Eat Healthy on a Budget for Life in a Hostel: 11 Best Tips

It’s sometimes hard to live life in a hostel, especially when you’re looking for what kind of hostel food to eat.

To be honest, I struggled for quite a long time to eat healthy on a budget while I was traveling abroad and beginning my digital nomad life in other countries.

If you’re new here, I am a freelance writer and a blogger, and I have left my home country, France, a long time ago to leave part-time in London and part-time in Rome.

At the moment, I have settled in London, but I do not consider my hostel life to be over.

If you’re looking for tips for healthy eating while traveling, I will give you my hostel life experience so you can can find ways to staying healthy in hostels.

There are not always kitchens in hostels, and you might be using all the food apps with free food you can find, you’re going to have to know how to eat healthy and meal prep at some point.

Especially if you’re living life in a hostel long term.

Don’t worry, though – these are tips for healthy eating while traveling as a freelancer, student abroad or digital nomad that I have personally been using for ages now. And they’re really easy to follow.

Eat Healthy on a Budget for Life in a Hostel: 11 Best Tips

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Everything in life is about focus and organisation. I have found while building my hustle life last year while living in Rome that life in a hostel is very fun.

As I have told you in a previous guide, hostel food is not always the best.

To be fair, I put on quite a bit of weight living in Rome the first months, but as I learnt how to eat healthy and meal prep, I felt better and better in my life.

My work performance also became that much better when I knew how to eat healthy on a budget.

I know a lot of students studying abroad live in a hostel the first days or weeks they move to a new country, so this is the ultimate guide to staying in hostels and knowing how to prepare hostel food.

That way, you can roam the city freely, feel good about your body, not put on too much weight and still be able to enjoy meeting new people and sharing meals with them.

So, follow these easy hostel tips to eat healthy on a budget, and you’ll be able to dive into a whole new culture head first.

Let us focus on hostel food, and I will tell you all my best tips to eat healthy on a budget while traveling abroad!

Read: The Most Instagrammable Places In Rome

How To Eat Healthy on a Budget: Find The Free Food Box At The Hostel

The first one of my tips to eat healthy on a budget while traveling and staying in hostels is to find the free food box at your hostel.

Very often, I have found that hostels offer free food, food left behind by tourists, students and digital nomads.

That is a great tip to eat healthy and save money.

During all of my hostel life, there are a few occasions on which I have been able to save money on food because I made friends that would then leave behind olive oil, salt, pepper, spices, and fresh vegetables and fruit that they cannot take back home.

Hostel food is not known to be very healthy as when you’re not feeling at home, usually, you do not want to cook at all.

Yet, sleeping in a hostel – especially long-term – will force you to cook at some point or another.

Healthy eating while traveling can be made very easy if you make friends who then leave food, and to be fair, you’re also going to leave food behind that you’re going to share with people.

This is one of the magical things about the hostel life experience, and healthy eating while traveling involves for the best part cooking and meal prepping.

To eat healthy on a budget, you’re going to need some good healthy staples like olive oil, snacks like fruit, and water, so the first one of my hostel tips is to look at the free food box.

Sometimes, you’re also gonna find pasta and rice and while I do personally avoid pasta, I will use rice, beans and lentils to make salads to last me two days.

Staying in hostels for the first time can seem quite daunting, but this is one upside that can really help you eat healthy and bond with other people.

Read: How to Live in London on a Budget

Eat Healthy on a Budget While Traveling: Focus on lunch

The next one of my tips to eat healthy on a budget while traveling and living in a hostel (whether you’ve done it for years or are staying in a hostel for the first time) is to focus on lunch.

While I was staying in hostels in London and Rome, there would sometimes be a free breakfast included.

Yet, as we all know, hostel food – and especially breakfast – revolves around sweet things like cereal and bread, toast, and jam.

Not the best way to eat healthy while traveling, in my opinion.

Throughout all of my hostel life experiences, I have found that eating lunch is better than eating a full dinner.

Lunch is usually way cheaper than dinner when you visit any kind of restaurant. If you choose to meal prep, your lunch will cost you almost nothing.

Also, if you focus on lunch and make it the best part of your day, you can also healthy get snacks to eat during the afternoon.

That will prevent you from buying muffins and brownies when you start craving sugar because you’ve been walking around for so long.

