I am trying to decide if the meal plan is worth it for my son…I would love some insight…but I am not understanding why they have two types of bucks. Thanks
I too have no clue as to why there are 2 different types. It appears that they are the same except for 2 things-
- Flex bucks can only be acquired via a meal plan, and garnet bucks don’t require a meal plan
- Flex bucks only roll over if you have a meal plan for the next semester, while garnet bucks roll over until graduation
A meal plan is absolutely not worth it if you don’t have to buy one. You have to use almost all of the meals on the plan to even make it remotely worth it- which means eating at the campus dining halls or using one of the $6 equivalent meals at Subway/Chick-Fil-A/etc only… and the meals you can use at the non-dining hall locations (Subway, Chick-Fil-A, and the like) are awful choices because it’s limited to a $6 value. If you don’t have to buy a meal plan, you’re much better off buying Garnet Bucks for your kid or just giving them money to eat wherever or however they want.
FlexBucks are included with meal plans. I believe all meal plans this year include $150. You can run through $150 FlexBucks like it’s nothing if you’re eating somewhere other than the 2 dining halls. FlexBucks expire at the end of the year, but can roll over from Fall to Spring.
Garnet Bucks can be purchased in addition to meal plans, and if you don’t have to purchase a meal plan you can buy Garnet Bucks in place of a meal plan. FSU Dining likes to have promotions a few weeks into each semester offering bonuses on Garnet Bucks purchases, so you can sometimes get a decent bonus if you buy $300 or so Garnet Bucks. They can be used like FlexBucks, but roll over until you graduate if you have any remaining at the end of the year.
My personal opinion is to avoid meal plans at all costs. The food is not that great, the per-meal prices aren’t that bad (especially if you eat before about 4:30pm when everything switches over to the Dinner prices vs. Lunch), and the only reason they’re even tolerable is because they’ve added the option of using a meal plan for a meal at the on-campus restaurants… except that the limit is $6 so you’re limited to specific 6" subs at Subway or one of like 2 options at Chick-Fil-A.
Keep in mind too that if you get a meal plan for Fall, you have to get one in Spring, so if your kid doesn’t like it, too bad, you’re still on the hook for another ~$1900+. You can get one in Spring without having one in Fall, so if you try Fall without one and realize it’s just easier to have one, you can sign up for one for Spring semester.
Once you know where your kid is living for the year, you will know whether you have to have a meal plan or not. If you do have to buy one, just get prepared to overpay for it. If you don’t need one, consider yourself blessed or lucky or whatever, and don’t buy one. There are VERY few instances where it’s actually a money-saving maneuver.
My son is likely to get into Wildwood or one of the other suite styles that do not require a meal plan. So your recommendation is to pre-load their FSU card with say $1000 in garnet bucks to see how they spend for food, and then evaluate if it is worth the meal plan in the Spring? I assume $1000 won’t be enough for the semester, but seems a reasonable start.
@Pascal that was so helpful!!! @Newtownunit my son is likely to also be in Wildwood. I did here during accepted student day that like Pascal said…they offer bonus Garnet bucks throughout the semester…so I will buy $500.00 at the beginning of the semester…by the second week they will have a promotion and I will buy more 
Thanks for all the input!
I’ll wait for the promotion. Good advice. thanks.
So for whatever reason I still get Seminole Dining’s emails (thought I unsubscribed years ago). I got their email today laying out the new plans…
I forgot that to be able to use meal plans at places on campus to substitute for the dining halls (and it’s only 8 different places- if your kid likes Miso in the Union (sushi!), they’re out of luck there!) it’s an additional $100 a semester. Wow.
Yeah, my advice would be to buy even just a couple hundred bucks of Garnet Bucks at the start of the semester. Just make sure that your kids know that they are stored on the FSU ID card and they will probably have to say Garnet Bucks not FlexBucks at places or else they’ll probably get told the balance is $0 if they don’t have a meal plan.
Alternatively, and of course this comes with some difficulties in tracking your kid’s usage of funds for money and money alone, you could give them a reloadable credit card that you put money on whenever your kid needs it. You could also just put money in their bank account and they could use their card that way, and not have to juggle whether their food card has money on it or not vs. their bank account.
The first semester you and your kids will really be finding out how much they like the food on campus. The down side is that Garnet Bucks are only usable on campus, so if your kid likes the restaurants around campus they won’t be able to go out without spending other funds. Of course though Garnet Bucks are a MUCH better idea than a meal plan unless for some reason your kid is eating enough to justify one of them.
The unlimited meal plan is $1999 per semester. Add in the VIP package and it’s $2098. Your kid’s only going to be on campus a little under 4 months (I believe the FSU standard is 115 days). At $2098, that’s $524.50 a month for 4 months. This past year I ate out almost every night and didn’t spend $524.50 a month on food. I usually spent somewhere around $90-100 a week.
Not to beat a dead horse… and I may have missed this in the info above - but here are `my questions. As I understand FSU bucks (not garnet or flex - just pure “load cash on my FSU card/ID”) can be used for anything, right? That means FSU bucks can be used for laundry, printing, dining food, on campus restaurant food, etc., right? and FSU buck roll over, right? (when I say right? I am really asking if I understand correctly!). My D is a very picky eater… so I am thinking of doing lowest meal plan (if required by dorm placement) or if no plan required, just loading up her FSU bucks card. If I understand correctly, the FSU bucks can be used at any dining establishment (and for many things other than food) and the dollars never expire. So what is the downside?
Yes, the FSUCard’s FSUCash can be loaded to be used for laundry, printing, and food on campus. I think the only way you can’t use FSUCash is to pay your bills such as tuition or housing.
