Hello!
I was wondering what parents did for their students when they were not required to buy the full access meal plan from UA after their freshman year? Did the students still retain a smaller meal plan to supplement their food budget off-campus? How much was your budget per week for food after freshman year? I just wanted a picture at what I am looking at for costs. Thanks! 
When my daughter was a sophomore and still living on campus, we bought her the 55 meal plan. If I had it to do over again, I wouldnt get her any meal plan at all. For as much as she used the All Access plan freshman year, she didnāt use the meal plannear as much once her friends were no longer eating in the dining halls every day, and she ended up with some meals left over. I know others who had a LOT more unused meals than she did, though. Junior and senior year she had no meal plan, and she has never even come close to using all her Dining Dollars. I couldnāt tell you what her food budget is, though, as I donāt pay attention to how she spends her money.
My sons did use the smaller/smallest plans for later yearsā¦even when they lived off-campus. They still ate lunch and sometimes dinner on campus during the school week.
When I bought them the smallest plan, I ended up having to buy some sort of āadd-onā plan (I think an extra 20 meal plan) that can be purchased to āfill inā at the end of a semester.
My DD at UA lives so close to campus, she prefers to eat at her apt. She also has not been a 3 meals a day girl for many years - or her 3rd meal may be at 10 at night with a bowl of cereal. She just has not been a dining hall gal at all. She prefers to use her money with other dining out options with friends, evenings/week-ends.
However my UAB DD does buy a minimal plan on campus - she does have enough meals at their dining hall with friends, and makes sure to use every bit of it up.
It depends on the student and also where their friends are eating.
The best way to estimate your meal costs without a meal plan is to track your eating (now) for a few weeks. How much milk, cereal, bread, eggs, butter, pasta, veggies, and fruit you go through now should be approximately the same as you will use then. Add these costs up and then add a few packages of meat to the total costs, divide this amount by the number of weeks you have tracked to get an approximate weekly cost. Add about 10% for future food cost increases.
Having said that, costs will be different if you use mostly pre-packaged foods instead of cooking from scratch. If you donāt know how to cook, learn now how to make simple dishes. It isnāt really difficult.
There are many ways to cut food costs. You can plan on a marathon cooking day or two per month, and fill your freezer with portions of home cooking goodness.
Donāt forget that your unused Dining Dollars will roll over and become Bama Cash at the end of the academic year. DS didnāt use any of his Dining Dollars freshman year and started sophomore year with $650 which he could use at the local Publix to buy food.
Guys eat more than girls; plus, if they date, theyāll be paying for their datesā girls. My D spent a lot of Dining Dollars and Bama Cash feeding and entertaining her boyfriend and friends (despite my firm orders not to). She didnāt eat at the sorority house nearly enough, but she at least did eat there the most. As a senior in a shared apartment, she did begin cooking once or twice a week.
Sorry, I meant, āpaying for their datesā meals.ā
When my son moved off campus his second year, he did not get any meal plan. He did not want one and told me he would not use one if I purchased it. I told him to budget $50 per week for the weeks he is on campus for groceries. Based on my budget at home, that seemed pretty reasonable. But, he never spends that much, I would say he spends closer to half that at the grocery store. However he always uses ALL his dining dollars. And also when heās working his co-op, I think he often uses his own money to go out for lunch during the week days, so like bethās mom above, I am not 100% certain exactly how much he spends.
Thanks everyone for the insight. I will keep the meal plan as a supplement to meals if I wish to have the convenience of not cooking every so often but weāll see. I prefer to buy in bulk items and just eat over time what I have in supplies. Thrifty couponing and smart shopping is way more flexible than a rigid cost meal plan 
When you buy any plan other than the All Access, you are paying between $9.38-9.45 per meal/swipe. That is craziness to me given what I have learned during the past three semesters about what the dining hall options are truly like. If you are going to spend nearly $10 to eat a meal on campus, why not choose one of the non-dining-hall options, or arrange your schedule to eat off campus, or, better yet, pack a lunch.
My son has been living on campus this second year, and while he cooks a lot, we still went with the All Access because the suite kitchens are not that functional for cooking. Now that he will be living in his own apartment in the fall, he will be cooking all the time, and, when he eats on campus, he will just use the mandatory Dining Dollars. He cannot wait to be totally free of Bama Dining.
I have also advised him to budget $50 a week, and he already does a lot of shopping at Aldi, with occasional trips to Walmart and Sams Club.
