Meal plans are ubiquitous for underclassmen in colleges that require on-campus living. It wouldn’t look good if the school allowed you to starve to death (or to subsist on questionable meals of ramen noodles). So if you’re a freshman or sophomore living on campus, you may be required to buy a meal plan from your college.
Even if you aren’t required to purchase a meal plan, it can be a decent deal for some college students. If you’d never think to search Pinterest for “microwave cake-in-a-mug recipes,” a meal plan might be for you.
But as helpful as having a meal plan can be, students may also find that they easily blow through the entire plan in a couple days — leaving them strapped for snacks and cash for the rest of the week. So how can you not blow your meal plan this semester? Start by choosing the right plan.
1. Choose the right meal plan.
Typically, meal plans come with a certain number of meals per week, and some also allow you to buy additional points, which you can spend at snack bars and other eateries on campus.
The best way to not blow through your meal plan is to purchase the right plan from the start. Balance is key here. You don’t want to waste cash on a 21-meal-per-week plan if there’s no way you’ll eat three meals a day every day in the cafeteria. But you also don’t want to buy just 10 meals a week only to find that 10 is not enough.
When it comes to choosing a meal plan, you need to figure out your preferences. Do you usually eat a full breakfast, or do you prefer to grab a granola bar on the way to your 8 a.m. class? If it’s the latter, you’ll save a chunk of change by cutting down your meal plan and buying a box of granola bars every week.
If you’re the type of person who needs three square meals a day to even think straight, a larger meal plan might be for you. But even then, if you think you might cook in your dorm room microwave or meet friends for dinner after class, don’t go overboard with the meal plan.
2. Make a plan.
Now that you’ve chosen your ideal meal plan, make a plan for how you’ll use it. You’ll be less likely to blow through your available meals (and snack bar points) if you know ahead of time how you plan to use them.
For instance, say you prefer to eat a big breakfast, but then just snack the rest of the day. Plan to get up in time for breakfast in the cafeteria every morning. Use the money you save by purchasing a smaller meal plan to stock up on healthy snacks that you can eat throughout the day.
You may even want to get out your class schedule and plan your meals around your classes. Maybe you’re so slammed on Tuesdays and Thursdays that leisurely lunches at the cafeteria aren’t even an option. If so, plan other meals for those days, and allocate those meal plan lunches for other days of the week.
3. Go grocery shopping.
For most students, a 21-swipe meal plan is a little much. You probably don’t have the time or inclination to eat at the cafeteria for three meals a day, seven days a week. But if you choose a smaller meal plan, be sure to shop and plan for the meals you don’t eat in the dining hall. Just because your meal plan only allows for 10 meals a week doesn’t mean you should only eat 10 meals a week.
If you don’t have a car, find a buddy who does. Then plan a grocery shopping trip every couple weeks. Load up on healthy fruits and veggies, microwaveable meals and snacks like popcorn and granola bars. If you have a dorm room fridge, store sandwich ingredients for a quick lunch between classes.
What you don’t want to do if you value your figure and your money is to run to the campus snack bar every time you get the munchies. It’ll be much cheaper and healthier to plan your between-campus-meal snacks with a well-timed trip to the grocery store.
4. Tweak as needed.
Honestly, choosing a using a meal plan can be difficult during your first semester of college. You really just don’t know how to schedule your life because everything is all so new. For many freshmen, a larger meal plan is a good idea. At least you won’t starve or spend a fortune dining out.
But as you go through your years at college, you may find that you tweak your meal plan and between-meal snacking plan as your life and schedule changes. So pay attention each semester. Are you running out of meals too quickly? Are you not using as many as you could? Or are you just running into the cafeteria for a single English muffin you could easily (and more cheaply) fix in your dorm room each morning?
Pay attention to all these things, so you can choose and use your meal plan even more wisely next semester.
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How Not to Blow Your College Meal Plan originally appeared on usnews.com
