Grocery Shopping and Roommates

Roommates can be great and are, for the most part, just a fact of life. There will always be issues between roommates no matter how good of friends the roommates are when they become roommates. These issues range from relationships to who was supposed to take out the garbage last week. One issue that is common between roommates is grocery shopping and how to split the expense of the groceries. Since most other expenses are set values or set percentages of the expense can be agreed upon when the roommates sign the lease, food is not really be something that can be divided in a simple matter such as half and half. There are several ways to handle the grocery buying with roommates including: by percentages, by shopping trip, by shopping together, or through separation of food.

The first way to handle grocery shopping between roommates is to divide the cost evenly between all roommates. The best way to do this is for all roommates to pay into an account that is just for food monthly when they pay their rent. Then this account can be used to by food and checks can even be written out of it if all the roommates order in take-out. All roommates can also keep the receipts for the food and items for the home that they buy during the month these can be totaled and then the total can be divided between the roommates. This method can cause many issues though. First, if the roommates can't always shop together or the shopping is not done from a shopping list written by all the roommates then conflict can be created over what items are purchased and why the whole group is paying for them. When it comes to this system also the roommates either all need to trust each other or they need to be willing to write shopping lists and go through receipts together as a group. Yet, this method does work well for roommates that mostly eat at home and together because the cost of the ingredients for each meal can be split and there is not confusion over what items belong to which roommate.

A slight variation on exactly splitting the grocery bills by percentages is to handle the grocery bills in a trip-by-trip manner. This can be done by when each roommate buys food they save the receipt put it on the refrigerator and have a sheet of paper with a running total of what each roommate spends on food also on the refrigerator or somewhere else that it is easily accessible. Then when one of the roommates decides to move out or whenever a roommate requests it the roommates will even up so that both roommates have spent the same amount on food, cleaning supplies, and other necessities for the home.

Roommates can also choose to always shop together and then divide the bill when they check out at the grocery store. This method can become very much of a hassle but can also limit problems about what items are purchased. Also this way everyone can have input on the brand and type of each item that is purchased.

Finally, the roommates can each purchase all of their own food and all food can be kept separate. This can work well if the roommates do not often eat together or cook together. It will not work well if the roommates often eat meals together because there will be difficulty dividing the use and cost of the components of the meal.