Figuring out what meal plan to get or whether to have a meal plan at all can be a little tricky, especially if you have never had a meal plan before. As I mentioned in a previous post, when I looked at my meal plan and other food expenses after the fall of my sophomore year, I decided to drop the meal plan altogether.
To evaluate everything, I wanted to figure out exactly how much I was spending on different things. I double-checked the cost of the meal plan online and then looked through credit card bills to see how much I was eating out and buying groceries.
(Note that food costs will be different for different people. Costs can be affected by the region in which you live. Costs will also depend on what types of food you buy. For example, buying organic foods will cost a lot more than Ramen.)
For the fall of 2012, I spent approximately $1240 on food. The actual amount was slightly higher, as I took some groceries from home. The $1240 was divided up approximately as:
Groceries: ~$280
Eating out on or off campus: ~$260
Dining Hall: ~$700 (I got the "Block 120" meal plan, which cost $1128, but then swiped in a friend for meals for which he repaid me. We agreed upon this at the beginning of the semester, as I knew I wouldn't eat 120 meals in the dining hall.)
With this meal plan, meals cost on average $9.40 each. Without a meal plan, dinners cost $10.25 and lunches $9.95. So if you were to eat only dinners at the dining hall, the "Block 120" is essentially "Buy 110, Get 10 Free". So unless I ate 110 times or more at the dining hall, this plan wouldn't be worth it for me. I had eaten there only 75 times in the fall, and both my friend and I wanted to eat at the dining hall less the following semester.
So looking ahead to the next semester, I could either keep the same plan or cancel my meal plan and pay the $250 fine for canceling in the middle of the year. To eat 75 dinners without the meal plan would cost $768.75 and adding the $250 fine would bring the cost to $1018.75. Even with the large fine, I would save $200. And this is with eating the same number of times, not fewer, as I had planned!
So even though a $250 fine seemed huge, it still made more sense financially to drop the meal plan. My goal was to keep my costs from the second semester at or below the costs from the frist semester. As I reduced the number of times I ate at the dining hall, I could use that extra money to get more groceries. Buying groceries and making food for yourself is almost always cheaper than eating at the dining hall or eating out. I haven't finished working out exactly how much money I spent this past semester, but even before my final calculation, I know that I spent less money on food compared to the fall semester.
I could analyze this data further by going beyond the numbers and asking, "Why did this meal plan, which was perfect for my freshman year, stop working for me during my sophomore year?" For me the answer is obvious. Freshman year I had a lot of friends living on my hall, and we would go to dinner together almost every night. Almost all of us now live in different places, both on campus and off campus. So this past year, I would only eat in the dining hall with a few friends who still had meal plans, and then only occasionally.
My solution: This past semester I would almost always have a simple breakfast and lunch in my dorm. For dinner, I would eat in the dining hall about once a week, go out to eat some (usually on the weekends with friends), and eat food in my dorm the rest of the time. The food in my dorm would be something that I cooked, something thawed from what I had previously cooked, or a simple pre-packaged meal.
Do you want to crunch the numbers and see what will work best for you for the coming semester? If so, look into the different meal plan options and see what they cost for how many meals they give you. Keep an eye out for cancellation fees. Be sure to weigh in factors such as convenience and flexibility. Some plans give you allotments for each week, while other give you an allotment of meals for the semester, allowing greater flexibility. With any meal plan, be sure to factor in how much food you will buy from other sources. Most students will buy at least some snacks, even if they have a large meal plan. Next figure out how much you predict cooking for yourself will cost. You should also consider how much time it will take to make your own food and to go to the grocery store. Now weigh the different factors (finances, time, etc.) and decide on a plan of action.
How have your plans for food changed over the years?
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