One trick that students do to save on food expenses, according to Andoko, is to find a boarding house with a shared kitchen. With this facility, students and their housemates can pool their money together to buy or fulfill their food needs. By cooking in the boarding house, the food money will be used to buy shared ingredients with friends, thus saving on expenses.

Andoko added, students can also save on their food expenses by looking for meal vouchers. This can be done, for example, when shopping on an e-commerce platform that is currently offering voucher promotions. Financial planner from Mitra Rencana Edukasi, Mike Rini, suggests tips for saving money on meals for boarding students, which is by knowing their eating habits. This can be seen from the frequency, quantity, and price of the food.

Apart from that, Mike explained that, in terms of the amount of food, sometimes a person can have more side dishes than rice. This affects the price of the food. "For example, one portion of rice, but the side dishes can be three to four, plus fried food. It's better to have one portion of rice and the side dishes can be adjusted, not necessarily three to four, but enough," said Mike.

Then from the price side of the food. Mike said, rather than eating at restaurants and eateries, cooking by oneself will be much more economical and can get a larger amount. Besides, when money is limited, one can substitute expensive food ingredients such as chicken meat, by temporarily eating eggs as a source of protein.