Read: The Best Breakfast In Rome

How To Eat Healthy on a Budget: Meal Plan Easy Meals

Given the number of times I talked about eating healthy and meal prepping, you would think that I meal prep all the time and that I am now the best at doing it.

However, I am not.

I do like to eat healthy and save money whether I’m living life in a hostel or at home.

That’s one of the best hostel tips I can give you: meal plan and meal prep as much as you can. Usually, when I stay at a hostel, I’m going to meal prep for 2 or 3 days.

I’ll buy enough from the cheapest supermarkets around to make huge salads to last me a few days with beans, lentils, corn, chickpeas, or rice.

The only downside is that you’re going to have to buy plastic boxes that you may not be able to pack and bring back home when you move away from the hostel.

Still, if you’re looking for tips to eat healthy on a budget when traveling, you’re definitely going to have to start meal planning and meal prepping at some point.

Honestly, I would tell you to prepare big salads just like I do because it’s just easier and takes almost no time to prepare.

Then, you can store your salad in the fridge for up to 2 or 3 days.

That means you have spent 45 minutes making a dish that will last you.

Sleeping in a hostel, whether for the first time or the 10th is made that much easier when you think of time-saving ways to eat healthy while traveling abroad.

If you really need to eat your meat, I would definitely consider preparing chicken dishes that you can eat cold the following day because you won’t always have a microwave at hand.

Read: The Most Instagrammable Cafes In Paris

Eat Healthy on a Budget While Traveling: Make Shared Meals With Other People

To eat healthy on a budget while staying in hostels, one of the best ways I have found was to share meals with people.

Whether I meal prepped with them or just went to lunch with them, I have found that the more you bond with other people, the more you’re going to be able to eat healthy and save money.

That is, if you’re meeting freelancers and students who are serious about living a healthy life while traveling and saving money.

Not everyone will be interested in meal prepping with you and sharing meals, but those who will be will help you save money.

To eat healthy and save money, you need to know what kind of ingredients you’re going to need to eat.

That’s going to be vegetables, that’s also going to be nuts and seeds.

To be fair, I have found that whenever I would live life in a hostel and meet vegetarian people and vegan people, I would actually be able to eat healthy and meal prep while traveling.

I think that’s one of the best hostels tips I can ever give you because sharing meals with other people is really going to help you live better, save money, and be more productive while working away from home.

So don’t overlook bonding with other people, because you know that connections in life are everything.

If they can help you become a healthier you, why not?

Read: The Cutest Pink Cafes in London

How To Eat Healthy on a Budget: Always Have Healthy Snacks At Hand

It’s quite easy to tell you to meal prep when you want to eat healthy on a budget while traveling abroad.

However, it’s not always possible to cook because hostels don’t always have kitchens.

If you’re staying at an Airbnb, then it’s definitely going to be easier to eat healthy and save money.

Yet, during my hostel life, I have found that to eat healthy and live better, I had to have healthy snacks with me.

I usually avoid any kind of carbs from pasta to rice because of how low I feel when I start digesting that kind of sugar.

I have been following a kind of high fat low carb lifestyle for a few years now, and I have found that I need to carry around various nuts and fruits to feel my best self.

I feel that’s one of the most important hostel food tips when you’re staying abroad, especially if you’re traveling on your own as a student for the first time.

I know that crisps and cookies are really appealing when you are staying in a hostel, walking around all day and just want to sleep once you’re back.

But if you can’t really eat healthy with meal prep because the hostel doesn’t have a kitchen, then you should definitely look into carrying small bags of nuts every day because you will feel more full.

If you want to eat healthy on a budget while traveling, I would even recommend you buy a bigger bag of nuts as you can take just a handful for your afternoon snack to save money.

To be fair, any kind of fat or protein food will help you eat healthy while traveling abroad. That could also mean boiled eggs or cheese if you’re not a vegan.

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Eat Healthy on a Budget While Traveling: Ask Locals For Tips

One of the first things I do when I’m about to live life in a hostel for some time, is that I find locals to ask them anything and everything I can think of about the city.

That also goes when you’re trying to eat healthy while traveling abroad.

So, even if you don’t always want to eat healthy (think salad and protein), you can still ask around about cheap supermarkets to do your shopping, and eat healthy on a budget at the same time.

Ask the hostel employees about their favorite places because they have most probably been living there for a long time, and they will know the best places to try in the city.

Whether you’re looking for cheap restaurants in Rome, London, or even cafes to work in Paris and have a quick bite, the hostel life experience is very much based on exchange.

