Use the entirety of your meal plan

To those who know me, it might seem ironic that I’m giving advice on how to wisely use meal… To those who know me, it might seem ironic that I’m giving advice on how to wisely use meal plans. There I was in April doing my biannual finals week hurry-up-and-spend-my-Dining

Dollars-so-my-mom-won’t-kill-me shopping at Market Central’s Quick Stop. My last receipt reminded me of the $257 Dining Dollars left in my account. I loaded my basket with 36 Whatchamacallit bars, four boxes of Cheerios, three bags of Twizzlers and two bags of Bugles, adding prices in my head and scanning the tiny aisles for the remaining $197 worth of groceries I needed.

And I wasn’t alone.

Quick Stop was filled with other students carrying around snack foods in amounts usually only seen at Costco. As I waited to check out, I lamented that with $257, I could have downloaded the entire Three 6 Mafia discography or bought Pirates season tickets.

From my meal plan mismanagement, I learned from my mistakes and can offer decent advice. Meal plans might seem trivial, but with the tuition for Pitt at $12,106 a year, not including room and board, students should maximize every dollar spent on their educations.

It’s crucial to understand how your meal plan works. It wasn’t until halfway through my first semester at Pitt that I realized my Dining Dollars didn’t carry over to the next semester. Pitt provides students information about meal plans in their freshman orientation material, and you should actually read it.

The easiest way to avoid under-using or over-using your meal plan is to understand how they work. All students residing in residence halls are required to purchase one of the offered meal plans. They range from the Ultimate Access Tier at $2,325 to Dining Pass Tiers starting at $1,550. If you’ve purchased one of the Ultimate Access Tiers, you’re able to eat at Market Central or any other University restaurants on campus that accepts meal passes as much as you want throughout the semester.

Ultimate Access Tiers come with few Dining Dollars, meaning that you’re limited to eating almost exclusively where meal plans are accepted and will have to pay out of pocket if you choose to go to Pizza Hut or Burger King.

Make sure you actually eat at places where you can use your meals or Dining Dollars. Oakland might have a wide variety of restaurants, but limit the amount of money you spend on eating out. You’re wasting your money by eating at India Garden every day or buying a coffee at Starbucks. Try to find a balance between the various eateries in Oakland and the University-provided restaurants.

To avoid getting sick of eating the same food every day, vary the places you eat. Pitt offers a wide array of places to buy and eat food, such as Pizza Hut in the William Pitt Union to Einstein Bros. Bagels in Posvar Hall, both of which will allow you to purchase their food with your meal plan, leaving you with cash to spend on more important things.

It wasn’t until halfway through my first semester that I realized there was a variety of decent food at Market Central. Usually I’m an extremely picky eater, staying within a very small comfort zone. Once I branched out, I found that I loved stir-fry and that sushi isn’t all that bad. After all, it is food service, so it’s designed to appeal to as many people as possible.

Now, of course, leaving yourself $200 or so Dining Dollars for the end of the semester means that you get to spend it in creative ways. It’s not uncommon to see students struggling to carry multiple bags filled with three cases of Snickers bars or 28 bottles of Life Water back to their dorms. Your best friend needs lunch? Or, even better, the whole 19th floor of Tower B?

It’s on you today! And while clever spending and generosity are certainly funny at the time, when your first loan payment is due, you’ll be repaying the three cases of Snickers bars, and suddenly it doesn’t seem so funny anymore. Not to mention it is a good way to avoid the dreaded Freshman 15.

As you enter your freshman year at Pitt, make sure you go over your meal plan and understand how to use it. Don’t get too distracted grabbing O fries everyday or splurging on half-price at Mad Mex. While it’s definitely fun to eat out with friends and enjoy Oakland’s variety, make sure it’s only an occasional thing. Meet your friends at Market Central and use those Dining Passes. And if you close your eyes and use your imagination, the sundae bar is just like Dave ‘ Andy’s without the lines.

Hungry? E-mail Dan at dancamarda@gmail.com.