Surviving the student kitchen (with the help of Adam Smith)
Eduard Mead Pointless Economic Musings
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Name:Eduard Mead
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Joined: Dec 2009Occupation: Studying Economics at SussexEduard's Full Profile
Eduard Mead of Pointless Economic Musings saves us all from the hazards and horrors of sharing a student kitchen, using the awesome power of basic economics…
It sounds like the kind of story that gets fed to you during an emergency aid commercial: 12 youths at risk of malnutrition all cooking and eating in the same room, pooling resources to keep themselves alive. Welcome to the often disgusting world of student kitchens. Maybe the above description is a slight exaggeration but after just two weeks at university its become apparent to me that almost all the problems that occur in a student kitchen could be solved with some basic economic theory.
Lets start with the issue of space – our kitchen - I say our, but obviously unless you’re from my corridor you don’t have any stake in this kitchen – please keep it that way, space is scarce as it is - our kitchen, even for a student kitchen, is pretty small – a few square meters as most. This causes a number of problems. Firstly, there isn’t the space for us all to prepare food at the same time. Secondly, twelve people cannot use one cooker simultaneously.
The solution? It comes courtesy of Adam Smith and in the form of the principle of division of labour. Instead of everyone cooking individual meals, it’s far more logical to agree to cook one meal and have each person specialize in one part of the production process – for example one person could peel the vegetables (you’re right, I’m lying, students don’t eat vegetables), another could prepare the sauce whilst two others make the dough etc.
This is something we have since tried, but it’s not without its flaws – the law of diminishing returns states that at some point you’ll exceed the optimal amount of workers for a particular task and instead of seeing an increase in output for every additional factor of production you’ll see a decrease. This happens pretty quickly in a small kitchen.
As a general rule: you don’t need twelve people to cook a Spaghetti Bolognese. You really don’t.
The other problems that have arisen are not dissimilar to the diseconomies of scale suffered by companies who have grown too large. Break down in communication is particularly relevant. A good example is an event that occurred a few days ago – a greasy tray still coated in fat was left on the bottom row of the oven; this meant when the next person to use the oven put in garlic bread, the tray below caught fire. Cue fire alarm etc.
So the solution has to be more flexible than simple division of labour. Primarily it would need to revolve around the idea that not everyone can use the kitchen at the same time, so maybe every lunch/dinner time 6 people could agree to eat cold food/get a take away and the other 6 would cook together. On top of this there needs to be strong leadership in the meal-making process – roles need to be clearly explained and health and safety needs to be taken into consideration – at least taken seriously enough to avoid another fire drill.
Realistically though – most people will eventually grow tired of real food/run out of money and instead resort to pot noodles. This will lead to what is known as a ‘brain drain’. Sigh.
vouchers
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Just a note from someone studying Food Science, we had to swab different surfaces in student kitchens, and its either the chopping boards or the fridge door handle that comes up as the most contaminated with bacteria. Clean properly folks!
We normally just fend for ourselves, though offer out to others if they fancy sharing every now and then. There are 6 of us in our small kitchen and everyone seems to manage to cook at seperate times. If someone is cooking… you cook later. But nice idea trying to apply economics.
We always make our food separately as everybody likes to eat different things. I like to make a big batch of chilli con carne etc. then put it in containers to freeze which makes about 6/7 portions and is very cheap and easy to make
We all eat different things and at different times so not really an ideal solution for us. It’s more of a problem that half the flat wanna hang out with friends in the kitchen when other people wanna cook which leaves no space and is just uncomfortable for the people wanting to cook. Other big problem fridge and freezer space. The fridge is hogged by orange juice, squash, vodka and soy products and one or two people take up a freezer and a half when there are only two as it is.
Lol
When we cook, we always cook something different we don’t cook a shared meal or anything like that, mostly we live off pizza, pasta, toasties & soup. It’s nice cooking together as it gets quite fun, not a real space issue though we often bump into each other when going for the oven.
From my experience so far, everyone just fends for themselves because everyone wants to eat different stuff, there is little chance of everyone contributing to cooking one meal
This is economics? Seriously? Just looks like a little thing called “common sense” to me.
Perhaps an element of game theory could be included? Where taking it in turns to buy food is the greatest outcome, both buying food seperately is the middle outcome and nobody buying food is the least desired result
Its keeping the kitchen clean that did it for me. Highlight was arming myself with a pair of gloves and the bin. Anything past its gone by day goes in the bin. So do pots and plates with moulds. No one asked any question. And we all lived hapily ever after not died from some medication resistant fungus.
Loving the photo on this one
I love the use of economic theory; very nicely done.
i dont find the space an issue as my flatmates never seem to be eating when i am! although i find that odd at times the main issue is mess people just dont seem to think i just spilt this everywhere, or i got this on the floor i should clean that now they just leave it for someone else and it makes me so angry!