So, if you’re staying in a hostel for the first time, push yourself out of your comfort zone and talk to locals as much as you can.

That will help you eat healthy on a budget while you’re traveling in such and such country.

Plus, you’ll make new connections, and that’s priceless.

Read: The Biggest TK Maxx in London

Treat Yourself at Small Restaurants and Cafes

Just because you want to eat healthy on a budget while traveling doesn’t mean you should stop paying a little visit to local restaurants every now and then.

Staying in a hostel for the first time taught me that what I save on accommodation, I can spend on local foods and rich experiences.

And that’s why you’re traveling, isn’t it?

To broaden your mindset, to feed your spirit, and become a better person than you were back home.

To eat healthy on a budget, I usually go to small restaurants.

I’ve never been a high-end restaurant kind of girl anyway, and I’m more interested in tiny, family-run businesses where I can not only discover local food but family recipes.

Food has this special meaning to me, and I always see behind it the family history and the country’s background.

In small restaurants, you will be more able to eat healthy on a budget while traveling abroad because there are always a few choices for the healthy eater.

And even if you don’t want to eat completely ‘healthy’, as they say, then you can get a sauce dish but be mindful of the side and the drink.

However, when you’re traveling abroad and trying to stay healthy and fit, you’re most probably going to visit cafes and restaurants with other people.

Do remember that you’re bonding over food – that’s the hostel life experience, once again – and you shouldn’t beat yourself up too much for enjoying life.

What I do, whether I’m staying in hostels or living back home, is that I keep as healthy as possible when I am on my own.

That way, when I’m with friends or family, I can order quite whatever I want without feeling any sort of guilt.

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Eat Healthy on a Budget While Traveling: Get Meal Deals Once in a While

I’ve mentioned lots of ways to eat healthy on a budget while traveling, among which meal prepping, one of the most important tips to staying in hostels.

In countries like the UK, you can get amazing meal deals from all kinds of supermarkets like Tesco or Sainsbury’s for as little as £3 for a sandwich, a salad or a wrap, with a drink and either a side or a dessert.

To eat healthy on a budget abroad, you’ll need to give some thought to what kinds of food you’re going to eat and when.

It’s all about balance when you’re having a hostel life experience.

You’re going to eat out with some people, and sometimes you’ll be alone, especially if you’re a digital nomad and have lots of projects going on.

When you’re alone, get those meal deals.

For instance, in the UK, it is now the law to indicate on packagings the calories.

Remember that real, ‘grandma’ foods do not have labels, and you’ll know how to eat healthy on a budget easily. There’s really nothing to invent.

I said it and will say it again, if you have to ponder whether you’re making a healthy eating choice or not, then you’re probably not.

Yet, from time to time, if you know you’re going to walk around a lot and will be eating a light dinner, you can afford to get a meal deal to kind of eat healthy on a budget.

Read: The Best Places for Cheap Clothes in London

How To Eat Healthy on a Budget: Drink Water

What could possibly be one of the best tips to eat healthy on a budget while traveling, other than reminding you to drink as much as you can?

Honestly, the first years I started living in hostels, I just stopped drinking.

Point blank period.

Worst thing you can do to your body, it goes without saying, because healthy bodies go hand in hand with healthy minds.

So if you’re looking for ways to increase your freelancer productivity or become a better student, don’t overlook this simple tip and keep a bottle of water with you at all times.

When I started looking into ways to become a freelancer abroad, I started really digging the healthy lifestyle mindset.

You really cannot eat healthy while traveling if you don’t drink.

First of all, you should drink between 2.5L and 4L of water every day, depending on your level of activity.

And drinking doesn’t just hydrate you – it helps you greatly with healthy eating while traveling.

Since 2018, I have been intermittent fasting and although I don’t always follow the fasting lifestyle, that’s one of the best hostels tips I can give you.

I usually skip breakfast (studies have been conducted to prove all the benefits of fasting, I did not invent anything), and for starters, that helps me eat healthy on a budget.

The more hydrated you are, the less you’ll have junk food cravings.

That’s one of the most important tips of this guide to staying in hostels abroad – drink, drink, and drink a bit more.

Usually, when you’re living in a hostel, you’re going for the summer, unless you’re studying abroad.

So you’re going to do a lot of walking around, and you’ll need your water.

Remember, as soon as you feel thirsty, you’re already dehydrated.

