<p>when exactly do these get added to our accounts? </p>
<p>because i read where it said that if you signed up for them, you should be able to use them for orientation when you get your student ID, but my balance for dine in dollars and bevo bucks is currently zero dollars... :S</p>
<p>They should be ready by the time you move in. It’s good to be cautious with dine in dollars because they can diminish very quickly. Also, my bevo bucks ran out after my first semester. I think I had $11 left that I used for laundry in the Spring.
You can monitor your usage online at My Housing. You can see, at the rate you’re spending, if you’ll have enough for the rest of the year.</p>
<p>Cool, thanks for the quick reply. I was just wondering if there was anything to be concerned about but I guess not.</p>
<p>Anyone have any advice on managing your Bevo Bucks and Dine-in Dollars more efficiently?</p>
<p>i plan to limit my dine-in by eating cereal for breakfast :P</p>
<p>I think this thread might be helpful:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-texas-austin/769945-how-do-you-survive-off-dine-dollars.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-texas-austin/769945-how-do-you-survive-off-dine-dollars.html</a></p>
<p>To stretch your dine in dollars, do not use them for every meal a day. Eat fruit in the morning. J2 and Kins usually let you bring out one piece of fruit. But there’s no need to hoard great amounts of food. So if you eat at Kins or J2, take out a piece of fruit each time you eat there. It can add up and be your breakfast for the next few days.
Do not buy frozen foods from Jester or Kins Market. Go to wal-mart or HEB for things like toothpaste because you’re paying for convenience at Jester or Kins Market.
J2 and Kinsolving are the best deals for lunch and dinner (all you can eat for less than $4). Memorize the hours when you get on campus. It stinks when it’s 7 and you’re only just thinking of dinner.
If you’re going to buy juice, buy it at a supermarket. Basically, anything that you KNOW you need/are definitely going to consume, buy in bulk. Gum is a good thing to buy in bulk because you’ll always need it (and it’s more expensive on campus)!
Don’t go to the supermarket too much (i would go about once a month); just get snacks that you can eat if you’re too late for dinner at the dining halls. I would go to Whole Foods for nuts and dried fruit. They’re really handy.
Also, CVS near campus is overpriced, so don’t get your groceries there!</p>
<p>Good to know. I move in this Sunday for the last summer session. I’m planning on going to Costco and getting a case of water and propel. I don’t really buy food from Costco - but I guess that’s all I’m going to get before hand.</p>
<p>Where is the nearest supermarket like Walmart or HEB around UT? I’m going to need to figure out the whole city once I get there.</p>
<p>Theres an HEB pretty close to campus…on red river street i believe. Go get some cereal and some frozen dinners that you can make in the microwave. Or you can also try and save by eating at J2 and kinsolving rather than Jcl. I personally hated the food in j2 so i would always eat at jcl or cypress which is expensiveee and I cant even begin to tell you how much money i spent refilling my dine in dollars and bevo bucks…literally would put like 200 bucks and blow through it in like a month</p>
<p>Is any of the all-you-can-eat-food on campus halfway decent?</p>
<p>buriedalie - to answer your original question, you will get a certain amount of dine in dollars for your use at orientation. I think last year it was $60, this is included in your orientation cost. It will be in the form of a debit-type card. Your dine in dollars and bevo bucks that you will use for the next school year will show up on your housing account later. You will use your UT ID to access those funds. You can also use your ID to access your bevo bucks for things like coke machines and washer/dryers.</p>
<p>The food in the all you can eat locations is actually pretty good with a very large variety. As with anything, though, it can get boring eating in the same place all the time!</p>
<p>Thank guys, I’ll just starve my self. Its ok. If people in Africa can do it successfully for days at a time, then I can do it too and save money. </p>
<p>I can’t believe I’m paying all this money and they don’t even give me enough for 3 meals a day…</p>
<p>Well, only $1400 is actually going to dine in dollars, and $300 for Bevo Bucks. That’s $1700 for food. The rest of your housing bill was for actual housing (and taxes, and internet, etc).</p>
<p>I don’t think I could feed myself 3 square meals a day from late August to early May (minus winter break) and have it cost under $1700. I’m not talking a pop tart for breakfast and a ham sandwich for lunch. I’m an athletic guy who eats 3500 calories a day and needs that much just to maintain my weight. I need full, complete meals with fruits and vegetables, breads and meats, etc. This is what I can get at school.</p>
<p>Last year, I ate lunch and dinner at an all you can eat dining place (the cheapest option, FYI) every M/T/W/Th. I only ate lunch on Friday and went out to dinner. I also ate lunch on Saturday and Sunday and went out to eat for dinner those nights.</p>
<p>I ran out of dine in dollars in March, and had to add $350 or so for the remainder of the year. We only got $1300 dine in dollars last year though, although prices may change this year since we are getting $100 more. I ended up with 62 cents left the day I moved out, it would out very well (although I planned it well in the last week of school so that I wouldn’t waste money by having it left over, since I wouldn’t be able to use it again until August).</p>
<p>@longhorn9791</p>
<p>thanks for the info! that heb doesnt look too far at all!</p>
<p>@Why Two Kay</p>
<p>So err lemme get this straight, you only ate on campus 10 times a week and still didn’t have enough money? lol…</p>
<p>Er, yes? I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or something towards me. I lived on campus and it was convenient to eat there. I know lots of people who went to Chipotle or sandwich places a lot, but that’s just not enough food for me for me usually. They had like $500 left in dine in dollars at the end of the year, so it works either way.</p>
<p>haha no!! i wasnt attacking you or being sarcastic anything, sorry if it sounded that way. it’s just that it sounds like it’s gonna be difficult to be economical and stretch out your money without running out before the end of the year.</p>
<p>Yeah, me and my group of friends who I regularly eat just about every meal with accepted the fact that around March we would have to add a few hundred dollars to our account.</p>
<p>Technically, had I transferred all my Bevo Bucks to Dine in Dollars (which is something you can do online, easily) I would have had enough for the whole year. The only thing is that Bevo Bucks can be used to pay for laundry, among other things. So I would have had to use my own money for that then.</p>
<p>So…laundry rooms. They have card scanners on them, apparently? Are they clean most of the time? Ironic question, but you know what I mean.</p>
<p>In my dorm the room was in great condition. We had four washers and six dryers. There is a card scanner that scans your ID card for Bevo Bucks to use. It was $1 for a wash cycle and $1 for 60 minutes of drying. You have to provide your own detergent. It was never too crowded, only saturday and sunday afternoon did it get full. Just do laundry like Wednesday or something and they machines won’t be taken.</p>
<p>I regularly just started my wash and returned to my room, then came back and moved the clothes into the dryer. I didn’t fear that anybody would steal my clothes. And I had some nice clothes too.</p>