My food plan is quite perfect for me. I live with my boyfriend and I cook as much as possible for the both of us. When we first moved in together, back in June, it was hard to figure out how to make the food part work. He had been living by himself for about 3 years and I had been living with a roommate who had no common culinary interests with me so we both in our own ways got used to living off of mac and cheese, or going out. I could never get the hang of cooking just for myself.

So what we have ended up doing is trading off on the shopping trips. On week 1, I will go shopping on and pay for it out of my pocket, and (theoretically...) on week 2 my boyfriend will come along with me as I buy what we need and will pay the bill when we are done. And so forth. Really it's easier for us this way because we share everything! I'll plan the menus for the upcoming days and just get what we need. It's ended up that my boyfriend will just forgo coming with me and will just pay me back later, which is great for me because it's tons less stressful without him hovering over me saying, "Do we really need that?" or "What's that really for?" and it ends up being relatively even, about $60 or 70 comes out of my pocket for food every other week, and that includes lunch! With just the two of us, I can make a little more for leftovers.

The most important part of this shopping is to never go without a list! We have set up a revolving list on