Each autumn, thousands of young people leave home for the first time carrying little more than a kettle and a bag of pasta, only to discover that feeding oneself well is both a financial necessity and a quiet act of self-determination. Across British universities, students who once spent £45 a week on ready meals and pot noodles are learning to cook nutritious, varied meals for under £2.50 a serving — a shift that is reshaping not just their budgets, but their sense of capability. The tools are modest: a stocked store cupboard costing under £13, a handful of spices, and the accumulated wisdom