<p>What is a reasonable amount per month without a meal plan? MIT doesn't offer meal plan and DD is not fond of cooking so eat out most of the time.</p>
<p>Still would like to get a feel of what is reasonable and how to bring it up?</p>
<p>MIT doesn’t offer a meal plan? URG! Personally, I wouldn’t care that “she doesn’t like to cook”. Sure she can go out to eat, but it’s not only very costly, but also not always convenient. I mean, we eat for energy. She needs to eat. Sometimes if you wait too long to eat, you may end up eating really unhealthy stuff. In truth, so much going out to eat is rather unhealthy. Even if she had a few days (per week) of back-up, simple meals (cheese+ french bread, and a yogurt? OR a few leaves of romaine + dressing + tuna) isn’t that healthier?</p>
<p>That said, I vote for a weekly amount (7 x ~$15) for dinners with the hope that she’d also get quick, simple choices for lunches. (7 x ~$4) Energy bars for breakfast (7 x ~$3) = ~$175-ish per week? How does that compare to a meal plan?</p>
<p>This varies from place to place. A student with access to even limited cooking facilities – and a supermarket – may spend less than one who doesn’t have such things. </p>
<p>It’s amazing how many colleges don’t have supermarkets within walking distance.</p>
<p>How about asking this question on the MIT board and seeing what students have to say?</p>
<p>How to bring it up can “evolve” when she’s getting something to eat while at home. Or when she’s headed out the door to grab some lunch.</p>
<p>
This seems like a good place to start. From [Meal</a> Plans | MIT Campus Dining](<a href=“Dining | Division of Student Life”>Dining | Division of Student Life) . For our son, who preferred to eat his own cereal for breakfast and had an apartment style room the first year we paid for the smallest meal plan. Now we just reimburse him for a similar amount.</p>
<p>Here’s a link to the CMU meal plan - I’d guess if she’s eating at MIT venues - the costs would be similar: <a href=“http://www.cmu.edu/dining/undergraduate/diningplaninfo_u/meal-plan-agreement-0910.pdf[/url]”>http://www.cmu.edu/dining/undergraduate/diningplaninfo_u/meal-plan-agreement-0910.pdf</a></p>
<p>$20/day for food seems ridiculous, unless there’s a whole lot of entertainment with the food. I think my kids budget about $250/month for food, and a separate entertainment line that includes the possibility of paying extra for meals out, including maybe one nice-ish one. But even if you add that back it doesn’t come to $10/day. They DO cook for themselves.</p>
<p>Does she have a fridge and place to cook?</p>
<p>S2 lives on his own. He does not like to cook, so he does very simple things. I’ve managed to convince him not to eat omelets all the time. Fortunately, he likes salads. He tells me he goes shopping every two weeks and buys around $25-30 each time, for a total of $60-80 per month. He eats out with other students maybe once a week, usually pizza or something similar. S1 who is a more adventurous cook shops every week. His monthly food bill is more along the lines of $100-150. They both make their own lunches.</p>
<p>I give my daughter $200/month for food. She also gets ~$100+/semester of dining dollars for eating at student union or dining room. She does several sports so sometimes with practice it makes more sense to grab something than go back to her apartment and cook. She usually has some $$ left over each month that is hers to do with as she pleases.</p>
<p>My son also dislikes cooking but he chose to live off campus. We give him the same amount that he would be getting if he lived on campus and had the meal plan. With that money he has to budget for rent, utilities, and food. It’s up to him to figure out how to make it work. He makes it work with rotisserie chickens, hot dogs, sausage, raw carrots, bagels, bananas, etc. etc. I doubt that he spends more then $50 a week. A perfect time for a conversation about food would be when you sit down for dinner at night. For our family, that’s the one time we’re all together.</p>
<p>When S lived on campus at MIT last summer, we took him to a Costco in Boston the day we moved him in and loaded him up on cheese, cereal, popcorn, snacks, sliced turkey, soda, etc. He found a small grocery store near Ashdown and got hot dogs, milk, ice cream, etc. as needed. Said he spent $75 on food all summer. Granted, he doesn’t eat much, and his cooking is limited to a microwave. We’d love to get him off his campus meal plan, as it would save $$$, but that would mean moving out of his dorm, where he’s quite happy.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t be subsidizing three restaurant/take-out meals a day.</p>
<p>I expect S2 will go off a meal plan as soon as possible because he loves to cook and is quite good at it. He wants to throw dinner parties while in college.</p>
<p>Does she plan on eating out every meal for the rest of her life?</p>
<p>My parents paid 1/2 of the posted cost of room & board provided by the school.</p>
<p>Frankly, “I don’t like to cook for myself” sounds like a lame excuse for laziness. I chose to live on campus, but I would cooked for myself off campus. If she learns that is ok as a college student, she’ll likely be doing that for life.</p>
<p>limabeans: Yes, I also thought $20/day will be good enough but it seems that overall expenses increase way too much with the weekend entertainment.</p>
<p>
Yes, dorm does provide a full kitchen and Refrigerator. She just not into cooking and will only eat breakfast if possible there.</p>
<p>CountingDown:
That is under nourishment. I won’t mind DD sticking to $75 a week just for food excluding weekend entertainment.</p>
<p>
I’m not sure, she used to enjoy cooking pasta, the only dish she has ever cooked at home. May be her BF will be a good cook and she won’t have to cook anyway.</p>
<p>Didn’t you have a thread on this exact same topic in the fall? You were given a TON of helpful advice. Why not pull that thread back up? IIRC, several posters made very, very good suggestions about how to address this with your d, and several also predicted that the budget/allowance was rather generous and you would be having this conversation!</p>
<p>Here ya go <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/802937-freshmen-budgets-spending-money-3.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/802937-freshmen-budgets-spending-money-3.html</a> You didn’t start that thread, but were an active participant as you addressed this very issue. There were a lot of very helpful posts there.</p>
<p>POIH, I think you missed the part about where we bought him food from Costco when we moved him in. The $75 was in addition to the $150 we spent at Costco. </p>
<p>As for undernourished…yeah, he’s pretty thin. Always has been. He does take vitamins and his doc is OK with his diet. He does do bread, salad and fruit, too. If he goes out to eat, that’s what he generally gets.</p>