When paying thousands of dollars for an education, college students cannot afford to be luxurious in their spending. Upperclassmen have to be craft in buying groceries to fill their fridges.

So which grocery store is the cheapest in Champaign-Urbana?

I visited three grocery stores in the area. County Market was selected as the most convenient option on campus, Schnucks as the further-away Urbana option and Meijer as the further-away Champaign option.

Large chain department stores such as Target and Walmart are not included in this analysis. Target and Walmart are major corporations whose primary focus is not being a grocery supplier. While Meijer does offer other departments aside from groceries, it is more specific to Champaign, since Meijer is only located in the Midwest, and groceries are an emphasis in the store.

At the three stores, I checked prices for a few items: Tombstone pepperoni pizza, a six-pack of Miller Lite and Tide Original laundry detergent. These are typical essentials in a college student’s diet: cheap, filling food and laundry supplies.

Which store had the cheapest total for the items?

To determine which is the best choice for grocery shopping, there are a few factors to consider: which store had the best price for each individual item, store accessibility and selection. Sales are not considered since they are common in all three of the grocery stores.

Pizza is an easy dinner to make. On nights full of deadlines and assignments, there is not time to prepare a dinner with side dishes. Meijer had a significantly lower price for Tombstone pepperoni pizza, priced at $3.79. Buying frozen pizza is a cheaper dinner option than ordering delivery pizza a few times a week.

Buying booze can also add up quickly. For weekend beer needs, the cheapest six-pack of Miller Lite is at Schnucks. Schnucks and Meijer had very close prices and had a much wider selection than County Market. A wider selection makes it easy to stock up on what you want with cheaper prices.

Finally, Tide Original laundry detergent was cheapest at Meijer, two dollars cheaper than at County Market. Buying detergent can get pricey, especially when you cannot wait to go home for mom to do your laundry for free. Do not spend money on pricier detergents when you need that money to pay for washers and dryers.

While County Market did not house any of the cheapest prices for the items, it is the most convenient of the stores. It is located at Fourth Street and Springfield Avenue, within walking distance of the Quad. Many bus routes go past the grocery store.

All three stores are convenient in the fact that each are open 24 hours.

However, as convenient as County Market is, it has the smallest selection out of the three stores. Schnucks and Meijer are practically double in size of County Market.

“I shop at Schnucks,” said Linnéa Andersson, foreign exchange student from Uppsala University in Sweden. “They have a big assortment of food that I can’t find anywhere else, such as healthy food like quinoa, and they have fresh vegetables.”

The downside to traveling to Schnucks and Meijer is that these two stores are less accessible. Long bus rides, often requiring changing buses halfway to the store, are likely for students who do not have cars on campus.

Travelling to a less accessible grocery store means students may not go as often, resulting in large purchases when they do go. If that is the case, then the trip becomes more difficult when having to haul lots of heavy groceries on and off the bus.

Even so, many upperclassmen who live in apartments have the option to have cars on campus. Having a car means students do not have to be inconvenienced by whether a grocery store is close to their apartment.

Nina Nguyen, junior in LAS, lives two blocks from County Market. However, she chooses to use her car to travel to further-away grocery stores for cheaper prices.

“County Market is overpriced because everyone goes there,” Nguyen said. “I’d rather drive somewhere cheaper.”

Based on price, accessibility and selection, Meijer is the best option. It had the cheapest prices for the items and is accessible by buses that run from campus to Walmart, which is across the street from Meijer. It is also near many shopping centers and restaurants. Meijer has a wide selection of food brands, including a large, well-stocked produce section.

For late-night runs for essentials and snacks, the convenient County Market is a nice option. For large shopping trips to fill the fridge, Meijer is the college student budget-friendly option.

Rebecca is a junior in Media. She can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @ruthyjacobs.