Food cost and consumption questions

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Wisconsin
1

<p>Can people please share their experiences with actual cost of feeding a student (male, type who spends every free waking moment on sports and in gym and eats constantly)?</p>

<p>It's difficult for me to compare food costs for freshmen with other schools when UW runs food operations in the ala carte manner. It seems that the surcharge on room costs that supports dining operations brings down the cost of purchased items(T/F??) but the $1280 they say is average on campus food spending works out to $6/day. Can't imagine my S can survive on that. He'd spend almost that much on milk alone @ 8 oz for 60 cents. Are the portions/prices at the dining halls(markets?) that reasonable? Are kids spending lots in grocery stores for food stashes in their rooms and at off campus eateries? Are students happy with the arrangement because of the flexibility even though it means they have to think of costs all the time? I see that off campus COA moves $800 from misc to rm/bd, but that still is only $10/day. </p>

<p>Any insight from big eaters or their parents would be greatly appreciated.</p>

2

<p>I have a daughter who will be a junior this year so my experience over the last two years will be a bit different from your son, but it may give you some idea of costs. OK, my daughter doesn’t eat too much. For breakfast, she usually had cereal or yogurt in her room which she purchased at the grocery store. Lunches and dinners were a mix of dining hall, restaurants, food trucks on State St. and fast/carryout/delivery food. Typically, I put about $1000-1100 on her housing food account per year, $400 on her campus cash account and $400 on her Red Card. Red Card is also used for dry cleaning, taxis and such so that’s not all food. Campus Cash I think was used for laundry. But I believe this year there is no longer a distinction between food and campus cash accounts. (She’s abroad fall semester and in an apartment spring so I’m not paying much attention to housing/food costs). Anyway, as you can see, the cost to feed a girl with not a huge appetite is way more than $1280. </p>

3

<p>Maybe I can address some of these concerns. I’m going to be a Sophomore (male) at UW, and while I don’t go to the gym often, there is a lot of exercise involved in daily movement around campus so I hope I can maybe be a decent barometer for you. </p>

<p>I figure I spent between 2/3 dollars on breakfast, around 4 for lunch, and around 4 for dinner, so daily, that comes out to 10 to 11 dollars, average. That doesn’t include morning coffee which a lot of kids get, that doesn’t include a scoop of late night ice cream, that doesn’t include stopping by flamingo run to grab an energy drink or a juice. So… yeah, to put it nicely, DCS’s estimates are garbage. </p>

<p>Depending on where your son is living, food caches in the room might be a reasonable option. Sellery, Witte, Chadbourne, Smith, Ogg, Merit, etc. (southeast dorms) are all within a reasonable distance of a grocery store – Fresh Market on University… so theoretically he could go to the grocery store to supplement dining halls. For example, breakfast is an easy meal he could eat in his room. If he’s living in Lakeshore, that prospect becomes more difficult. Fresh Market is about a 20-25 minute walk, and unfortunately a similar-timed ride on the bus, too. After you get there and want to come back, you have to lug all your groceries home, which nobody wants to do when it’s beautiful outside let alone when it’s freezing and you’re exhausted after a day of class. </p>

<p>My mom put 1200 dollars a semester on my Wiscard (keep in mind that does include the 2.25 a load for clothes, of which I probably did 1.5 average a week). I never felt like I had to ration food, but I also didn’t excessively eat. I would say throw 600 in for him to begin with and see where that gets you… that’s what I did last semester. When he needs more (and he will) you’ll better be able to figure out what his actual needs are for the remainder of the semester and the year.</p>

<p>Luvsgelato mentions some things that are a little outdated as of this June. There used to be 3 different accounts to put money into for Wiscard. Campus Cash, Union Meal Plan, and Dining. As of June, these three plans have been merged into one, and the requisite discounts will be applied based on where the student is dining/what the student’s status is. (if you’d like more info on this, I can find the article).</p>

<p>Red Card… meh. I don’t know a single person who has one. A lot of it is just stuff you can get with cash and that most students pay for themselves. I don’t expect my mother to pay for my galavants around state street or my transportation home if I don’t feel like taking the bus. </p>

<p>Let me know if you have any more questions about this specifically or anything else!</p>

