Student Flat Eating

HappyHelen_2

we all started sharing but it just caused rows... ie who finished the milk/ whose turn is it to buy bread etc. Now I buy little one pint milks and keep one in freezer so always have one ready and keep small sliced loaf bread in freezer too, that way no wastage. Incidentally, to discourage drunken theives its a good idea to develop a taste for skimmed/soya milk (and soya lasts longer) and brown bread so you don't wake up to find it has been used for p*ssed up bacon sandwiches and cups of tea!

lellie

another tip with milk..

BUY SOME GREEN FOOD COLOURING!! then drop a few drops into it - people think it's gone off but it's fine, doesn't taste any different and you get the whole bottle to yourself..

Haize

Oh my lellie, a good one but slightly worrying!
The real problem with giving advice here is the fact that you're going in to halls with a bunch of randomly selected people. Hopefully, you'll be lucky and get people you can arrange to share stuff with, it really is so much more economic. Come the time to sort out housing for your second year, food sharing is actually a subject to bring up whilst choosing housemates. Might feel a little odd, because by that time you've probably only known the people for a few months, but as far as I can tell, people that share cooking etc. have much better diets!

Ironically, although I'm the student, it appears to be my dad that knows all the tricks: he keeps all bread in the freezer, and only defrosts as much as needed at the time. I'd have thought it wouldn't work too well, but 20 seconds in the microwave and a few moments to cool down seem perfect! (Just remember to make little tents out of pairs of slices for optimum time to readiness...) :-)

Ooh, if you are the kind of person who likes to bother cooking decent meals, and you do end up eating on your own, make huge batches of things (bolognese is a perfect one), and freeze a few portions. That way you get variety and cheap food. Empty plastic takeaway tubs always come in handy...

Savvy_Sue

lellie wrote:

another tip with milk..

BUY SOME GREEN FOOD COLOURING!! then drop a few drops into it - people think it's gone off but it's fine, doesn't taste any different and you get the whole bottle to yourself..

:rotfl: Blue food colouring is even better. Trust me on this: very few foodstuffs are blue.

Jon_C

A beer fridge... sorry, mini fridge, in your room is the best way to go.

student100

Aren't those mini fridge things very noisy? The ones I've seen seem to have a fan which is always running, wouldn't it keep you awake?

I know you can get small "conventional" fridges which are quieter (but more expensive).


Again before you start doing this I would suggest trying for a while to share fridge space with your fellow students, they may not be as bad as you fear...

pavlovs_dog

yes and no. when the fan is running, it is no more noisy (in fact its the same sort of sound) as your pc would make. and the only time you notice the noise is when it stops!

i cant say it bothered me in the least, a small price to pay for the peace of mind of knowing things wont eat themselves

ditzymuppet

Well when I lived in shared Uni accomodation we all bought the things that we needed and things like kitchen towel we bought as and when it needed replacing,as we did with washing up liquid.

This year I've lived in a flat and as we had to share a bathroom, kitchen etc we took it in turns to buy multipacks of loo roll *works out cheaper....and with 4 people living in a flat means you don't have to buy it v. often!* Kitchen Towel, cling film, tin foil, cleaning products, washing up liquid. We all buy our own milk... One flatmate drinks 2l a DAY whereas I'll drink a tiny botle of milk in a week as I skip breakfast *bad girl* :rolleyes: Works out fairer for everyone

For things you'll use fairly often around the house... then get it individually.. things that will get abused... keep in your room (e.g posh clothes washing powder...anything you don't want getting 'borrowed'... my binge food (chocolate/crisps/sweets etc) is all stashed in my room )

Next year we'll get a kitty together to put money in regularly as that'll work out fairer... one of my flatmates has worked out that if he doesn't go on the weekly food shop then he doesn't have to buy any things for the flat (damn him!!)

I've rambled... good luck... and remember that living with people is a very refreshing *ahem* experience.... may make you value your own company slightly more!!!!

~ditzy x

Bargain_Rzl

Haize wrote:

Ooh, if you are the kind of person who likes to bother cooking decent meals, and you do end up eating on your own, make huge batches of things (bolognese is a perfect one), and freeze a few portions. That way you get variety and cheap food. Empty plastic takeaway tubs always come in handy...

Depends on freezer space though Haize. When I lived in halls the freezer was always stuffed full.

I didn't start cooking and eating proper food until my second year. In first year I shared a kitchen with about 13 others, and looking back on it I wish I'd been part of the crowd that pooled their resources and ate together - their food all looked so good! However at the time I was more preoccupied by the fact that if I only ever ate mush (rice, beans and chopped up burgers, all from the Kwik Save No Frills range) it only cost about £3 for 10 meals :eek: And I didn't have an expensive social life either, so I could have afforded a fair bit more in the way of food! I learnt the error of my ways in second year, thanks to:

(a) sharing a house with a motherly mature student who taught me a few things (sorry that makes her sound about 50 - she was 29 and I was 19!)
(b) working in a greengrocers (lots of free fruit and veg whenever it was too "past it" to sell)
(c) having more fridge and freezer space thanks to sharing 1 fridge-freezer between 4, rather than 2 between 14!

StudentSaver_2

Just found this post again and thought i'd update you on what we ended up doing. Pretty simple, really. Five people in the flat. Five separate meals each night. Our diets are very different. I like to cook very large portions of everything and freeze them. Some people seem to live on eggs (which I can't eat), and there's a veggie in the flat too. So cooking meals together wouldn't have been ideal. We do put money into a pot to buy things like toilet roll and stuff, but no foodstuff. I've rented a mini-fridge from the university that stays in my room and I keep all my stuff in there. Gives the rest of them more space in the kitchen fridge, and ensures that my milk etc doesn't go walkies.

Thanks for your advice everyone!