mootmom

Have any of you talked with your families yet to set up a monthly food budget amount? My son won't be in a dorm with food service and will be at least partially cooking for himself, and I need to determine how much to budget him monthly for food. This subject came up once a few months ago before it was imminently relevant and I admit I didn't make good notes at the time, but now I need to make monthly deposits into his bank account so he can eat. Anyone care to suggest some dollar ranges for monthly food? Thanks!

molliebatmit

I spend about $200 every 2 months (or $400 per term) on Techcash, and that's eating breakfast and lunch on campus five days a week (and buying magazines at LaVerde's ).

I think it seems that I spend $50-$100 at the grocery store every 2 or 3 weeks (cooking for 2 people, but I'm not sure that cooking for 1 person would necessarily be cheaper -- you'd just have to throw out a lot more perishable food!). Maybe for one person you could go with the low end of that value.

Don't forget to add a little extra for those days when you just can't force yourself to cook and Thailand Cafe delivers in under twenty minutes.

Penthesilea

Is there a reason to use TECH cash as opposed to normal cash? And since I'm staying in a dorm with dining plans, which dorm actually has the best food? Is there a type of food that certain dorm does best?

mitsoph

The advantage to TECH cash is that it is always easy to carry around. You never need to go to an ATM to withdraw money and since you need your ID to get into your dorms, you pretty much always have it on you. Be careful though because some people tend to forget that it is real money on there and end up spending more than they normally would if they just did have a debit card.

As for the different dorm foods, I would say that Next House has the best food. Baker has good stir-fry, McCormick has healthier food, and Simmons has pretty good all-around food, but I found that Next seemed to have better food (and a larger variety). I lived in Baker and still tended to go to next when I ate in the dorms.

over30

My son doesn't eat out much (maybe once a week he'll order pizza or eat in a restaurant). He usually cooks dinner (a lot of times with several others), and for breakfast/lunch he has fruit, cereal, sandwiches, etc. He doesn't drink so there's no need for beer money. He spends less than $200 total - usually closer to $150.

Having said that, my son hates to spend money and I think most students will spend more. Once a week for eating out/pizza resembles my college days not at all.

mit2007mit

$150 is a good estimate. Things cost more there :$

2bad4u

I pretty much do the exact same thing as mollie b
I like LaVerdes and Anna's but I might order delivery to break the monotomy of my eating habits