I tend to buy reduced products and if i have space freeze it with my name on or know I’m going to eat it that day, otherwise it would b eaten by others. The best thing is if you burn toast the smoke alarm goes off every time !
Wow, i cant wait to get to uni! it sounds so fun! lol
I personally aren’t having to cope with the issue of space, it’s more to do with the division of food costs. We originally agreed to take turns in buying the essential (eg milk, bread and butter) but some of my flatmates didn’t pull their weight and just used what the rest of us bought. This created a division as the ones paying for the food were having nothing returned, and the same people doing dishes. Sadly its came to the point where we don’t share meals cause its going to cost someone and have taken the principal to you eat what you buy. The only thing on a rota as such is the milk as its not possible for everyone to have their own bottle of milk, especially when I like a giant one for cereal. I think when sharing cooking space and food someone is going to lose out or someone is going to be left doing the washing up again while some people are quite happy to take advantage of good nature. I think building rules can help but ultimately it becomes a defence game in the kitchen.
these kitchens are way to small, even for about three people. the money you pay to stay there isn’t worth what your getting.
6 people small kitchen and boys who dont know how to wash up… by the sounds of it i have things easy!
8 people, one kitchen which is cupboard sized with a microwave and a small fridge in,and we have to eat in the corridor.Things havent reached breaking point yet but two people in there is a real squeeze.
From the photo you have it cushy, an actual cooker!
We had ‘Come Dine With Me’ events quite a lot last year, that went down well because everyone was out to impress one another and so they made really good food! We had a right laugh too. This year, though, this hasn’t really happened so far. I only live with three other people now but no one seems interested in sharing meals and all that. I’d love to do it again but they all eat at stupid o’ clock.
We need to delve into the world of empiricism and find the optium point of ‘production.’ I felt i dealt well with the arrangement of the kitchen meeting today; we’ll go by Plato’s ideal of leadership, shall we?
It’s because they/we have the tag as ‘students’ it seems o.k to live like this, when actually it is absurd!
Just because you’re a student you feel as though you should live eating pasta and eggs without cleaning up as you normally would, yet when you go out to a coffee shop you spend £5 easily on a drink and a snack; then you go out on a Fri/Sat night and blow £30+ in a few hours without thinking (all in the name of Alcohol!).
I’m a student, I work, I eat well, a treat myself to days out here and there…
Gah, Students Sucks!
I’ve spent a while thinking about the best way to encourage everyone to chip in for food, and unfortunately the best solution I could think of isn’t pretty – A tax on everyone who shares the kitchen, and tax breaks for the person cooking that week.
However, it’s pretty obvious that no one would be up for being taxed for food they don’t particularly like, and if the person cooking (thus receiving the tax break) is also responsible for the purchasing of the food then who’s to say they buy the most cost effective ingredients? It would be better left to the private sector (i.e. no tax and everyone just fights it out in the kitchen).
Last night my kitchen (which is also small and 12 people share) cooked enchiladas and nachos for everyone, about half of us are veggie so we did a veggie lot and a non veggie lot. It cost us £2 each. The girls cooked and the boys washed up, it was a bit of a squeeze when eating but it tasted delicious. It’s lovely to do but is not practical for every meal as people usually have different agendas, it also depends how co-operative/friendly the people you’re living with are – I’m lucky I’ve got a good lot, even when we’ve cooked individually we’ve never had any problems.
The main problem in our flat was the dishes. It’s a six person corridor with a four people kitchen. Luckily we seem to cook at different times but the dishes piled up because some of the others really didn’t want to cook. Which isn’t fair on the rest of us who did wash immediately after we ate because there were pans and plates piled in the sink that blocked the taps. It got a little better but it was still a problem. Doing a foundation course through a college so was given half term, went back home for a week. Came back, absolutely spotless. Entire kitchen has been cleaned, everything put into draws and cupboards. I don’t know what happened, part of me doesn’t want to, but now I can actually make a meal again xD
I doubt that anyone would actually follow the rota. Also it would be a bit unfair for those two people and they would have to spend all their time cooking for everyone else. You could take it in turns I guess but that would be a problem in itself as people in the flat would have various different diets (e.g. vegetarians or lactose intolerants) who would not be able to eat the set meal. Furthermore there is the problem of money. If someone Is cooking for 12 people then its going to cost a fair bit of money which people in the flat most likily will not contribute to.
12 people using 1 kitchen seems to be a very overcrowded situation. How many bedrooms are in that house? A solution could be that you organise a rota enabling you to all take turns so that 2 people cook one day a week for all the others and that way there would not be so many people in the kitchen at the same time and everyone will have a few days when they don’t have to cook. on the 7th day you could all have a take out individually or corparately. If anyone is not willing to cook on their suggested day then the consequence is that they don’t eat or I am sure someone can come up with a reprimand.
So true that.