<p>Soooo im pretty sure I jinxed myself with my last post :-P. I just got an invitation to Bryan Hall today and I am going to accept, so now I HAVE to purchase a meal plan -.-… there goes my Garnet Bucks plan :.-(</p>
<p>I would much rather be living in Bryan Hall in the middle of campus than across the street in Degraff, congratulations! </p>
<p>The food isn’t that bad, just try to vary your choices so you don’t get sick of it so fast.</p>
<p>Nolette,
Wouldn’t garnet bucks go faster since they are being used on real restaurants? I guess if the meal plan is about $8/meal or so, I could spend that much at quiznos or something.
The only potential problem I see with garnet bucks is the inability to get a financial aid deferment on it.</p>
<p>Lkr, I’m not sure if summer meals are the same prices, but this is what I found: </p>
<p>Fall 2011-Spring 2012 per meal cash prices: Breakfast $6.99, Lunch $7.99, Dinner $10.99</p>
<p>I think using GarnetBucks gets you a 50 cent discount on each meal, but they might add sales tax on to those prices. </p>
<p>If you eat a lot at each sitting, then you can get your money’s worth with the “all-you-care-to-eat” meals in Suwannee or Fresh Foods. If you eat at Chili’s or Denny’s then you will also have to leave a tip, so don’t forget to include that in your budget. </p>
<p>You will go through the GarnetBucks pretty fast, but at least you won’t waste any money with expiring meals that you don’t use up. And if you don’t eat on campus as much as you thought you would, you will still have the GarnetBucks to use until your graduate!</p>
<p>From what I recall last year, whenever my friend swiped their credit card to pay for a meal, they were charged the flat $X.99 charge- I think their lunch price is technically $7.43 + tax = $7.99 (tax being 7.5%). The other meals are similar. </p>
<p>I know that when you use Flex (and Garnet, I think) Bucks, you get 50 cents off any meal purchase- it actually can add up. Plus, if you don’t use all your meals, it’s a waste. Might as well just pay out of pocket as you go instead of all at once. </p>
<p>I was debating a meal plan for this year as well, but I decided against it. For the nearly $500 a month that a meal plan costs, if I cook for myself I could eat like a king. Since I know I’m not going to cook every day (or want to), I am going to buy some Garnet Bucks- probably about $300 or so (the down payment for a meal plan) and use them for a while.
That’s almost 30 meals for dinner (or more if you go during lunch), plus FSU seems to always run promos where if you buy $300 or more Garnet Bucks at the start of a semester you get 10% free. I can also use them on campus at Freshens or Chili’s or similar locations.</p>
<p>Just a head’s up: I know everyone’s experience will vary, but a friend and I ate at Denny’s twice this past year. Both times we both ended up sick from the food, which really was disappointing considering that they are the only place open 24/7 (plus, we both really loved the Park Ave Diner that Denny’s replaced).
I will still highly recommend that you at least try everywhere on campus at least once, but just a warning that it happened to the 2 of us.</p>
<p>If you want to get a meal plan and are not sure of how you’re going to be eating, I suggest getting a small meal plan and if that isn’t sufficient, upgrade to a larger meal plan. You can always upgrade to a meal plan that offers more; however, you cannot downgrade to a meal plan that offers less.</p>
<p>Garnet Bucks are actually better than a meal plan in that, assuming you consume the same amount of food offered by the meal plan (i.e. 14 meals a week, etc.) then you will definitely save more money and you will not be bound by the meal plan contract. However, it comes with the added responsibility of budgeting you’re consumption and really monitoring your Garnet Bucks spending habit. You don’t wanna end with a month left of school and no more Garnet Bucks or cash to eat.</p>
<p>Matt, I disagree with you about the 125 block plan being a ripoff, that was what I had this past year and I was lucky enough to lock it in for this coming year as well. They really need to add smaller meal plans; I’m upset that they changed the least meals you can get to 150. In spring semester this year I had over 60 meals of the 125 left over. I’ve been in dorms that require the meal plan and I plan on staying in these dorms. If you are a girl, it’s best to get the smallest meal plan available in my opinion because I don’t think any of my friends used all of their meals. I ended up using a lot of mine to grab a snack in between classes because I don’t usually eat 3 or even 2 meals a day.</p>
<p>Matt I believe was talking purely based off numbers- that in fact, you could have bought all 125 meals separately and saves money, compared to paying for the meal plan.</p>
<p>Crazychels, not to call you out, but that means you only used 65 meals (at most). Those don’t roll over, so it’s like you paid over 20 bucks a meal. I understand if you lived in an East Side residence hall and were FORCED to buy a mealplan, but why renew (unless you are still in an east side hall)?</p>
<p>Even if you used all 125, I seem to remember it coming to over 10 bucks a meal last year.</p>