Why Customizing Your Meal Plan Can Save You Money
In this article, we’ll discuss effective customization tips for budget-friendly college meal plans that bring best value for your money. Why settle for affordable meals when you can enjoy customizable meal plans?
But do colleges allow customization of meal plans in the first place? This is a valid question, considering that colleges cater to hundreds, if not thousands, of hungry students every day. Even the best college dining hall staff will consider it an impossible task to cater to every dietary preference and budget.
The short answer: Yes, some colleges allow students to customize their meal plans. The University of California Davis offers students its Aggie Swipe Plus, a build-your-own-meal-plan. You can buy only a few meals each month if you’re on a budget or buy meals for an entire year if it’s within your means.
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Other notable colleges with customizable meal plans are the University of Southern California, New York University, and Cornell University. Check with your college if you can customize your meal plan, too.
Why do certain colleges offer customizable meal plans? The common reasons are to:
- Meet dietary restrictions, such as vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free.
- Accommodate food allergies and preferences, such as nut allergies and kosher.
- Reduce food waste that, in turn, means increasing food efficiency.
- Encourage more students to subscribe to meal plans based on their budget.
These are also the main reasons why you, a college student, should customize your meal plans.
- Enjoy savings. You can save money by customizing your meal plan with your dietary preferences and habits in mind. For example, if you don’t eat a full breakfast, you can choose a meal plan with fewer meals. The fewer the meals, the lower the cost of a meal plan. There’s also the fact that skipping meals on a meal plan doesn’t reduce its total cost. If you skip a meal, that’s wasting your money. You already paid for the meal, but you didn’t eat it. Plus, the meal you skipped is neither refunded nor rolled over into the next semester.
- Reduce your food waste. Let’s say you feel pressured to eat all your meals since you paid for them in advance. But you likely won’t finish every crumb on your plate, either. Now, you’re wasting both food and money.
- Avoid impulse food buys. With a customized meal plan in place, you’re less likely to make unnecessary food purchases. There’s a strong temptation to make impulse buys, too, with cafes, bars, and vending machines practically everywhere. Without impulse buys, you can stick to your food budget.
The bottom line: Budget-friendly college meal plans are the way to go. Customizing your meal plan will result in more dollars in your pockets. Better yet, you can use these dollars for other essentials, such as books and supplies.
What’s the best way to start? Read on for our step-by-step guide to customizing your college meal plan.
Step 1: Assess your dining habits and needs.
If you want to save money on college meals, take a hard look at your food-related spending habits. Even small food purchases can eat into your budget in a big way. Junk food, Starbucks coffee, and the occasional beer have that effect.
So, start by evaluating your dining needs, habits, and preferences. This is the most challenging step because it demands acceptance of your shortcomings. Once you acknowledge your bad habits, you can start breaking them.
Here are three questions that you must answer as the first step. Be sure to write down your answers so you have a point of reference.
- How often do you eat on campus? If you eat most or all your meals on campus, more meals in a meal plan make sense. But if you spend more time off campus, fewer meals are more cost-efficient.
- What are your dietary restrictions or preferences? Common dietary restrictions or preferences include vegan, vegetarian, kosher, gluten-free, and allergen-free food. But even colleges that accommodate dietary restrictions cannot cover all the bases. For this reason, ask the cafeteria staff about available dietary accommodations. If none meets your needs, go for more dining dollars and less prepared meals. You can spend the dining dollars in restaurants that offer your preferred food.
- What meals do you tend to skip? If you skip meals on a regular basis, you won’t need unlimited meals or three meals a day on your meal plan. Otherwise, you’re wasting food and money. You’ve already paid for the food, but you don’t eat it, so your literal and figurative bread goes to waste.
Here are more questions you must ask yourself to assess your dining preferences.
- Do you like to eat healthy food portions or do you often overeat?
- Do you prefer eating alone or with a group for socialization purposes?
- Do you like to eat balanced meals or prefer processed foods?
- Do you feel satisfied with your eating habits, or do you think that there’s room for improvement?
When you know what you like and dislike, food-wise, it’s easier to find ways to save money. It is of crucial importance because college students spend 20% of their monthly budget on food. According to EDI, college students spend $570 per month, on average, on food.
Step 2: Choose a smaller or more flexible meal plan.
In general, fewer meals means lower costs in a meal plan. But look beyond smaller meal plans, too, and consider flexible meal plans.
Consider a smaller meal plan first.
- Meal plans with fewer meals are the most affordable college dining options. You get fewer meals; you pay fewer dollars because that’s how meal plans work. If you fall into one or two of these categories, then you’re the best fit for a smaller meal plan.
- Skip meals, such as breakfast. You may only eat cereal or coffee and toast prepared in your room.
- Busy with off-campus activities, such as community immersions, internships, or practicum. Off-campus dining is more convenient.
