By Sydney Hancock–
As the semester nears its halfway mark, students are beginning to panic. Flex points are depleting, and the new Panda Express isn’t helping at all.
Although some students don’t believe it’s possible to last an entire semester without running out of flex, there are a few tricks that make it a very possible and easy task. Eat breakfast.
How does eating breakfast save flex money? Many students come to campus on an empty stomach. We simply just don’t have time to make a meal and sit down and eat it all before coming to class.
Skipping out on breakfast may give you a few extra minutes in bed by the time noon rolls around, your hunger is through the roof and your starvation senses are in high gear. Then you end up buying loads of food to fulfill your ravenous hunger.
However, if you eat a satisfying breakfast at home you won’t be as hungry by the time lunch rolls around and you’ll naturally want less food.
If you’re not as hungry, your eyes won’t be bigger than your stomach and you’ll want to buy less food, resulting in spending less flex.
Two words: lunch box. Yes, that’s right. If fanny packs can make a comeback, then so can lunch boxes.
Many of us were ashamed to be that kid in middle school whose mom packed them a lunch with an embarrassing love note and ate alone at a table while all the “cool kids” stood in line for the cafeteria lunch it’s different in college.
If you show up to lunch with your friends and whip out a lunch box full of last night’s spaghetti or leftover chicken and rice, it’s no surprise that your friends gawk with jealousy and drooling everywhere because their Chik-fil-A lunch isn’t cutting it anymore.
Meal prepping is crucial when it comes to strategic flex saving. Meal prepping isn’t only meant for body builders or macro-counters; it’s actually the perfect trick to help you stop spending all of your flex.
If you take advantage of the coupons in local ads, you can buy a few cheap groceries on the weekends to make meals or snacks to bring to munch on while you’re on campus. Planning ahead eases over your hunger in between classes without frantically using your flex.
Waking up a few minutes early to chow down on a filling breakfast, making a little extra each night at dinner for leftovers the next day or even making a week’s worth of lunches and snacks on Sunday night does wonders for your flex saving efforts.
Not only will you be filthy flex rich, you’ll be the biggest trend setter on campus when you start the best comeback of the year and show up to class with your 2008 Disney themed lunch box in hand.