<p>Hey guys, just wondering what kind of meal plans (if any) are you getting and why? All the options they give on the website seem a little tricky to me, either to make you overspend or make you starve lol
Any middle ground (i.e. good combination of meal plan with flex money, etc)?
Anyone with experience is so welcome to reply too please :)</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I’m doing the 120 meals/semester with $200 flex. I did pretty well with the 110 meals/semester last year, so 120 seemed like the best bet this time around. Nice to know I definitely won’t starve, lol!</p>
<p>Get the smallest block plan available (120) and use dining flex dollars for the rest of your meals. $200 may be a bit light…I’d start with $300 and see how long that lasts. Dining flex dollars will carry over to the second semester, meals don’t.</p>
<p>This is the best option available; you’ll have far too many meals with other plans unless you KNOW you will eat breakfast EVERY day…besides, there are a lot of free meals the first few weeks of school during both rush and other organizations’ recruiting activities.</p>
<p>Yes, do 120 and start with $300 flex because it carries over to the Spring semester. I’ve always done $300 in the past, and that works out well. I have a sibling at UNC too, so I get to “borrow” some of their flex/meals, hence the downgrade this semester. ; )</p>
<p>Fewest meals possible, and honestly flex amounts don’t matter too much. You can always add to flex up to a month left in the semester I think.</p>
<p>Hey thanks so much everyone! There seems to be a general agreement then on the “fewest meals possible” idea, since 120 is the fewest block meal (around 1 meal per day in the semester). A friend told me I should get just the flex money and no meal plans, but I’m not sure about that, I guess I’ll have to do more calculations to see whether the meal plans do save some money or what, but I’m guessing that they must save something.</p>
<p>You can’t get flex without getting a meal plan, but expense money works essentially the same way as flex (tax free for food), but you can use it for more than just food (vending machines and laundry).</p>
<p>How many different places are there to use the flex? I know there’s Chick-Fil-A and whatnot, but I wouldn’t think people would want to eat there so much that they’d only get the meal plan with one meal a day. This confuses me. </p>
<p>I went ahead and just got the unlimited, but I have early morning classes, so I know I’ll probably be wanting three meals a day, so that works for me.</p>
<p>Say one meal in the dining hall, one on flex, and one either in your room or on Franklin.</p>
<p>As far as where you can use Flex, there is all the stuff in the bottom of Lenoir, Alpine in the Student Union, the Blue Ram Cafe in the bottom of the Campus Y, Subway in the bottom of ram’s head, the Global Cup Cafe or something like that in the Global Education Center, and the Beach Cafeteria and another place in the med-school/school of public health area. Might be places in the Law School in Business school as well.</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>One note - I believe that Flex dollars are “use it or lose it” … so even though the flex money carries over from fall to spring semester, it is gone come end of school year in May. I believe you can cash out your expense dollars left, but once put in flex, it is useit or lose it.</p>
<p>So what can I buy using my expense account vs. the flex account? why are there two different accounts? And do you think it is wise for me to link my Wachovia student checking account to my UNC One Card, even if I won’t be leaving campus much at all during the year? :)</p>
<p>You just need to be careful with second semester flex dollars…add to them in smaller increments.</p>
<p>If I understand it all … flex is for food only, and at the places you can use it or most of them - it’s tax free. Expense can also be used for food, but you pay the taxes. Expense is for laundry, copies, etc. When you swipe your card, it reportedly asks you which account to take it from. There are food places on campus and I believe some off campus you can use flex.</p>
<p>Expense money carries over year to year, but flex only carries over Fall to Spring semesters. Thus you lose any money you still have left in flex after the semester ends in May. The Wachovia thing is really handy. When you pay for things, the cashier will ask you One Card, debit, or credit? I always just say “it’s flex” so I know they’ll take it from there. I think any time I bought coffee from the Daily Grind or the little food store in Student Stores I had to pay with expense. I don’t know anywhere off campus where you can use flex. You have to have an off-campus meal plan to do that. MAKE SURE you have a little bit of money on expense, otherwise you can’t do laundry. I had to let several girls on my hall borrow my One Card last year because they hadn’t figured out the expense-laundry thing. It is pretty boggling, ha ha!</p>
<p>Where do you go to set up the expense?</p>
<p>I think here: [UNC</a> One Card Office Home Page](<a href=“http://www.onecard.unc.edu%5DUNC”>http://www.onecard.unc.edu)
:)</p>
<p>I think here: [UNC</a> One Card Office Home Page](<a href=“http://www.onecard.unc.edu%5DUNC”>http://www.onecard.unc.edu)
:)</p>
<p>Ooo. I see. Thanks!</p>
<p>sorry about the double post! :)</p>