Your first college apartment is a magical place. It’s all yours to do with as you wish. You’re the one responsible for it. That’s exciting, but it can also be a little bit terrifying–like when it comes time to fill the college apartment kitchen. That first grocery run is daunting. You know it’s going to be expensive, and you’re not even sure you know where to start. Here are a few tactics you can use when planning your first few grocery store visits:
Make a list before you go. Meal planning is all the rage and there’s a reason for it: It prevents you from ending up with food that you don’t have a use for. This is doubly important when you’re on a tight budget or are filling up your kitchen for the first time. Sit down and make a list of essentials. Be realistic about what you’re really going to have time for and plan accordingly. You don’t have to get everything that you’ll ever need on this first run, so start by planning a week’s worth of meals. Pick up the ingredients that you’ll need for them and see how you do. Then you’ll have a better understand of what you need to get week-to-week.
Take stock of your kitchen tools. You’re probably used to cooking in your mom’s kitchen, where you have access to everything that you’ll ever need to prepare the meals you’re familiar with it. Your mom has a blender, a food processor and a can opener all in familiar places. Do you have all of those tools? If not, make sure that you don’t plan meals that need them. Oh, and the can opener? Go ahead and pick one up and splurge on a good one. There’s nothing worse than not being able to get a can open when your meal relies on the food within.
Stock the essentials. If you have the funds to go ahead and get them all at the same time, great. If not, break it down so that you’re picking up a few essentials every time you go to the grocery store. Start with things like salt, pepper and flour. Those are parts of many different recipes. Add to your staples over time to help build your ability to make different things in your kitchen: sugar, cocoa powder and vanilla. As you’re meal planning, you’ll find that you will naturally add some of these ingredients over time, which will help build up the contents of your cabinets.
Plan for potential problems. If possible, you shouldn’t ever let your cabinets get empty. As a college student, you’re probably on a tight budget, so there may be times when it’s necessary. That means that you should prepare for those occasions ahead of time. Keep a few boxes of cereal, granola bars and oatmeal in the back of a cabinet that isn’t easily accessible. Over time, add some cans of soup, a box or two of popcorn or anything else that’s fairly inexpensive, but that will last for a long time. These few items will give you an emergency stash for when food runs short a little bit too close to payday.
Now it’s your turn, how did you fill up your college kitchen. Sound off in the comment section below.
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