Tuscaloosa is also blessed to have multiple locations that offer One Harvest Ministries. This is a program that college students in the area should really consider. The program encourages people from all economic backgrounds to participate, because it keeps the program successful. You can buy a box of food that includes meats, dairy, frozen fruits and veggies, some pantry staples, for $37.50 a box (one box in designed to feed a family of four for one week.) They also offer some specialty boxes (all fruits and veggies, or some special meats.) You order in advance and pick up your boxes on a designated date, but there is a wonderful sense of simplicity that comes from buying food like this, that I think college students could really enjoy.
I will provide a link to this monthās menu: http://www.oneharvest.com/?q=menu
This is not a soup kitchen program, or limited to welfare recipients (though I would highly recommend to them), but it is an opportunity for everyone, especially college students, to buy a variety of good quality food. We used to have a similar program here called Angel Food, and, while we were not low-income, there was no income qualification, and I bought our family boxes each month as well as boxes to donate to the church food program and to give to some family and friends who could benefit.
We read so many stories of college students going without food, or eating ramen all the time, and students in Tuscaloosa have the opportunity to avoid this if they check out One Harvest.
Whatever you do for food, do your best to eat as much fresh stuff as you can find, and take a multivitamin as insurance 
LOL, I cannot get H or either DD to take a multivitamin (kids would take it when younger, but at a certain point said ānoā).
Buying the gummie vitamins help - a lot more expensive than the old style Flintstones, but I have to admit the gummies taste better and my kids have been willing to take. I donāt delude myself into thinking that my son is faithully taking his vitamins like I made sure he did when was a minor living at home (and all of the other stuff I have given him and asked him to take - B-stress complex, Vitamin D, Magnesium (every so often), probiotics), but he takes most of these most of the time, and starts getting religious about it when any roommates or classmates start getting sick (and some rotten stuff is going around up there right now, as more than one of his professors has had to cancel classes or postpone tests due to illness, and other classmates are dropping like flies.) It is up to him whether he wants to stay far away from the student health center, and I know he does as our family has dealt with a lot of members with serious chronic illnesses. Makes taking those vitamins, etc, less of a chore if it means possibly staying out of a doctorās office. I would rather he got those vitamins from fresh foods but the reality is that it is hard to do for college students, so a gummy vitamin is a little insurance
Students can donate unused meals to those in need: http://bamadining.ua.edu/student2student/
Thanks everyone for the insight!
@chesterton That harvest program looks like such a bargain. I definitely need to look into that when I go off campus. Staying around $50 a week for food sounds reasonable to me more or less.
Still considering a very small meal plan if there are nights or times that I am on campus and donāt want to go to my apartment to eat. Iāll be conscious though and see if it is worth it. Worse case I just make something from home (sandwich, wrap, etc) and bring it to school to save money. Weāll see with good time
Iāll definitely look into bulk buying at the local superstores for non-perishables. See if I can get deals that can last me months at a time.
Not too worried of off campus food costs though. From what I hear food costs about 10-20% less in Tuscaloosa than it does here in Denver. Thatās a huge savings for me if thatās true
@atomicPACMAN07 I would look into the ācash priceā of a dining hall meal. When I was at UA, it was $9.00-9.45 and some days were only $5.45. Considering that a meal plan meal often cost over $8.75, Iād have to eat a lot of meals at the dining hall to have a meal plan make financial or practical sense.
I usually found that I could eat out on the Strip for less than $8, which made it a good thing I wasnāt tired to a dining plan.
Itās a lot easier to purchase a dining plan than to cancel one. If you plan to purchase one after freshman year, wait until school starts and see if they are giving incentives. I remember seeing 25 meals for the price of 20 or spend $10 at the convenience store on campus and get a free dining hall meal.
Yes, there are always specials, look at the UA Dining website. For example, now there is a lunch special at Lakeside and Burke dining, lunch only $5.50 on Fridays till Feb 26th. Check under Deals.
If you have no meal plan at all how much does it cost to buy a meal at the dining hall? Is this the situation where it costs 9$?
I donāt know the exact cost, but it is around $9.40 or so I think per meal without a special going on. I know for my sophomore I did get him a 90 meal plan (since he lives on campus) knowing he would use it all. I told him after that we would just put money on his bama cash so he could use it at the cafeteria, Ferg or other places. Last semester we just had to add $100 on. (Better than his older brother who, in his sophomore year, had over 40 meals left. That is over $360.)