<p>My daughter will be sharing a suite in the fall with 5 other sophomore girls. The suite has a full kitchen - oven, refrigerator, dishwasher etc. They plan on cooking - although I am not sure how often - but will all be on light or no meal plans - so they will eat the majority of their meals in the apartment. I was wondering how best to share the costs of groceries, cleaning supplies, paper goods, etc. I figure if they start the year with some agreed upon plan it will help things go smoothly. Anybody have any tips or suggestions, things which worked or did not for their student?</p>
<p>For general purpose stuff (detergent, soap, paper towel, toilet paper, oil, salt), I would suggest to keep a list of spend - whoever picked up the stuff would just add it to the list. At the end of month they could add it up and divide it among the suite mates. The money would then be used to reimburse whoever paid for various things initially. As far as groceries, I would have them buy their own stuff because people may have their own dietary preferences. The suite mates would just need to agree not to touch other people’s groceries, or if they do then the would need to replace it. D1 lived with one apartment mate. Sometimes they ate together, but more often than not, they didn’t. They had their own shelfs for their food.</p>
<p>Don’t attempt to share food costs. Inevitably, people have different likes and dislikes, budgets, and schedules. I’ve lived in several shared student apartments, and it works best when people have their own food. When it suits them, they can all pitch in for a special meal.</p>
<p>Paper goods and cleaning supplies: I suggest they decide on what they are going to buy, including sizes–within reason, so that they can take advantage of sales–and establish a rota for purchasing. (So that one person doesn’t buy ONE roll of TP when it is their turn, and the next person buys a pack of 12.) This also works well for cleaning the common areas of an apartment.</p>
<p>I agree with the above posts. My kids have done this for a couple of years now. They have a shelf in the cabinet for THEIR food and a similar shelf in the frig. </p>
<p>For large items (a gallon of milk) or communal items like toilet paper there is an informal taking turns arrangement.</p>
<p>When DS lived in an apartment, they came up with a good way to split paper goods, and staples. Each person put an equal amount in a jar at the start. The money was used to purchase things that everyone would use like paper goods, kitchen staples (olive oil, salt, sugar, etc), soaps, etc. when the jar was low in cash, everyone put in another equal amount of money. At the end of each term, they divided what was left and started over again. That way…if they ran out of sugar, any apartment mate could buy it with the cash in the jar. These were very good friends!</p>
<p>I agree…don’t share food…unless they agree on some plan. DS when he studied abroad…there were four folks who shared dinner cooking. Each cooked and shopped for dinner foods for the full week. They just rotated this. But he did say…there were some who were decent cooks and others who were not.</p>
<p>DD never shared food. Once in a while the roommates had a pot luck dinner…but they didn’t even share things like milk.</p>
<p>This is what we did - worked like a charm. We had an eating group (that included people outside the house, but it wouldn’t have to) - the expenses for everything that was consumed by the group was recorded in a book - and once a month we calculated an average food cost and then figured out what everyone had forked out and reimbursed or billed people on that basis - some were better cooks than others, but I loved the eating group even on the less exciting days - and since it was a big enough group that your turn only came around every other week people did make a real effort. (You could do this with house shared staples like toilet paper and paper towels for sure.) All other food was not shared - everyone had their own shelf in the fridge. If there were meals you wanted to cook together on a more casual basis you agreed how to do that for each meal. For example, my husband used to make waffles for everyone on Sunday morning, but just did it as his present to the house, but in return I’m pretty sure we got to share other people’s goodies without always being asked for reimbursement. You definitely don’t want to get into a situation where one person feels put upon. If you can agree on a plan for sharing milk - good luck! In our experience that was just too hard!</p>
<p>Keeping some soy milk around, which does not spoil, is also a good plan when the real stuff runs out.</p>
<p>Lots of good ideas - I agree sharing milk is impossible - everybody drinks a different kind - even in my own household - she can fall back on Parmalat when no fresh milk is around.</p>
<p>Another question - how did suitemates share chores - cleaning, shopping, etc.</p>
<p>My d is in a similar situation this year. They have a townhouse, though, with a storage room. The ladies went to a warehouse store early in the summer for things like toilet paper, cleaning supplies and non perishables and split the cost, they plan to do that again later in the year. Otherwise they buy their own food and eat their stuff, unless they eat together and share. Since they are all on campus for the summer and my d has had years of cooking classes, they go to the farmers marker a couple of times a week and the grocery and choose ingredients for group meals and split the cost. My d cooks and the others clean. They eat their own breakfasts and lunches. So far so good.</p>
<p>TatinG…you couldn’t PAY me to drink soy milk! One reason for students to have their own food…tastes vary…</p>
<p>It’ll depend on your daughter’s roommates, and she’ll like figure out what works best for them as they get to know each other (if they don’t already).</p>
<p>I’ve found that with food, each person having their own food works the best. There are different preferences and budgets, and that way you know when you run out of something. We would share things like condiments or spices, but since we used them all so sparingly, we would just alternate who gets it or whoever used the last of it would get a new one. If we were going to eat a meal together, we would split the cost, or make up for it in some other way (someone would get the food, someone would get the drinks, someone would clean up, etc). We weren’t too worked up over the cost, but your daughter and her roommates could split things more evenly, if they prefer.</p>
