You found the apartment. You merged the spice racks. You hung one shelf crooked and called it charming. Then Tuesday arrived, the fridge was half-empty, and neither of you wanted to be the person who "always decides dinner." Welcome to the first month of cohabitation—where Uber Eats feels like a relationship tool and a shared kitchen feels like a pop quiz.
This is not a lecture about becoming meal-prep influencers. It is a 14-day starter plan for two people who want a rhythm before they want a perfect system: who cooks, who shops, what to buy first, and fourteen dinners that will not fight your schedule.
Why the first months feel like delivery apps
Moving in together changes food in ways nobody warns you about. You now share one fridge, one budget, and two different definitions of "we'll figure it out." Without a default, figure it out becomes a nightly negotiation at peak hunger—and negotiation loses to DoorDash almost every time.
The goal for month one is not culinary excellence. It is predictability: enough structure that you eat at home most nights without keeping score, without a Pinterest board, and without pretending you will batch-cook twelve containers on Sunday when you still have boxes to unpack.
Build a rhythm, not a rigid 7-day plan
Most new couples try a perfect weekly grid on day three and abandon it by Thursday. Start with a two-week rhythm instead:
- Three easy solo-cook nights each (20–30 minutes max)
- One shared cook-together night (fun, not efficient)
- One assembly night (wraps, grain bowls, big salads—zero technique)
- Two flexible nights (leftovers, takeout, or friends)
That pattern repeats for fourteen days. You are not failing if Friday becomes pizza; you are failing if every Friday becomes a crisis because nothing was decided by 6pm.
For the full framework on splitting nights fairly, see how couples split cooking fairly—the rotation logic applies from week one.
Who cooks, who shops: the starter split
Cooking is three jobs: deciding, shopping, and making. New couples who try to split all three evenly every day burn out fast. Trade instead:
