<p>I’d just like to reiterate that sharing a fridge is NOT the same as sharing the food inside. I actually had some issues with this freshman year, so I figure I’ll offer my perspective:</p>
<p>First of all - fridges are really expensive, and I think you should offer to share the space. If you’re on a meal plan, to be honest, you probably won’t need to put <em>that</em> much food in your fridge anyways, but I think you should offer to share the space. That being said, I almost never even used my fridge because the only food I ever bought was non-perishable goods like granola bars, cereal, etc. - the only thing I bought was milk.</p>
<p>However, I do understand your concern about having your food eaten! My freshman year, both of my roommates would eat my food when I was out, and then deny it (even though I knew I hadn’t eaten anything). It got to the point where anything I put on the pantry shelf would be gone within a few days, whether or not I had even opened it. My mom sent me a few boxes of girl scout cookies that I had ordered from my little sister, and within two days two of the boxes were completely eaten (I hadn’t even opened them). The most irritating part was that the empty boxes would be left on the shelf, so I wouldn’t know the food was gone until I went over hoping to get a snack. Although I made several general statements asking both of them to stop eating my food (to this day I have no idea which roommate it was), it didn’t really improve until I just started keeping my food inside of my desk drawers altogether.</p>
<p>This year, however, it worked much better, because we laid out ground rules right away: certain foods are available for sharing, and certain foods aren’t. Whenever my roommate or I went shopping, she or I would make a point to say “hey, feel free to help yourself to X” or “hey, I really need these for late at night, so do you mind not eating them?” It worked perfectly. I see nothing wrong with laying out basic ground rules while you’re getting to know each other - i.e., “in terms of food, maybe we should specify whether things are to be shared or left alone.” I wish I had done that my freshman year,</p>