<p>For cleaning, we generally had a rule that people clean up after themselves–sometimes it was just understood, and sometimes we had to explicitly say it, depending on who my roommates were–and that included, doing their own dishes, wiping down the stove or counter when they cook, etc. For apartment chores (like taking out the trash, cleaning the bathroom, etc), I’ve found a schedule works the best so that one person doesn’t end up doing it every time. They could also try dividing it up (one person takes out the trash, one person cleans the bathroom, one person vacuums, one person cleans the kitchen, etc), if they are amenable to that, but not everyone is.</p>
<p>We pretty much did our own shopping since we didn’t really share food, but for household supplies, you could always have a shopping list and rotate who goes shopping. For us, there was always someone going every weekend for their own stuff (or we often went together), so they could just pick up whatever the apartment needed. You could split the cost or just try to rotate, whichever works the best.</p>
<p>I think you are just asking for trouble with shared food. I’m not talking about getting salt and pepper for the house, but actual, every day food costs. They will be at each others throats within a month. Someone will be on a budget, someone will buy food that no one else eats, and someone will buy really expensive food. Someone will drive to the discount store across town, and someone else will buy everything at Whole Foods. Someone will complain about having to pay good money for food she hates. </p>
<p>The envelope method works well for communal supplies. Everyone puts $10 in, and whenever a supply runs low, someone buys it with the money in the envelope.</p>
<p>D’s four house mates agreed to each be responsible for the expense and preperation one dinner each week. They kept a calender and if you were not there to partake, left-overs were always set aside. That was the extent of the food sharing and it worked our quite well. Household supplies and toiletries were taken on by the most responsible housemate and she collected each room mates share on a bi weekly basis. It worked out well.</p>
<p>I think it’s best to wait until kiddo asks and then you can share what has worked for others. When I had roommates, we always bought and paid for everything on our own. We took turns cooking dinner for each other–me, my BF and my room mate. It worked fine. </p>
<p>S and his room mate had different arrangement. S liked shopping and cooking. He’d just present receipts and tell room mate amount he felt was room mate’s share. They did this happily for 2 years. </p>
<p>D and her room mates had different tastes. Each bought and used only their own things in terms of food. They took turns buying paper goods and cleaning supplies. It seemed to work fine for them. </p>
<p>H and I didn’t get involved and the kids reached agreements that worked great for themselves.</p>
<p>I shared an apartment with 2 girls in college. I was kind of particular about what brand of food I liked, even though I was on a very tight budget, I always splurged when it came to food. I would buy Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies (I still remember) and my suite mate would eat it and replace it with a different brand of cookies. It used to drive me crazy.</p>
<p>When D1 lived with her best friend and one other suite mate, they each picked one chore they were good at or what they were anal about. D1 chose to clean the bathroom, her best friend chose the kitchen and the third roommate vacuumed. They agreed to do it once a week. </p>
<p>We also didn’t get involved with our kids’ arrangements. They all seem to work it out by themselves. I knew a lot of D1’s arrangements because she loved to share everything about herself with me. :)</p>
<p>Another one who says split the household supplies and keep the food separate. If and when they decide they might want to have dinner together or invite others they can shop together for that specific event. That is what both my older boys did when they moved out of the dorm and into apartments and it seems to work.</p>
<p>I shared a house with 5 other girls for a couple years during my college days. We all bought our own food and cleaned up after ourselves. We didn’t have any formal cleaning plan and it never became an issue. I suppose if someone had been a slob and others were neat it might be have been a problem… My husband was in a couple of houses and didn’t have an agreement on cleaning either although those houses could have used some cleaning. lol. </p>
<p>We just chipped in when TP and dish soap was needed.</p>
<p>In most cases it makes sense to share milk, buying in economical gallon jugs.</p>
<p>S is sharing a home for the first time this summer with a roommate and they are making a point of cooking dinner together most days… They are alternating the cost of the trips to the grocery store. I agree with those who have said to plan meals together at least some of the time. I can’t imagine 5 girls all coming home and each person cooking something different every day! How inefficient and more expensive! Why not assign each girl a day to cook a meal for the group? That way they can sit down and enjoy each other’s company and not have to worry about fixing a meal the other days. Have separate lunch and breakfast food and have a majic marker by the refrig so they can label food that is off limits. It would seem also better to find a way to rotate trips to the grocery store so all 5 of them don’t have to make separate trips every week.</p>
<p>Back in the dark ages when I shared a house in college, we cooked and ate dinners together. For that, we had an agreed upon budget each month. Everyone put in X dollars and that’s what we used to buy food. Shopping and cooking were both part of the chores along with cleaning. However, we were very inspired by the whole commune movement which is probably not the case these days.</p>