During my time in university, I always looked forward to summer internships because it meant living somewhere with a real kitchen and being able to cook for myself. I was not the biggest fan of the full meal plan that was mandatory at Harvard and I always felt like being able to cook for myself was such a privilege. Even now, I still feel that way because it gives me so much autonomy over what I eat, when I eat, and how I eat.

When we first moved out to San Francisco, I budgeted $300 for startup groceries-related costs. I figured that in past summers, I’d never spent that much more for a summer and assumed real life would trend similarly. A few months later, I’ve gone back and checked my total spend on groceries startup and realized it’s actually a lot higher.

Here are some of the largest costs/differences I noted:

  • When I was buying groceries essentials for a summer only, I skimped on a lot of items such as soy sauce, sesame oil, balsamic vinegar, etc. I usually made do with cooking oil and a few spices that I’d often steal from my mom’s kitchen. Our condiments cabinet includes the following items now:
    • Cooking oil
    • Salt
    • Pepper
    • Balsamic vinegar
    • Chinese aged vinegar
    • Sesame oil
    • Soy sauce
    • Soy sauce paste
    • Chinese BBQ sauce
    • Hot sauce
    • Cajun spice rub
    • Oregano
    • Cinnamon
    • A few other random spices, part of an ever-expanding collection

I didn’t realize how much all of these items cost until I listed them out and began to keep count. These items probably add up to at least $60-70. I don’t think there are many ways to save on condiments/spices but I do feel better knowing that most of these items will last awhile, and if I were to allocate the cost to each dish I make, it only adds a few cents to my cost.

  • Similar to the spices/condiments situation, for past summers, I would settle on one or two types of grains alongside the standard Costco pasta offering. Now, we have brown rice, white rice, Chinese noodles, pasta, buckwheat noodles, quinoa, and even some fancy rice-based ramen. I’d still like to add to this list – for example, I would love to have Basmati rice as well, alongside some udon. When we were buying these items, we saw no reason to get them in small bulk quantities and instead bought larger packs in the range of 1-5 lbs per item. They probably cost around another $50 or so, depending on the quality/type of grain.
  • This next category is a bit of a catchall, but I’ve noticed that there are some items in our fridge that don’t fit cleanly into any one bucket. We have jars of pasta sauce, canned peaches, kimchi, frozen dumplings, frozen Chinese desserts, and miscellaneous half-prepared foods (e.g. soup mix). We also have a lot of tofu, frozen fish, other vegetarian meats, and frozen veggie burger patties. These are the complements to our copious quantity of carbs. I find that these items are the most expensive to buy up front – and going forward, you only spend a little to replace the ones that run out. We probably spent $50 on meat substitutes and then another $50-100 on the miscellaneous items listed above.
  • Lastly, this isn’t technically a grocery item, but I’ve also noticed that not living in a furnished place adds a lot of costs associated with cooking. We were lucky enough to be gifted a few pots and pans, but we still had to buy two non-stick pans and a few baking items (loaf tray and springform pan). What we have right now is still far from ideal – we definitely need a baking tray and a smaller pot (for late night ramen!) at some point, and perhaps also a muffin tray. I’ve tried to manage these costs by thinking about how often I’ll use each item and only buying the ones I see immediate utility for. However, it can also be frustrating when I absolutely need a baking tray and just don’t have one, even if I only need one once in awhile. For these costs, we’ve probably spent around $100 so far.

Here’s how I typically think about the cost of a kitchen, having moved a few times:

  • Startup costs

This is the stuff that you take for granted in your parents’ fridge. Most common items are condiments and spices. Examples include cooking oil, vinegars, soy sauce, hot sauce, mustard, ketchup, pickles, etc.

  • Monthly costs

Every month or so, we make a large Costco run. Items we pick up include bread, bagels, pasta sauces, snacks, proteins (tofu, vegetarian meats, meat, fish, etc.). What I like to do is bring home a lot of breakfast carbs (loaf bread, bagels, pitas, English muffins, muffins, croissants, etc.) and then freeze them in packs of 4-6. Every few days, I decide what I’ll want to eat later that week and defrost a few items.

  • Weekly costs

These are typically perishables, such as eggs, vegetables, and fruits. Any fresh fish or meat would also fit into this category. I find that this one is the hardest to figure out because you have to actually give thought to your recipes for the week before you know what to get. Most of the other items in the former two categories are rather flexible and interchangeable.