4

<p>Parent of another male – when my son lived in southeast freshman year, I would say the official estimate was low but not by too much. At that point, he wasn’t spending a small fortune on pizza and beer – that happened sophomore year when he lived in an apartment but never actually prepared food there. Freshman year, it was maybe a few hundred $ over the official estimate for food, though he didn’t really eat breakfast much, just kept power bars and juice in the room to grab on his way out the door. Lunch and dinner were social at Gordon’s with friends.</p>

<p>The challenge was sophomore year, when he had a kitchen in an apartment but never used it. He was full pay (unsubsidized) at Gordon’s where he still met a lot of friends for dinner. He also ordered in a lot, so his Red Card was used for that. I loaded his Wisc Card and his Red card with about $500 each, and went from there. </p>

<p>Bottom line, depending on his class schedule as a freshman, he may not be sitting in the dining hall eating a full breakfast. I think all rooms come with a mini fridge so he may find that keeping milk, juice, yogurt, granola bars, and some cereal in the room is all he needs for breakfast. The subsidy for Gordon’s and other dining halls for on-campus students is pretty substantial, as I recall his meals being pretty cheap when I checked his account freshman year and then saw a jump when he ate the same meals a year later as an off campus student. </p>

<p>Good luck to you and your freshman, my son has had an incredible experience and education. </p>

5

<p>Both of my kids spent less than that $1,200 average/year while living in the dorms; partly because I told them that they had to load their own money onto the Wiscard, but also because we live less than 10 miles from campus so we’d bring them things like fruit, granola bars, nuts, cheese sticks, yogurt, baby carrots, gallons of milk, etc. every week or two on our way to/from work.</p>

<p>If your son is near Fresh Market - he can buy those types of items there. They also offer delivery of online orders for a flat $5.95 charge (Red Card or others) - he could order with people on his floor if they are interested in saving on that delivery charge.</p>

<p>Some students have two mini-fridges in their dorm room - one student brings his own. More room for store-bought food.</p>

6

<p>Thanks for all the replies. I’m getting a better picture now, very helpful. It’s like I guessed. It costs more than $1,200 for a big eater, but much of that extra cost is in groceries and/or eating out off-campus. Those costs have to be added in when I’m determining approximate total costs .</p>

<p>We’re less than 5 miles from campus so he can come home and eat, or borrow the car to shop, or get food delivered by us easily. But somebody has to pay for the groceries. He’s a HS senior and at this point we’re trying to compare the actual costs of attending various schools.</p>

<p>He has never taken food or drink into his bedroom ever, though it isn’t a family rule and his sister has her desk and bedside table piled with empty glasses and bowls. I imagine the thought of having empty food containers around his room and washing dishes in his sink will not be a happy one for him. It’s just the sort of thing that would tilt him towards living at home. He would much rather have one price all-you-can-eat dining, but it is what it is. We would have purchased a plan like that for him even after freshman year when off campus as well if they had it.</p>

<p>D is at another school, moving out of dorm into an on-campus apt this year. Not required to have meal plan in the apt., but still we’re getting the 2-meal a day plan for her. She’ll do simple breakfast in the apt as it’s so much more efficient than negotiating dining hall when rushed in early morning. </p>

7

<p>No sink in dorm rooms, but there are kitchens in some dorms (like Chad) on each floor and also a place to leave your dining hall trays and dishes.</p>

8

<p>If you are comparing various costs – I would say that, from what we have seen, UW room and board is much more affordable than a lot of privates we know. A family can certainly keep it under $10,000 at UW but that number seems to be well over $12,000 at a bunch of places. UW charges different fees for different kinds of residence hall rooms, and allows students to purchase food “a la carte” at a subsidized rate for on-campus students. In contrast, a number of other schools we looked at did not distinguish between the room cost for a new, deluxe air conditioned double vs. a cinder block wall, no A/C double, and only has block meal plans, with specific numbers of meals – that removes an element of control from a family’s budgeting, or at least takes away the ability to economize by making different choices. </p>

9

<p>If you don’t have easy access to a sink to wash dishes, how can you do your own meals in the dorm rooms? Do people carry the dishes down the halls to some community bathroom or to the kitchen to wash? Or use disposable paper plates and bowls? Or take university dishes and then leave them in the hall for dining staff to collect and wash? I know I sound dumb, sorry.</p>

10

<p>Mug and bowl and utensils used for cereal, bagel, yogurt - just walk down the hall and wash and rinse them in the kitchen. Bread and meat or PBJ on bread for lunch and packed into a zip lock to go. Paper plates, paper towels, clorox wipes, plastic spoons, a microwave are useful too. The dorm fridge also has a freezer compartment.</p>

