Living on your own is great. You get to make all of your own decisions and you get to be truly independent. One of the downsides is that you have to do all of the cooking for yourself. Everyday. It can get tiresome, and you start to run out of ideas. And money. As a result, you come up with some pretty interesting eating habits.

1. You make a meal with only snacks. This usually happens at the end of the semester, or when you’re going on week three without grocery shopping. Pretzels and the last of your humus for dinner, pretzels and peanut butter for dessert!
2. You eat things directly out of the box/container/jar. Another downer to living by yourself is you have to do all of your own dishes. If you eat the cereal right out of the box, that’s one less dish to do.
3. You make food art. Making your own food isn’t all bad. For example, spaghetti does this fun thing where it sticks to the wall when it’s fully cooked. The more you know.
4. You add cheese to everything and anything. Cheese makes everything better. And it goes well on top of anything! Vegetables, eggs, toast. And yes, I know cheese on toast is essentially grilled cheese, but when you have only shredded cheese does that still count?
5. You go through a healthy food phase. This will probably happen when you are first living alone. You buy healthy food because you want to be responsible for your health and stuff. This phase will quickly end however, because healthy food is expensive and it isn't very fun. But you should still have a vegetable every once in a while.
6. You’ll set off the smoke alarm. A lot. Possibly daily. It’s okay, it means you’re at least trying to make your own food. Good try! Just don’t cook everything on high, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will cook faster, just burn faster.
7. You become leftover queen or king. It’s the best when you or one of your roommate go home for the weekend or a holiday and bring back leftovers. Everyone eats well for at least a few days. Of course, you also have to reheat it, but cold mashed potatoes aren’t the worst thing in the world.
8. You forget to eat. Seriously, sometimes this happens. When no one is making food for you, sometimes you get so busy, you actually forget to eat a meal. It’s okay, you’ll make it up in all the snacking you’ll do at some ungodly hour when you wake up starving.
9. You eat ice cream for breakfast. Maybe it’s finals week, maybe it’s the only thing you have left. No judgment, ice cream is acceptable at all times.
10. You make an actual meal. Yes, sometimes you make an actual meal, and it isn’t half bad.

Living on your own and making your own food can be tough, but you’ll get the hang of it soon, and maybe one day you’ll finally figure out how much food you need to buy at the grocery store to not have to go back every week.