There really isn’t much downside to using it vs. GarnetBucks or depositing money in your daughter’s bank account. If you go that route your daughter will probably have to remember to tell wherever she eats to charge the FSUCash balance, or else she might be told there isn’t any money on there when there is (by default, it seems Aramark’s on-campus places are trained to swipe FlexBucks because that’s the most popular).
There really aren’t too many down sides to using FSUCash instead. The biggest one I can think of is that carrying a large cash balance on the card can be a risk, if she ever loses her ID, since it can take a couple days to transfer everything over to the new card, so she might be without that money for a couple days. That’s really the biggest risk.
I have yet to hear anyone state that they were happy with a meal plan. It seems like it’s only a good deal if you eat every meal you can, which is not realistic for most folks.
When I was at Preview Day I met up with a friend’s son and he loved the VIP meal plan. From his perspective he never had to give a thought to where to eat and how to get food. That gave him a great deal of comfort. During orientation I ate at the Suwannee and Fresh Foods dining halls. They were pretty good. From where I sit, my son eats an unbelievable amount of food when he’s in training so eating every single meal is very likely for him.
It sounds like it may be a good deal for him.
Keep in mind too, it isn’t necessarily how much someone eats, but when they eat. During the weekends, Suwannee and Fresh close by 7:30pm, and then don’t open until 10:30am. So unless your kid is eating their 3 meals during that small 9 hour window (and really, who does?), you’re not going to be getting the most of the meal plan.
After 7:30pm on Friday or Saturday (and I believe Sunday, though they may be open till 10pm then), your kid is limited to Chili’s or Denny’s for on-campus food- and those require VIP swipes or FlexBucks.
That’s part of why the meal plans aren’t that great of the deal: sure, you have 7:30am to 10:30pm some nights to get food, but on the weekends and during holidays, the hours of most places absolutely suck. Aramark doesn’t really care though (see: Denny’s All-Nighter not being 24 hours for most of its history) and only care about making a buck. The less your kid uses his mealplan, the more free money they get.
That’s why I recommend going the Garnet Bucks, FSU Cash, or just straight up cash option. Your kid isn’t limited to the paltry on-campus options that are available during their late-night study sessions or on the weekends.
I know this post is getting old and you’ve likely already made your decision, but I wanted to throw in my experience in case anyone else reads this. I had a meal plan my freshman year and hated it. By the end of fall semester, you get really sick of the food. The quality declines sharply when the school isn’t showing off to parents. I did anything I could to avoid Suwannee. It’s hard to get fresh fruit and vegetables. Lines can be very long. They run out of things. There are limited options. I would often hit the period where they were between lunch and dinner and my only options were pizza or salad. The hours are also very restrictive. If you have to get a meal plan because of your dorm, get the cheapest one and make up the rest with cash, not even garnet bucks. You don’t get a discount with garnet bucks at campus restaurants except dining halls.
But were you then happy eating at the other campus spots? My son got into DeGraff, so we don’t have to do a meal plan.
The other campus dining options aren’t bad, but they suffer from the same issues that the dining halls have: poor hours (except for Denny’s, if Aramark actually keeps it running 24 hours), and after a while you just don’t want to go to a certain place for the 100th time, if that’s where you can eat.
Meal plans aren’t required to dine at any of those locations, and having one means you’re limited to VIP options (if you pay for that), your FlexBucks balance, or cash. If your kid has a meal plan, the first two are pretty limiting on what they can get.
Plus, if you get a meal plan for Fall, you have to buy one for Spring, whether you want to or not. You can always pay for one later in the semester (and it’s pro-rated), if you and your kid feel like it’s the best idea.
I wanted to offer our experience on this…
My son started this year attending Summer C semester. At orientation, he was very concerned about the dining halls and the kind of food they offered. He is very health-conscious (enjoys working out and eating healthy most of the time) and was convinced he would hate the meal plan. However, we purchased a meal plan with the VIP option and he really likes it. His opinion now is that there are healthy options in the dining hall every day, he just has to be strong-willed enough to pass by the pizza and burgers to get to the more healthy foods. I think it has been a great experience for him to prioritize healthy eating and choose wisely in the dining hall. He also loves the ability to use one meal-swipe per day at one of the on-campus restaurants and regularly gets something healthy from Pollo Tropical, Rising Roll, Freshens etc which the VIP option allows. He also appreciates the ability to use the $150 flexbucks that came with the meal plan to grab an extra smoothie etc. during the day. We also loaded a plastic container with dry oatmeal packets, Cliff bars, Nutragrain bars, trail mix, mixed nuts etc to keep in his room which he can snack on. He has been eating the oatmeal for breakfast regularly or sometimes just grabs a Cliff bar on his way out the door to class in the morning.
If you are in a dorm that does not require a meal plan and trying to save a little money, I would suggest loading up on dry goods and simply purchasing Garnet Bucks. $500 should get you just over 50 meals in the dining hall, but used wisely they can be stretched a little further by getting a sandwich at Subway or a small meal at Pollo Tropical for example. You can always add more Garnet Bucks when it starts to run low. Keep in mind that Garnet Bucks won’t roll over so purchase in small quantities when refilling.
If you are in a dorm that does require a meal plan, I really recommend spending the extra $90 on the VIP option. It is well worth it for the added variety/options that come with being able to use one meal-swipe per day at an on-campus restaurant.
My son got into Wildwood…he is definitely not taking a dining plan 1st semester…Thank you for all the advice!! It’s really not about the money for us it was about the options and usage…thanks @DeAtramentis your input was informative!