<p>I knew this answer at one time but I forget now. What is the cost of eating at a meal plan location and paying with cash?</p>
<p>Trying to decide if lil bro should get the 50 meal plan or not. He’s living off campus and his schedule sets up that he’ll probably only be on campus for lunch. And even then a couple of those days he just has 2 classes back to back with no break in between. </p>
<p>Might be prudent to just pay with cash or dining dollars and not have to worry about wasted meals.</p>
<p>Last year’s prices should be the same for this year and were $6.30 for breakfast/late night, $9.00 for lunch, and $9.45 for dinner, tax included. There was also a promotion for a $5.00 lunch every other Friday (though sadly not offered at Bryant).</p>
<p>NJBama, it is likely that Bama Dining will offer incentives to buy a meal plan after school starts and since it will go on your brother’s account after he confirms his schedule, your family will have a longer time to pay for it.</p>
<p>At $9.00 a lunch, 50 lunches will cost $450; $28 more than a meal plan. Since I wouldn’t normally eat 50 dining hall lunches in a semester, 28 dollars is a small price to pay to not be subject to a contract should I decide to eat 50 lunches on campus each semester.</p>
<p>*At $9.00 a lunch, 50 lunches will cost $450; $28 more than a meal plan. Since I wouldn’t normally eat 50 dining hall lunches in a semester, 28 dollars is a small price to pay to not be subject to a contract should I decide to eat 50 lunches on campus each semester. *</p>
<p>Right…and by not having the meal plan, that same money could go towards retail dining as well.</p>
<p>I think you can eat retail lunch for less than $9.</p>
<p>Hmmmmm, y’all are making me reconsider what to do for D next semester. Maybe I shouldn’t get her the 50 meal plan. If she goes for breakfast at Fresh Foods, she can use either her Dining Dollars or a debit card if she doesn’t have any meals on a plan right?</p>
<p>It doesn’t look like the Thrifty 20 will be offered in the Fall 2011 - at least it is not being shown as an option on the Food Service website. Looks like 50 is the smallest option they offer, unless the 20 is something that comes out mid-semester. Am I missing something?</p>
<p>I don’t think I’ve ever seen the “Thrifty Twenty” on the website. I found out about it when I called to get more meals for my younger son one semester. The 50 meals weren’t enough the semester he had an hour break between 9 am Dif Eq…and 11 am OChem. </p>
<p>It makes sense that it wouldn’t show up now, it’s an “addition” to a meal plan…I don’t think you can ONLY buy the 20.</p>
<p>It may show up later …I’ll send an email and ask about.</p>
<p>I don’t know RobD, I assumed DS would want to go for the 50 plan but he wanted the 90, which would bring him to about the right number of meals he ate on the plan last year. For him, although he definitely will eat his share of “other” food, 6 meals a week (basically once a day) seemed more than reasonable and not too much. That 50 plan is 3 a week, not much.</p>
<p>Ponder, ponder, ponder AL34. D averaged 60 meals/semester last year but that was with forcing herself to go. Since I know she’s going to go heavy on the breakfasts (which are just over $6/each) I’m wondering if she’s better off going all cash plus the mandatory dining dollars.</p>
<p>my DD pretty much eats lunch on campus every day and she is content to do that. with a pretty full schedule, there is not a lot of time for running around during lunchtime hours.</p>
<p>Yeah I think we’ll stay pat and not buy a plan at all. He can use his dining dollars on the days he wants to eat on campus and we won’t have to worry about any wasted meals.</p>
<p>Too bad they don’t offer the students the flexible plan they offer the faculty & staff. Not to mention their prices are much cheaper per meal. I guess they figure they don’t eat as much.</p>
<p>Faculty and staff meal plans don’t include tax. Sadly, even though I’m on UA’s payroll during the school year, I don’t qualify to get a UA staff meal plan. UA could even take the cost for a meal plan out of my paycheck if it wanted to. :)</p>
<p>My younger son will be living off campus this year. </p>
<p>He hasn’t decided yet what he wants. I’m leaning towards no meal plan and just putting $700 into his debit card for food (and some amount for toiletries, TP, etc). That will give him $1000 per semester to buy meal plan meals, retail dining, or grocery store purchases.</p>
<p>he really likes running into the Ferg Food Court./Gorgas library/Lloyd Hall and grabbing a sandwich or something. He doesn’t buy a drink. He keeps water in his backpack. I imagine that he probably spends about $5-6 that way. </p>
<p>Now…my older son…ugh…he spends way too much on food! He just returned from a 5 week research deal. I can’t believe how much he spent at restaurants and grocery stores! Ugh!</p>
<p>lol I feel your pain Mom2ck. I about reached through the phone and choked lil bro when I saw him going through his dining dollars and Bama Cash like it was water. </p>
<p>He complained about eating the same thing all the time with his meal plan but it didn’t seem to bother him spending $18 every Sunday night at Buffalo Phil’s in Lakeside. </p>
<p>But the thing I really had a problem with was he’d buy 2 or 3 sodas a day from the vending machines in his dorm. I told him he could walk his butt to Publix and buy a 12 pack for less than the cost of 4 vending machine sodas. </p>
<p>I can understand hitting up the vending machine when you’re around campus and away from your dorm room. But it was pure laziness and stupidity to continually buy out of them at his dorm when Publix was just a 10 minute walk away.</p>
<p>Now he’s gonna be living off campus and I worry he’ll be eating out every day instead of going grocery shopping and cooking at home. He’ll definitely need to be put on a budget.</p>
<p>*But the thing I really had a problem with was he’d buy 2 or 3 sodas a day from the vending machines in his dorm. I told him he could walk his butt to Publix and buy a 12 pack for less than the cost of 4 vending machine sodas. *</p>
<p>I hear you!!! </p>
<p>When we moved son into his housing this summer, we stocked up on sodas/water/juices for the fridge to prevent some of that.</p>
<p>Has anyone had trouble with mooching suitemates?</p>
<p>This summer was the first time one of my kids had a problem with a moocher. There were 4 kids in a Super Suite on another univeristy’s campus. When I was putting son’s food/drinks into the fridge, one of the boys asked me if the food was for everyone. I was kind of taken aback but didn’t say anything. I just figured the subject would come up later and the boys would decide to pool their purchases or not.</p>
<p>Well, when the 5 weeks were over my son and 2 of the boys were really annoyed with the 4th suitemate. Not once did he ever buy anything for the pantry or fridge…but he routinely ate and drank what was in the kitchen. And, when “group meals” were made, he’d eat without having contributed one darn thing. This kid ignored hints and outright requests to contribute.</p>
<p>These kids were being paid 450 per week, so it’s not like he had no money.</p>
<p>This kid is not poor…drives a very nice car and wore very nice clothes.</p>