Groceries are the most underrated source of roommate conflict. Everyone focuses on rent and utilities, but groceries happen every single day. And if you're not splitting them fairly, someone is quietly resentful every time they open the fridge.
I've tried three grocery systems over 8 years. Here's what worked and what didn't.
**System 1: Split everything evenly.** This sounds fair but it's not. If I'm a vegetarian eating $200 worth of vegetables a month and my roommate is eating $400 worth of steak, splitting evenly means I'm subsidizing their diet. We tried this for two months. I saved $0 and ate a lot of resentment.
**System 2: Everyone buys their own food.** This eliminates conflict but creates a fridge that looks like a border checkpoint. Everything is labeled. Nothing is shared. If you need an egg at 10pm, you're driving to the store because your roommate's eggs are not your eggs. It's lonely and inefficient.
**System 3: Shared staples + individual extras.** This is what we do now and it's the only system I recommend. Shared staples include: milk, eggs, bread, butter, rice, pasta, toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning supplies, and spices. These are things everyone uses and they're hard to track individually. We split the cost of staples evenly.
Individual extras are everything else: meat, specialty items, snacks, alcohol, prepared meals, and anything with a brand preference. If you want organic almond milk and I want regular milk, you buy your own. If you want Doritos and I want kettle chips, we each buy our own.
We track shared staples using a simple note on the fridge. When someone buys staples, they write the amount on the note. At the end of the month, we add it up and split it. No apps. No spreadsheets. Just a piece of paper and basic addition.
The key rule: if you eat the last of something shared, you replace it. If you finish the milk, you buy the next milk. This prevents the "who used the last egg" arguments that used to happen weekly in my old apartments.
We also have a "no shame" rule for shared food. If it's in the shared section, anyone can eat it. No asking. No guilt. If you wanted it for a specific recipe, you should have put it in your individual section.
This system costs me about $85 a month for staples plus whatever I spend on individual food. It's fair because I'm only paying for what I actually use. And it's simple because there's no app to maintain and no receipts to photograph.
If you're currently fighting with roommates about who ate the yogurt, try this: separate your fridge into shared and individual sections. Agree on what counts as shared. Write down the costs. Split at the end of the month. It takes one conversation and saves you a year of passive-aggressive notes.