[Fall 2018] New and Improved Meal Scam Comparator™

Hey everyone! If you've been on this sub before you've probably seen this amazing spreadsheet created by u/henryharp which gives a detailed cost breakdown of the meal plans and basically concludes you should almost never get a meal plan.

This spreadsheet is amazing and has probably saved dozens of people here thousands of dollars! The sheet inspired me to expand it to add a few new sections which give more nuance to the conclusion (it's not as bad as it seems), as well as fix up the formatting a little bit and update the prices for this upcoming fall.

Without further ado, here is the spreadsheet!

The main sheet, which shows the cost per meal of each plan, the \"savings\" (loss) when you spend meals at a given period, and the savings/loss when you spend meals at C3/governors/goodyear. (Dark red header indicates yearly plan instead of semesterly plan)

Some example breakdowns of various meal expenditures by day and week. In the last table you can see using your meals at a mix of C3 and non-C3 (as most people probably do not exclusively eat at C3). Note the red background means you cannot actually spend this many meals in a week at that plan; it is included for comparisons' sake.

Some notes (all instances of C3 can be replaced with Goodyear and Governor's):

• The previous sheet focused on spending meals at somewhere that's not a dining hall, where it is worth less. This one tries to be more fair to the plans by incorporating spending some meals at C3.
• The weekly breakdown tables are shortened to make the table smaller. Breakfast, bRunch, Lunch, Dinner, late Night. 5x D means spending 5 dinner meals per week. 2x2 D means double swiping dinner twice a week.
• If you want to interact with the spreadsheet, make a copy to your Drive. You can edit the meal conversion rates and the dining hall rates on the right-hand side. You can also put in your own formulas for the breakdowns based on how you (plan to) spend your meals. See if you can come up with an interesting combo that saves money!
• The last row of the weekly breakdowns are what I call PANIC MODE -- you find yourself at the end of the semester with 100 meals leftover! Turns out you can spend up to 52 meals per week (2 meals per period)! Even if you spend most optimally at C3, even on the Any 19 plan, you still lose $25.12. You can lose up to $227.80 this way!

Conclusions:

• As easily seen in the tables, it is better to spend your meals in a dining hall when possible.
• If you are not spending a meal in a dining hall, you will always lose money (compared to using dining dollars) unless you are on the Any 19 plan and use it on Brunch/Lunch/Dinner, and even then, this is assuming you use the meal to its full potential (i.e. if you spend less than $8.80 you are still losing money).
• If you are spending a meal in a dining hall, on all plans except the Block 100 it is cheaper to use a meal than dining dollars for Dinner, although in most cases it is not cheaper by much. Interestingly, it is also cheaper to use a meal for Brunch on the Any 19 and Block 260 plans. It is never cheaper for Breakfast.
• As seen in the daily breakdowns, if you never eat at C3, it is only cheaper on a day-to-day basis by (for example) eating lunch/brunch and dinner.
• The weekly breakdowns are more interesting and realistic -- if you never eat at C3, you can save money on the Any 19 by, for example, eating lunch and dinner 5 times a week and getting brunch and dinner 2 times a week; or by getting dinner 5 times a week and double swiping 2 times a week (double order of sesame chicken anyone? 😋). In all other cases, you lose money; in many cases, substantially so!
• The mixed weekly breakdowns are even more realistic -- many people will have some combination of C3 and student union food, for example. Here we can see that the Any 19 is actually a pretty good deal; the Block 260 holds up, and even the Block 160 can be slightly cheaper if you don't mind double swiping dinner 7 days a week!
• If you are a dorming freshman, get the plan that fits how much you eat. If you don't eat a lot, stick with the 14. If you are worried about running out, try the 19.
• If you are not, you should almost certainly stick with dining dollars! If you plan your meal usage carefully, the Any 19, Block 260, or even Block 160 might be worth it, but make sure you will actually use your meals! I have seen far too many people who spend their $10 meal credits on $2 fries Friday nights because they got too many meals. Don't waste money! That being said, the lower meal plans, despite their awful value, do have some potential: it is nice knowing you have a guaranteed bank of meals you can use to eat, and if you are lucky with scholarships you can get some nice meals for "free".

Random other tid bits:

• If you're an RA, you should have a discount on the meal plans. I would love to hear more details if someone wants to share! I believe somewhere I heard it's like 50% off? Wild!
• If you work for CDS, you get 1 free meal every day you work. At least last semester, this was worth entry to dining hall or $9 elsewhere (with some restrictions). If you plan to work for CDS you should consider this when picking a meal plan.
• If you plan to cook, be sure to factor that in as well.

Huge shoutout again to u/henryharp for creating this wonderful sheet! If it wasn't for the sheet I probably would have mistakenly gotten the Block 200 last year. I would love to hear your feedback! If you have any comments, concerns, questions, notice any mistakes, or anything else, please let me know!

Oh and add me on the Discord -- Tree#1019! :)