<p>Me being an international student living off-campus, I wonder if there are any good supermarkets in Santa Barbara / California to store food each week.
Due to a strict budget I wish to shop my food weekwise to minimize the expenses. </p>
<p>I’d also appreciate information about the prices on food e.g pasta, meat, vegetables, beverages etc. </p>
<p>Thank you ! / Alex</p>
<p>I’ve never even been to Santa Barbara, but I know that it is a huge place. There will be plenty of supermarkets. Depending on what college you go to (Cal State?) and if you have a car there will be lots of variables. The internet is a good resource…you can go to somewhere like Google Maps or Google Local and type in the schools address and “supermarkets,” to find the closest.</p>
<p>You can probably also find this online, but pasta runs around a dollar for a few couple servings, veggies vary because they are by pound but you can get a couple servings for a few dollars for good fresh stuff, canned is cheap (like less than a dollar a can), 12 cans of soda is usually $3 on sale. No idea about meat–vegetarian. I think my boyfriend buys steaks for about $3-5/each. Anything you buy in quanitity is cheaper. Hope this helps…</p>
<p>You will find that unless you want to shop at a Whole/Organic foods place, food is extremely cheap - probably the cheapest in the world relative to income. Unless you’re eating at restaurants, it’s very easy to feed yourself on $40-60/week, which translates to $2000-3000 for the whole year.</p>
<p>According to it’s website, there are two Albertsons and a Bristol Farms in Santa Barbara (I don’t know how close they are to the school, but I suspect that at least one of them is near IV). Albertsons are generally very cheap. Bristol Farms is less cheap, but probably less expensive than you’re used to. It’s generally considered more “upscale”. </p>
<p>There are probably more around there, but yeah. You’ll be fine.</p>
<p>Bristol Farms is far too expensive for a college student. If they have them, shop at the following stores:
Safeway, Ralphs, Whole Foods Market, Trader Joes, Costco</p>
<p>Eh it’s expensive for regular groceries but not too bad for produce.</p>
<p>When my sister is conserving money, she spends around 60 dollars a month on food…</p>
<p>I buy really good food (vegetarian stuff, fresh fruits/veggies) and can still spend about $200 a month, plus some on eating out.</p>