I used to use these sauces a lot, as a student in the UK and for a few years after.

There's a scale:

1. Prepare everything from scratch.

For anything that isn't fairly simple, this is reserved for special occasions.

2. Use pre-prepared sauces like Patak's (there are also cheaper ones)

This still feels like "cooking", and scales up nicely to multiple hungry students without costing much more.

3. Microwave a chilled ready-meal [2]

There's a big price range for this, say £1-6 per portion. The cheap ones aren't very nice, and the expensive ones were too expensive as students, but were fine if I felt lazy once I had a job.

4. Order take-away.

I couldn't afford this.

5. Pour boiling water over instant noodles.

No-one admits to doing this sober.

[2] https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/chilled-/meal...

[N] There are suppliers in the USA: https://www.pataksusa.com/find-pataks

UK, Birmingham, within a stone's throw of the Balti triangle...

Also East End foods and Natco as bulk cheap national brands for various pulses. The local (predominantly UK born Pakistani/Lahore oriented) shops stock Laziza prepared masalas for various meals (chana, chicken, fish &c) and the fearsome mixed pickles. I find the prepared masalas very salty.

25Kg sacks of rice and 10Kg sacks of attar as well :-)