- Prefer off-campus dining because of the cheaper options and wider variety. Be sure to consider off-campus dining costs, nonetheless. You want to avoid spending on off-campus food more than you saved on on-campus meals.
Consider flexible meal plans.
If you want more flexibility in food spending, look for meal plans with meal swipes and dining dollars. Meal swipes refer to the action of swiping your student ID card and getting meals. Depending on your meal plan, you can have unlimited or limited meal swipes per week or semester.
Dining dollars, or flex dollars, are like cash, but you don’t actually pay in cash. Instead, these are like prepaid debit cards that you can use to buy food items. You may want, for example, to enjoy off-campus food or get groceries by using dining dollars.
The flexibility of these cheap college meal plan ideas makes them ideal for students who want more food variety, too. St. Olaf College and Alfred University are a few examples.
Step 3: Explore off-campus dining alternatives.
Colleges spend money not only on the food ingredients for the meals. Other cost components include staff salaries, utilities, and administrative costs. Then, if tuition and fees are frozen, colleges can increase their meal plan prices to recover their costs.
Fortunately, there are effective ways for how to cut meal plan costs.
Cook your meals.
If your college allows basic cooking equipment, take full advantage of it. You can prepare healthy and delectable meals with a microwave oven, a multipot cooker, and an air fryer. However, be sure to check with your college about specific policies. There are many benefits to preparing your meals, too:
- Get money savings than dining out or using meal swipes.
- Have more time for your studies and extracurriculars if you cook ready-to-eat meals in bulk (i.e., weekly meal prep).
- Choose healthy and affordable ingredients (i.e., know what’s in your food).
- Control your portion sizes.
Take advantage of budget-friendly dining options in your local area.
Every college campus has a town or city around it. You should take the time to explore what the local area has to offer, food-wise. Diners, food trucks, and cafes usually have more affordable menus. Local dining establishments also offer student discounts, specials, and happy hours. Meal deals and coupons are also money savers.
Limit dining out so you can stay within your monthly food budget.
If you want to socialize and enjoy delicious food, potlucks are a great option. Look for free community meals and food pantries, too.
Food insecurity is a real struggle among college students. But necessity, being the mother of innovation, can be your motivation to personalize your college meal plan in creative ways.
Step 4: Take Advantage of Campus Discounts and Promotions
Don’t look too far, either. You’ll find many opportunities for college student dining savings on campus:
Look for meal deals.
If necessary, you can be on a mailing list for notifications of these meal deals. You may also consider being friendly with the cafeteria staff. Their knowledge of cost-effective college meals will be useful in your cost-saving endeavors. Be on the lookout for exclusive meal deals for students on meal plans, such as:
- Discounted meals or dishes during certain hours (e.g., near the end of the day)
- Student-only prices
- Special combo offers
- Seasonal promotions (e.g., meal of the week or buy one, get one free offers
- Extra meals or flex dollars for meal bundles
Find and use student discounts.
You’ll also find on-campus student discounts by asking about their availability from these sources:
- Campus dining services office
- University meal plan mobile app and website
- Student unions and organizations, such as clubs and Greek letter societies
- Campus resource center
- Information from fellow students and professors
Attend free food events.
College is filled with events where free food abounds. New student orientation, career fairs, and campus celebrations usually have free food. Check with student-run organizations for their social calendar. Many universities also have free food events. University of California Berkeley has its Calapalooza. Stanford University’s Frosh Week has free food galore. The University of Chicago has its Summer Breeze.
Think of reducing college dining expenses as a group effort, too. Two heads – and pockets – are better than one.
Contribute money and other resources when buying groceries.
Small amounts add up. With your pooled resources, you can buy ingredients in bulk, resulting in more savings. Bulk discounts and coupons are available, too, in large stores. Costco, Sam’s Club, and BJ’s Wholesale Club are great for this purpose.
You and your roommates can assign specific prepping and cooking responsibilities. Then, decide the menu for the week and their quantities. You can cook large meal portions that can last a week and divide them amongst yourselves. You’ll not only save on time but you’ll reduce food waste, too.
Conclusion: Smart Strategies for Smarter Savings
In conclusion, you should consider these clever ways to squeeze more savings to achieve budget-friendly college meal plans.
- Evaluate your dining habits and preferences. Find your wasteful ways that prevent you from saving more money.
- Choose a more flexible or smaller meal plan. Better yet, select a meal plan that combines smaller meal plans and flex dollars.
- Explore budget-friendly off-campus dining alternatives.
- Take full advantage of on-campus and off-campus discounts, sales, and promotions. Attend free food events, too.
- Share your resources and meals with your friends, including roommates.
By taking these actionable steps, you’re one step closer to better financial health. Even a small saving on your food spending is a step in the right direction.