<p>I just lowered my meal plan from 14 meals to 10 this upcoming Winter Quarter, just before the December 15th deadline and just got an e-mail for around 85 dollars in a refund check. Question is, is this ALL the money I save for a whole quarter? I was hoping it'd be more, as the primary reason why I'm lowering my meal plan is to save money, but if it's only 85 dollars for a whole quarter I think it's sort of a gip imo. So what's the deal?</p>
<p>Well, the difference for housing for a year between a 19 meal plan and a 14 meal plan (assuming you live in a dorm double) is only $326 for the entire year, which would come to slightly over $100 per quarter. Since Fall quarter has more meals (during welcome week) this seems like it’s a pretty reasonable fraction of the difference. I always kept a 19 meal plan myself for this reason (even the difference between a 10 and 19 meal plan isn’t huge for the year).</p>
<p>Yeah the difference between the meal plans aren’t that much:</p>
<p>[Changing</a> Your Meal Plan](<a href=“http://www.housing.ucsb.edu/dining/meal-plan-change.htm]Changing”>http://www.housing.ucsb.edu/dining/meal-plan-change.htm)</p>
<p>They get you by charging some huge initial price for the meals and then making the increments between meals just a bit cheaper.</p>