For some of us, moving to college might be the first time we’ve ever had to share anything, whether that’s a space or food. At some point, you’ll probably move off campus into a shared house or apartment. The first time I moved off campus was as a study abroad student in Florence. With six girls vying for space in the kitchen, the struggle was real. Read on to see if you can relate to these annoyances that everyone runs into when grocery shopping and storing food with roommates.
1. It’s hard to initially decide if you should share food.
There are just too many factors to consider. What foods should be communal? Eggs? Milk? You can’t even shop and cook for yourself, how are you supposed to be able to share food with other humans?
2. Every roommate has different dietary preferences.
Okay, so, one roommate is dairy-free, the other has celiac disease, but you love pasta. So how the heck are you supposed to keep track of all of this?
3. And they have different brand preferences.
You like Roots Hummus, but your roommate prefers Sabra. It may seem excessive to have multiple types of hummus in your fridge at a time, but it’s essential.
4. You end up with more food than you can transport home.
It’s a sad moment when you fill your shopping cart. How were you supposed to know that grocery shopping for 6 people wouldn’t be possible alone?
5. Roommate dinners mean someone has to front the bill.
Obviously, it’s fun get together with friends and pan sear scallops for everyone. But y’all better Venmo me ASAP, because I’m broke.
6. Parsing through the receipts is a struggle.
Maybe no one pays you back (or you haven’t paid back what you owe), but you definitely don’t have this money thing figured out. Unless you have a strict schedule you adhere to, your Venmo account is blowing up with charges.
7. One person always moves your food in the fridge.
The minute you move into the apartment, you have to claim a shelf. But be forewarned, this rule will likely be disregarded and soon your fridge will be overflowing.
8. There’s one roommate who ignores food allergies.
Yes, please leave your Nutella out on the counter even though one roommate is deathly allergic to tree nuts. SHE’LL BE FINE, I GUESS??
9. Food always seems to smell or expire.
You still haven’t figured out the protocol for throwing out your roommates’ smelly food. Bought an unripe avocado yesterday? Too mushy now. That box of blueberries? Moldy. You can’t catch a break.
10. Buying in bulk means you’ll have food for months.
Typically it’s a great way to save money – six containers of oatmeal for $6? OK! But sometimes its a trap. Did you really want that much food?
11. You end up buying multiples of the communal food.
Oops, forgot to check the communal supply before you went to the store. Now you have 12 bottles of hot sauce (but is this really a bad thing?).
12. Food stealing is inevitable.
Everyone has a different definition of “sharing.” As you walk through the grocery store you think to yourself, “How will I label this?”
12. You end up hoarding food from your roommates.
Stop eating my cookie butter, Susan! As far as your roommates know, you stopped buying that food that always kept mysteriously going missing. Sharing is not caring in this case.
13. Your roommates always expect you to do the shopping.
Maybe you liked going once, but then it becomes the expectation. That one roommate always seems to bail on you when it’s her turn: “Sure, I guess I’ll run by after the store after class even though I have three finals, four papers, AND I went last week. But it’s fine.” *deletes* “Yeah, no problem.”
14. Passive-aggressive anger eventually builds up.
Your roommates are getting on your last nerve. You plot your revenge to get back at them. Take embarrassing photos of them asleep? Eat their food? You know you should talk it out, but you’re feeling petty.
So what’s the solution? Until I become a mathematician, I’ll never be able to solve the grocery store situation. Could there be another way? YES! In case you haven’t heard, Spoon is launching its own meal plan with Chef’d.
They’ll ship you ingredients for easy 30-minute meals, from chicken fajitas to pork fried rice. Vegetarian and vegan options (Brazilian black bean stew and Mediterranean penne, anyone?) will be available, so there’s really no excuse. What are you waiting for? Get cookin’ and sign up for more info here.