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Eat Healthy on a Budget While Traveling: Be Mindful of What You Eat

It goes without saying that whether you’re staying in a hostel for the first time or traveling and staying at an AirBnb, you’re going to have to be mindful of what you’re eating.

That’s something I already touched base on even before I wrote about my hostel life when I talked about easy ways to make homemade meal prep for college students a while back.

You can eat healthy without meal prepping, to be honest. But you need to have the budget for that.

I have found that to eat healthy on a budget while traveling abroad and living in a hostel, I needed to meal prep, and that’s that.

But if you’re free to spend however you like, then to keep healthy, you need to be mindful of what you eat.

Make the right choices – hostel life experience or not, you probably already know what the right choices are.

If you have to wonder whether you should or shouldn’t eat such and such foods, then you know that you probably shouldn’t.

But, if you’re studying abroad or starting your digital nomad career, it’s only normal you’d want to try all the new, delicious-looking foods around you.

Just know not to go overboard, because you’re leading a life in a hostel, and you’re going to pay bad food choices in stomachaches, headaches, and bad sleep afterward.

There’s another thing that no one talks about a lot, and that’s the fact that when you’re traveling abroad, you might have problems going to the restroom.

That’s also why you’ll want to be mindful of what you eat.

If you want to eat healthy on a budget while traveling, believe me, those fiber foods are going to become your best friends.

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How To Eat Healthy on a Budget: Keep Walking

I can give you all the best tips in the world to eat healthy on a budget when traveling and staying in hostels, but if you’re not active, you’re not going to feel good.

Remember that you are staying in hostels to live a life experience that you wouldn’t if you stayed at home, at friends’ places, or in hotels.

I am all about the best tips to eat healthy on a budget in the UK, Italy, France, Spain, or anywhere in the world, but one of the ultimate tips I can ever give you is to keep being active.

Mix healthy eating while traveling with the actual traveling.

Instead of just taking the bus to each and every one of your destinations, keep walking, and keep discovering the city with your feet.

Healthy bodies and healthy minds go together.

Staying in a hostel for the first time, I have said it before, can seem quite daunting, especially if you do not speak the language of the country.

That sometimes happens to me. It’s important to speak the language of the country, it’s not just about healthy eating when traveling.

It’s about actually discovering a culture that I’m not acquainted with.

I want to learn how people eat, how people talk, and how people think, and those are all things that my hostel life has taught me and enhanced the more time I spent sleeping in a hostel.

Keep walking, as you’ll meet more people and potentially more locals that will teach you their own tips to eat healthy on a budget in their country.

Read: The Most Instagrammable Cafes in London

Eat Healthy on a Budget for Life in a Hostel: 11 Best Tips

There you have them, my best tips to eat healthy on a budget while traveling and staying in hostels!

Honestly, there are lots of ways to save money when you live in a hostel, from using leftover food in the free food hostel box to sharing meals with travel buddies.

You don’t always have to eat a meal deal or a sandwich when you live in a hostel, and you can definitely find ways to eat healthy and live better while saving money for out-of-town day trips.

I have stayed in hostels for a long time now, and that is always a moment I look forward to.

Some people love hotels, but I am of the opinion that life in a hostel can help you bond with people in a way that you would never in a hotel room.

Staying in a hostel for the first time might feel daunting, especially when you’re not acquainted with hostel food and best practices.

Until next time!

Eat Healthy on a Budget for Life in a Hostel: 11 Best Tips

Eat Healthy on a Budget for Life in a Hostel: 11 Best Tips

How To Eat Healthy on a Budget: Find The Free Food Box At The Hostel

Eat Healthy on a Budget While Traveling: Focus on lunch

How To Eat Healthy on a Budget: Meal Plan Easy Meals

Eat Healthy on a Budget While Traveling: Make Shared Meals With Other People

How To Eat Healthy on a Budget: Always Have Healthy Snacks At Hand

Eat Healthy on a Budget While Traveling: Ask Locals For Tips

Treat Yourself at Small Restaurants and Cafes

Eat Healthy on a Budget While Traveling: Get Meal Deals Once in a While

How To Eat Healthy on a Budget: Drink Water

Eat Healthy on a Budget While Traveling: Be Mindful of What You Eat

How To Eat Healthy on a Budget: Keep Walking

Eat Healthy on a Budget for Life in a Hostel: 11 Best Tips

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