11

<p>At least mine didn’t really do “meals” in the room so much as grab and go breakfast and night time popcorn in the microwave. They kept plastic cups and plates in the room, and rinsed them out in the bathroom. There was also a trash room on each floor which had space where the kids left plates, silverware and glass ware they had snitched from dining hall. Was never sure how all that worked, but wasn’t going to worry about it . . . . </p>

12

<p>Hi there, current UW Student, going into my 4th year in the dorms. I don’t eat breakfast so I can’t help you there, but a usually lunch for me was $4 and dinner $5-6. You can always add money to your wiscard later on, and most students do that if they run low. Res Hall desk staff can add money, or it’s done online.</p>

<p>On Ala Carte - I love it, if I only want to get a salad, I only pay like $1 for it, If i want to eat all of the things, I can do that too. I don’t have to worry about not eating the full amount like people at campus who have buffet style meals do. We’re also free to take anything to-go, which means you grab something and save it for later if you decide you’re full. Servings are usually quite good. A 6 inch sub with a side is 2.60ish cents, It’s a dollar more for a 12 inch but there’s so much stuff on the sandwich you don’t usually see that ordered. Overall dining hall setup is pretty dang nice, and there’s plenty of choices there. </p>

13

<p>I usually spent 4-5 dollars per meal, for dinner most days, lunch once in a while, and breakfast almost never. I ate breakfast in my room since I didn’t want to spend the extra minutes to go to the dining hall. Lunch in my room most of the time too, if I could get back to my room and wasn’t eating with other people. I don’t mind eating similar foods every day, and it was cheaper to buy from the grocery store (usually just went to the fresh market once a week after class and took the bus back to lakeshore dorms). I brought a mini fridge so we each had our own. Plus I got a free meal probably once a week from clubs.</p>

<p>Things I would get a lot were subs, pasta, salads, soup with the bread bowl when I was at Liz Waters, and taco salads/rice bowls/burritos from Carson’s. Liz and Carson’s have remodeled since then so I don’t know if they still sell that. I got a salad basically every day, since you could get a bowl of meat and vegetables for cheap, and with a sub or bowl of pasta it’s plenty of food for not much money. Salads and other things in a bowl are by weight so fruit is extremely expensive, it was cheaper at the store. Milk used to be right around $2 for a half gallon, and very convenient to buy. Ice cream was cheap too, with huge portions especially if you knew the server. If they still sell waffles and granola at the dining hall, you can buy some granola for maybe 50 cents then go to the waffle stand and put whipped cream and the strawberry toppings on it for free, it makes a cheap treat.</p>

<p>The dorm kitchens have sinks to wash dishes in, and the bathroom sinks work if the kitchen is being used. Since you can bring your tray back to your room to eat, many people use the dishes and plates from the dining halls. Sometimes they got returned, sometimes people furnished their apartments with them (especially the silverware), or used the trays for sledding and broke them. There’s a spot to put the dishes in the trash room and then they are taken back to the dining hall. There is also a communal fridge in the kitchen, which seemed to be full of forgotten food. My dorm kitchen was dirty and hardly used, but a newer dorm would have a nicer one.</p>

14

<p>Thanks everyone. This is very enlightening. I’m starting to see some of the possible advantages of a system like UW’s. </p>

<p>So if a student is not in the dorm and eats in a dining hall, does he pay a higher price than do residents? How much more, on average? 50%? Double?</p>

<p>I thought I remembered reading in the Cap Times some time back that UW dining was going to discontinue the trays because of the losses to sledding. Did that actually happen? And if so, how do people carry their food? </p>

15

<p>In the past a 60% figure was quoted. Not sure if it was a less than or more than one, however. Easy to check out the website.</p>

<p>Eons ago trays were not allowed out of dining places and a snack bar job was to collect them from the hill next to Liz (Waters). Back then they had a la carte dining but with $10 cards you used (computer systems not as sophisticated back then) and you had to buy one of three numbers of cards. Buying and selling of those went on near the end of each semester. It is an excellent system- you are not penalized for missing meals, required to eat at certain times, light eaters don’t subsidize heavy eaters, they work in more than dining halls- ie other Res Halls food service places.</p>

<p>You can eat with your Res Halls food service account at any of their facilities and friends who don’t live in the dorms can eat with you and pay cash.</p>