifts, you could always draw/paint/sculpt something. For the most part, art is cheap. Especially if you’re just using paper and colored pencil. If you properly mount/mat the image so that it will either fit in a standard frame or you can put a little stand behind it then it can look fantastic. Artwork is a great gift, hands down. It’s personal, unique, and just theirs. Trust me, they’ll love it.

Now… if you’re a programmer, or a business major, or a botanist… sorry, I have no idea what you should do for cheap gifts. Although, I’m sure you could find a way to make some art related to your field. Programmers or math majors can create fractals with programs like Apophis. If you’re a business major, I’m sure there are crazy charts/graphs that you could print and mount. A botanist could find some cool plants or something to give away… or make some cool artistic something from dried leaves. But other than that, I’ve got no idea. All you non-artists, you’re pretty much on your own for this one. :P

Type to you later,
~Nathaniel

Ramen!
Yep, ramen is dirt cheap and fairly filling. It comes in several different flavors as well. If you get the off brand stuff, you can expect to spend 12-50 cents on each packet (not bad for a meal). However, in order to keep the anemia away you’ll need protein in your diet. My favorite source of protein (for ramen) is eggs, however, if you don’t like/eat eggs, beans are a good substitute.

Recipe:
Ingredients: 1 packet of ramen, 1 egg, choice of spices.

1. Get the water boiling, go ahead and put in the noodles now, before the boil (yes I know that’s not what the instructions on the packet say to do).
2. Once the noodles start to separate and get soft, put in your spices (or just the flavor packet if that’s all you want).
3. Once the water is at a high boil, break 1 or 2 eggs into the boiling ramen and mix with a fork vigorously (you want to scramble the eggs into everything and mix up the spices). The water should immediately stop boiling because of the temperature change, that’s fine, just let it keep cooking.
4. I don’t like the water, so I let it continue to boil down until it’s the consistency that I prefer (moist, not swimming)
5. Pour into a bowl and let set until cool

And that’s it. The egg is also a simple solution to the fact that all the spices tend to sit at the bottom of the ramen. In this case, the spices are actually suspended in the egg and the eggs stick to the noodles a little, keeping everything fairly evenly distributed. Another cool thing is that it only creates one dirty pot. If you w rinse it out immediately, it will be very easy to clean up. Even if you let it sit, the eggs don’t really stick… unless you burn them.

If you decide to go with the beans, cook both separately. I would suggest cooking the beans first and letting them cool while you cook the ramen. After you mix the two together the difference in heat should make them ready to eat fairly quickly.

All in all, these recipes only take 5-7 minuets, cost less than a buck. It’s fast, easy, doesn’t require that you eat fast food, it’s fairly healthy, filling, and with all the different flavors of ramen and the spices you could potentially use, you’ve got quite a bit of variety.

If the egg gets too boring for you, I would suggest chopping up hot dogs or spam and putting that in the ramen. These don’t even really need to be cooked (but they should be refrigerated after opening).

Vitamins:
Another bit of advice for the poor college goer is that because of the poor nutrition you should invest in a good multivitamin. This will make up for any gaps in your diet… and trust me, there will be gaps. My suggestion is This multivitamin mostly because it is all natural and is a higher quality than what you’ll find in the stores. It might be a little more expensive that the stuff you can buy at the drug store but it packs more punch. The only downside is that they really do taste terrible… every all natural vitamin does. It’s not really that important what vitamin you decide to get on. Just make sure that it has a lot of everything and that it is a general vitamin (nothing specifically for certain groups like women or athletes… unless you are fairly active and think you need it). This bit of advice is based mostly on the fact that your mental acuity will suffer if you are not getting proper nutrition. In order to keep those grades up, you’ll need your brain.

KoolAid!
For those of you who are used to drinking juices and soft drinks, but find that you can no longer afford them on your budget, Kooolaid is a great alternative. I lived in Phoenix AZ, where the water is actually recycled sewage. It is so heavily chlorinated that the tap water tasted like pool water. I couldn’t stomach it (perhaps I’m just a pansy… but I don’t really care). Koolaid is dirt cheap and comes in a variety of flavors… don’t try it without sugar, you will choke. Also, it is a good idea to put your sack of sugar in a large ziplock bag. The first time we had sugar rot on us… well… it wasn’t pretty. It needs to stay in a high, dry place. If you can’t find one of those, use the ziplock bag… use the ziplock bag anyway.

Fast Food:
Every-once-in-a-while fast food is OK. In fact, to keep you from getting entirely bored with your diet, you should splurge a little when you can afford it. Fast food is always more expensive than what you could make at home. It’s also not that great for you. If you’re not careful, fast food can take up a significant portion of your budget (especially if you eat out every day). Below is a list of fast food that isn’t that bad, or bad for you:

1. Subway: it’s cheap, fresh, and filling. Also, many subways offer student discounts after 4pm, ask your local subway for more details
2. supreme pizza: I only suggest supreme because it contains all the food groups, making it a theoretically healthy meal. Other kinds of pizza are OK too… but supreme is the best for you. Also, pizza delivers, so you only have to pause your studying (or video game) for a limited time, while you answer the door… or not at all if you can get your room mate/friend to do it for you.
3. BurgerKing: if you’re going to get a burger, this place has big burgers for fairly cheap. I personally prefer those local mom and pop greasy spoon type places. If you can find one of those, opt for them
4. Jack in the Box: Their drive-through is open 24hrs, great if you’re up late studying/playing games and need that extra boost to keep you going.

That pretty much covers everything I can think of. If you have any comments or suggestions on my suggestions, leave them below. I’m always glad to hear new thoughts on this subject.