yg7s7

Just curious. Because at my school they don't eat on campus. Do they go grocery shopping?

vitiatethis

For the whole month I buy 30 frozen food in Trader Joe's for lunch and 30 Japanese food from restaurant for dinner

kryptonsa36

If they don't have a meal plan (some graduate students do), they either go grocery shopping to cook for themselves or raid the spread of free food used to incentivize attendance at ubiquitous campus events.

Oyama

PHD Comics: Mike Slackenerny. Free food. It binds us.

PHD Comics: The Law of Free Food

gthopeful

The grad students don't eat on campus? Even the faculty here usually eat in one of the dining halls.

ticklemepink

Um, basically wherever we find a place to sit. If my apartment was within walking distance, I just went home and made my sandwich the way I liked it- toasted bread with spreads on it.

And free food so we don't starve.

The faculty must have a special dining pass to be able to eat in the dining halls. Grad students can't afford that. Like I said, we just find a bench somewhere or eat in the department lounge.

gthopeful

I don't know, it usually only cost me $7 for a plate of food. It's more like $6 with a meal plan. Then again, I only really eat at lunch and then have like cereal and a banana for dinner.

RacinReaver

Man, that's totally been me in the second comic.

I mostly cook my own meals. Steel-cut oatmeal with a sliced up banana in it, a cup of tea, and a cup of orange juice for breakfast. Sandwich I toast in our breakroom (a toaster oven is totally worth the $20 it costs to have a hot lunch every day) with some goldfish on the side for lunch, and then whatever I feel like making for dinner for dinner. I'll generally scrounge free food for lunch one day a week (sometimes there's enough left over to also provide dinner that night), and eat at the taco truck for lunch one day a week ($3.75). Girlfriend and I will usually go out for dinner once a week or so, but it's usually at pretty inexpensive restaurants (~$23 total after tax & tip).

If I were to eat on campus it would probably cost around $7 a meal. I spend $25 a week on groceries for three meals a day.

LongPrime

When DS was at Toronto, his apartment and campus building was next to the internatiional district. He ate cheaply and often

Now that he has a job but at an university, We lost interest. He's lost some weight but that's attributable to exercise and eating healthy. I imagine he bags a lunch or goes to his home which is just 10 minutes away.

Chandi

I'm an undergrad and I buy groceries and cook for myself and my boyfriend. I don't see why I wouldn't also do so as a grad student. On campus food is likely to cost at least $10 a meal here. If you can cook for yourself I think you're much better off. For example, I usually buy a bag of boneless chicken breasts for maybe $8. Let half of the bag defrost overnight in a marinade, then stick it in the oven right before lunch time. Ready in half an hour without having to actually pay much attention to it, then made some instant mashed potatoes, and it was a complete meal for 3 people (me, my boyfriend, and our friend) for about what it would have cost just 1 of us to eat on campus.
Granted I love cooking and have made lasagna and tiramisu from scratch for parties on multiple occasions, but just getting some beef and making tacos, or making chicken, is really simple and much cheaper than eating off campus.
For times when I can't go home to eat, I usually pack a couple of nutrigrain or cereal bars and just get by on those. Again, much cheaper than having to buy food from a dining hall.

broken_symlink

Speaking of PHD, RacinReaver, I was wondering if you had any info on this, A Comic Strip That Skewers Academe Will Become a Live-Action Movie - Faculty - The Chronicle of Higher Education

RacinReaver

I'm actually friends with a few of the people that are going to be in it, so I'm definitely going to give it a watch when it's done. They sent out an e-mail last week asking for extras over the weekend, so they definitely are hoping to get "real" PhDs for all of the characters. I'm debating if I want to give up some of my time one of these weekends to try and be in it.

cogneuro76

the grad school im going to has a taco bell, burger king, chik fil a, and pizza hut on their campus.

that is where i will be eating!

yg7s7

haha thanks for the responses!

belevitt

At my desk, though my lab does have a break room, its just easier to multitask this way.