<p>At UTSA, while I was a CAP Program student, the school offered meal plans at the Roadrunner Cafe for all students while making it required for students who lived at Laurel and Chap Village apartments on campus.</p>
<p>Iv'e heard that at UT Austin, the meal plan is included in your dorm rent and that each dorm has its own cafe, is this true?</p>
<p>Also, as an off-campus student can I still get a meal plan for UT Austin?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Off campus students cannot get meal plans. There is one meal plan for all on campus students, and you must use it. It is built into your housing payment, and it comes with $1200 Dine-In Dollars that can be used at a limited number of locations on campus, and $300 Bevo Bucks that can be used at fast food places and restaurants and the like. This meal plan usually isn’t enough to last kids through the year unless they’re really lite eaters.</p>
<p>Each dorm does not have its own cafe. There are two large all-you-can-eat food centers–Kinsolving and Jester. Kinsolving has a convenience store, Littlefield has a cafe and San Jacinto has a hybrid cafe/convenience store, and then there are a lot of options at Jester. The other dorms don’t have their own food service.</p>
<p>LoneRanger or anyone - </p>
<p>Wow, the $1200 Dine-In Dollars works out to only 1 breakfast, 7 lunches, and 1 dinner a week. And that’s only if you go to the all-you-can-eat places. The a la carte places will eat up your dollars even quicker. And you say they watch for people sneaking out food for tomorrow’s breakfast or late night snack, huh. Realistically, you need to budget for two or three times that much, right? </p>
<p>How are the convenience store prices? Are they along the lines of Walmart, chain groceries, or inflated convenience store prices?</p>
<p>I think it is not quite that bad; I had calculated last fall that there was nearly enough money for two all you can eat meals a day Mon to Sat and one on Sunday for the year, between the $1200 dine in dollars and the $300 bevo bucks. You have 1500 dollars in dine in dollars and bevo bucks. I was thinking there were about 30 weeks where you were living at school, maybe about fifteen in the fall and fifteen in the spring, although I probably didn’t count finals week or other partial weeks. So I was thinking you had about 50 dollars per week. Meals are say $4, so that about 12.5 meals a week. (Breakfast 3.52, Lunch 3.90, dinner 4.28 if you use your dine in dollars). You need to transfer the Bevo Bucks into dine in dollars if you are going get the reduced residential price for meals, but this is by far the most economical way to eat on campus.
[Division</a> of Housing and Food Service - Food Prices for All You Care to Eat](<a href=“UHD Homepage | University Housing and Dining”>UHD Homepage | University Housing and Dining)</p>
<p>Where you end up running out of money, I think, is not eating in the all you can eat cafeterias and instead eating at, say, the Littlefield Patio Cafe. They accept dine in dollars after 2 - at least they did last year - and the food is delicious but you pay per item, so you would always end up spending more than 3.90 for lunch! Smoothies are a big drain on dine in dollars too. :)</p>
<p>Another issue you might run into is, depending on the scheduling of your classes, a kid that does a time shift, wanting to eat a late lunch and a late dinner and getting out of sync with cafeteria serving hours.</p>
<p>When I was in college, I was necessarily frugal and ate in the schools all-you-can-eat cafeteria 20 meals per week because that was what my meal plan covered. There is such a fun variety of food available on campus that UT - I think most kids do not make themselves stick with the all you can eat venues to save money. </p>
<p>it is very easy to check every week how much you have spent (time and location stamped) in dining dollars and in bevo bucks. There is a rolling display of a student’s last 30 days on line.</p>
<p>i was under the impression that the all-you-can-eat places are not open on weekends (saturday and sunday). is that right?</p>
<p>They are only open for brunch on Sunday. On Saturday, brunch and dinner.</p>
<p>I think.</p>
<p>There are two all you can eat places, Kinsolving and Jester Second Floor (J2).</p>
<p>J2 is open on weekdays for lunch and dinner, but closed on weekends.
Kinsolving is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner weekdays, brunch and dinner on Saturdays, and brunch only on Sundays.</p>
<p>Other places, such as Jester City Limits (not a buffet) are open for more hours.</p>