Self-Catered accommodation and shared kitchens

So I've applied for self catered accommodation, and was wondering whats that like. any experiences or advice to share?

Im not too concerned about the cooking bit. More about, what sorta arrangements are made. like do hall mates share the cookware, do grocery shopping together, whatever, etc...

...oh and is stealing each other's food really such a big deal or issue here?

Cheers!

Reply 1

kpwxx

On about halls in general, rather than specific unis...

People borrow each others cookware if they don't have their own, usually more obscure stuff like whisks and things. But generally as you've only just met each other, you'll ask first is it ok to borrow this.

Some people do shopping together... my two friends buy and cook together, as it's sometimes alot easier to cook portions for two than one and can work out alot cheaper, but you don't have to. But a trip to the shops together is always fun. Stuff like washing up liquid, kitchen roll etc is usually taken in turns (although not strictly, no rotas or anything) but you could just all use your own.

Stealing food is circumstantial. If I cook a meal and realise I've ran out of salt or milk or something, I'll ask can I borrow someones or once you get to know someone really well I'll just borrow someones if it's only a little I need, then tell them afterwards and they can borrow some back when I've bought it. But I wouldn't eat someones cheese or fruit or meal foods, unless they offered to share or give me some. Just go by what you would want done to yourself. Because you've only just met people will generally always ask first so you can set the 'boundaries' then as such.

University College London

London

Reply 2

lolololol

Massive problems in my flat with stealing food and equipment - we don't really get on because of this. All kinds of food goes missing, mainly ice cream from the freezer, meat/veg from the fridge and everything else I keep in my room. Loads of my cooking things have gone missing too, like my knife, chopping board, tin opener, potato peeler which I originally said anyone could use. I'm pretty sure I know who it is but they are an international student and seems to pretend that they cannot understand me when I confront them.

Actual theft has also happened (long story which I don't really want to go into but basically one student's room was left open through no fault of their own and expensive things were taken, but then one of the things was left in a place for her to find the next day) so we know that one person at least is just really dishonest. As much as I can't wait to move out I did enjoy being self catered and would not have liked being catered at all so it was the right decision, so I wouldn't really worry about this if I were you because it all depends on who you get to share with. So many of my friends have flat meals all the time and get on really well.

Reply 3

serkop

I lived in James Lighthill House in my fresher year, self-catered. It's nice to decide when to cook and eat your food, instead of having a schedule of meal times.
My problem was that in the beginning I didn't have any dishes, or kitchen utensils or anything... So I ate KFC every day for a month, until I went to IKEA, and gained quite a bit of weight, like 5 kgs =/

We didn't have any problems with food or anything, we were all pretty civilized people. We did suspect this one guy of taking our food, but we never got the chance to confront him as we didn't know him and we never saw him... and we didn't actually know what he looked like, he was always with another guy.
I'd watch out for the spices you'd use on your food. That was my one weakness, and when I ran out I used to 'borrow' other people's spices. :smile:

We did have this one girl that used to clog up one of our two sinks all the time. It was ridiculous. She clogged it up, and then she'd move to the sink the rest of us used (she was the only one to use the other sink). I once confronted her about always clogging up her sink, and then moving to ours and clogging that one up as well. I think she actually almost stopped using the sinks after that, but the rest of us had to arrange an unclogging as she was very antisocial and uncooperative =).

It was fine to use others' utensils and kitchen stuff as long as you knew the people. I had three people in my flat which were pretty much always locked in their rooms, but us other three, we would joyfully share our things with each other when needed.