The Necessity of a Meal Plan

*WARNING: This Post is .gif happy.*

I've been talking a lot about finals, scheduling and other such things, but a comment on my first blog post from Niko suggested that I take a different approach. He said:

"I'd like to hear your opinion on how students should attempt to procure food for themselves. Given the option, would you recommend students just get a meal plan, or, if they can afford it, is it worth it to buy groceries and make your own food instead?"

This is a very good idea, so, Niko, I am going to give you my opinion!

I imagine your reaction is something similar to this

 As we are all painfully aware, that piece of paper we're working so hard for is not cheap. Tuition, housing and the meal plan they force most of us to get is a little more expensive than I ever would have thought, but that's the price of an education.

While paying for classes and a place to live is necessary, a lot of us question the necessity of a meal plan while living on campus.

I think of this every time I type the title.

The cost of our trips to the dining hall seem even more ridiculous when you factor in how often we eat at fast food restaurants or buy snacks for the dorm room. It seems feasible that we could just live off of this, does it not?

Well, that really depends. There's a lot of elements that come in to play when you shop for food to live off of instead of just snacks to quell the late night hunger pains that come with those late night TV, er, I mean, homework marathons.

"Yeah..."homework".

Because of these differences, and also what's required to live off your own groceries, there's a lot to consider before you just drop that expensive meal plan. There's a lot that it does for us that we really take for granted.

For starters, I would not recommend ditching the meal plan unless you have your own car. This is for several reasons. While it's possible to tag along on wal-mart runs with friends who are going, it's a lot to ask for them to take you every week or so, especially if you're buying a lot of food. It takes a long time to gather all the stuff you need.

I would also not recommend ditching your meal plan unless you have a well-providing job, or the means to spend (on minimum) a hundred dollars per trip. As someone who lives off of his own grocery list, my trips never seem to be under $150. It's somewhat painful, not going to lie. So, unless you're able and willing to pay for that, I would recommend sticking with the meal plan.

Now, it's true, being able to pick your own food and make your own meals is an incredible, freeing and adult like feeling. However, it's not really what you would expect. I found that I was able to cook for myself about once every two weeks this semester, and even then it was usually only frying something real quick. I ended up eating a lot of sandwiches and throwing away a lot of food that went bad before I had the chance to eat it.

That's the beauty of a dining hall that you don't really realize until it's gone. While the variety starts to wane and you feel like you're eating the same thing every week and it may not be as great as you want it to be, it's a) made fresh for you, b) there's no clean up and c) you have some variety. For these reasons, I would personally recommend staying on the meal plan unless it's absolutely necessary for you to not have it.

However, I would also recommend that, if you enjoy cooking and want to cook for yourself, I would recommend trying to prepare a meal for yourself occasionally. Decide what you want to make and invite a few friends, make a shopping trip to wal-mart for the ingredients and then all cook it together. This is a nice study break and a good way to hang out as well as a way to get out of the dining hall and embrace adulthood.

What'd you think, Niko, and everyone else? Is this clear? Is this good advice? Are there too many .gif's? Let me know!