<p>One of the benefits of going to summer was that I learned that a big meal plan was not always the best thing. My friends and I got to the point where fresh food and suwannee were our mortal enemies.</p>
<p>So I really wanted to know what other things I could do, based on the seminole dining website my only alternative to a meal plan would be garnet bucks but they don't go into detail about how they can be used and how much the meals cost through garnet bucks.</p>
<p>Also does anyone know how much it cost to eat at suwannee or fresh food if your paying with cash or fsucard?</p>
<p>If you are going to be in an east-side dorm that requires a meal plan I suggest you buy the cheapest plan there is, which was about $999 last year. With that plan you get a certain number of meals and have some flexibility to eat elsewhere.</p>
<p>We ended up getting a plan with 15 meals and $200 in flex bucks from UCF. We though long and hard about the 10 meal plan but had a couple of considerations going in. I think if you stay the weekends you probably want more meals, also flex bucks at the non cafeteria places can go fairly quickly. That is what bump us up from 10-15. It was $180 difference and cheap insurance for the starving teenager who spent all her flex bucks and is out of punches for the week.</p>
<p>I think the planning assumption they give at UCF is a range of $5-6 cost per meal.</p>
<p>I don't know what the actual cost is for each meal at the dining halls, but I did notice that the meal plans seem to be very expensive. Although we did not have to purchase a meal plan since our son will be in Degraff, we wanted him to have a plan in the beginning so he did not have to think about meals. We went with the 90 meals plus 50 flex bucks plan. If you work out the cost per meal with the 90 meals plan, the $1000+ fee comes to nearly $11.00 per meal.</p>
<p>If you go with the most economical plan, the unlimited membership, it works out to about $3-$4 per meal if you eat three meals a day, everyday, in one of the two dining halls. If you have late classes, sleep late and skip breakfast, or if you don't eat at the dining halls, you're averaging more than $3-$4 per meal for the unlimited plan.</p>
<p>More than likely my son will find even 90 meals in the dining halls too restrictive. I know that eventually he will just pay cash or garnet bucks wherever he wants to eat. But since this is his first year at FSU, we got him a meal plan so he doesn't have to worry about where his food comes from.</p>
<p>btysmom, i'm in degraff also. My main issue with getting a meal plan was the fact that degraff is a bit far away from suwannee and fresh food and knowing myself, I barely ever get out of bed early enoguh to go to breakfast at suwanne. For summer I usually ate 1-2 meals, with snacks in between, And I think if you go with the 90 meals your getting ripped off because I'm almost positive that dinner at suwannee cost $8.50, ofcourse that was during summer term.</p>
<p>Perhaps think of how many prepared meals you want per day. If you cannot make it in time for breakfast, don't add that meal into your per day meal requirements.</p>
<p>We found that the 90 meal plan allowed a minimum amount to be spent on the required meal plan, yet gave flexibility for alternatives, which could vary with the mood of the student.</p>