<p>^^ I did that in college also in a house with all women. We even made our own bread 
on Saturdays. Everyone put in X dollars and everyone took turns cooking dinner. Our favorite was the woman who couldn’t cook…she made tomato soup and grilled cheese or wonderful fruit salads. We actually looked forward to her meals. That said, I have a few recipes from others that I still make to this day. My boys love to cook and they often have “gang” meals with their roommates and friends. They eat quite well.</p>
<p>For our junior year apartment, we split the grocery bill. We did team cooking Mon thru Thurs night (2 cooks, 2 on cleanup - the apartments didn’t have dishwashers). On Sat we did alternate weeks between us and an apartment of 4 guys. (Ha - there are still two married couples from that gang after 30 years). </p>
<p>For senior year I was at rented house where we mostly arranged our own groceries. (I think we took turns buying milk and staples). Sometimes we did spur of the moment group meals, but mostly we ate simple meals alone. Some of us often bought lunch at a campus cafe. School was about studying, not gourmet meals. These days there are healthy alternatives for frozen meals, less need for Kraft mac and cheese.</p>
<p>My roomies and I lived in a dorm suite last year, so we didn’t have a kitchen. We’ll be living in an apartment this fall. So food/cooking was never really an issue. We did share a dorm fridge and occasionally milk would be shared for various reasons but otherwise we left stuff alone.</p>
<p>As for things like dish soap, cleaners, and TP, we basically took turns. We’d always buy at least a 4 pack of TP (sometimes the larger packs were on sale), and take turns when it was time to restock.</p>
<p>I am curious as to how the meals will end up being for us. Three of us are used to eating together after our first year together, and we’re all friends with the new roomie for fall. And the previous responses seem split on a group meal and individual light meals.</p>
<p>I think group meals work great if schedules allow it and everyone buys in. The house I lived in had been doing the eating group for at least 10 years and I think it’s still doing them today. No one moved in who wasn’t committed to making it work.</p>
<p>It seems that I am in the minority here. I shared both a 3 and a 4 bedroom apartment with other guys and never separated any of the food. In fact I think the only thing we bought on our own was laundry supplies (kinda odd, in hindsight). We just had a basket that we threw receipts into and settled up at the end of the month.</p>
<p>Quite honestly it worked because we all ate about the same amount, and did not have widely variant tastes. Our menu was dictated by the person willing to go to the grocery store.</p>
<p>I live in a suite-style dorm with few dining students. I don’t know anyone who shares their grocery bill with their roommates or suitemates regularly. There are times when people will have suite dinners, and divide up the bill afterwards or have everyone contribute to the buying and cooking of the meal. There are people who share a few items - usually things that can be bought in large quantities, like grains and cereals - with a close friend. There are lots of people who go grocery shopping with friends, a few people who order groceries together since there’s free delivery with larger purchases. But the bills are handled on an individual basis.</p>
<p>I do think it’s better for household supplies to be divided up and shared by the suite. After all, it’d be ridiculous for each member to own their own monogrammed sponge. The suite can find the best way to work this out for themselves. In most suites around me, people take turns buying. However, the turns are usually not organized, so in some suites, a few responsible individuals can end up buying all the soap and paper towels. In my suite which housed 4-5 people, this was rarely a problem; in my friends’ suite that housed 8-9, this was always a contentious issue. To solve this, some people prefer to split bills up after each purchase. This is what we do in the apartment I’m sharing with 3 others from my dorm this summer, and it’s what one girl in my suite did last year, since she made household purchases in bulk and the amount could be significant.</p>
<p>My son and his rm’s share the grocery bill. I think they are really relaxed about it. We send a lot of food back with him when he’s home on breaks (grilled chicken sliced and frozen in smaller batches to be added to fajitas, stir fry, quesadillas, etc. or homemade soup, again frozen in smaller portions, etc.). We intend for all roommates to share this and don’t get concerned about ‘fair’. A couple of the roommates are very good cooks so our son is glad to help pay for the groceries and benefit from meals they cook.</p>
<p>My overall thought is let the students work it out on their own. If you’d asked me beforehand I probably would have advocated my son keep food separately and combine for paper/cleaning goods, but the boys worked it out on their own and have all been very happy. The majority of students may in fact keep things separate, however I wouldn’t discourage a student from combining food if that’s what the roommates agree on. It can work really well. If they find it isn’t working they are all adults and they can choose to make a change.</p>