I accepted an offer for a double Channing-Bowditch apartment, but I noticed the meal plan is not included. Because I can’t cook, I looked up the meal plan prices on Caldining, and they do not make sense. Like people who live in the dorm only have to pay $1100 a year for standard meal plan while people living in the apartments get to choose between a bear and cub meal plan. The bear meal plan costs $700 for 50 meal swipes, but these 50 meal swipes only cover 25 days if I eat two times a day. Spending $700 a month is $6300 for 9 months. My question is why is that more expensive than dorm meal plans? I just don’t get it. 
The cost of the “blue” meal plan for those living in the dorm is embedded in the dorm fees. There is a $600 per semester ($1,200 per academic year) charge to upgrade from the “blue” meal plan to the “gold” meal plan for dorm residents.
https://caldining.berkeley.edu/meal-plans/living-on-campus
@ucbalumnus But I do not live in the dorms, I live in the university apartments, so the meal plan is not included in the apartment fees.
The Bear and Cub plans also give you back some flex dollars but it still seems pretty expensive, I agree, at an average for $10 a meal for the Bear Plan (A single individual meal at the dorms is $11). For those prices I would just head to Chipotle or Subway every day and stock up on Ramen. Do you have a fridge/microwave in your apartment?
@ProfessorPlum168 I mean I will have a kitchen which includes the microwave, stove, and the frigerator, but my parents do not want me to cook or stress about what I should eat the restaurants or where to go buy food since I’m vegetarian, and they are willing to pay $6000 for meal plan, it’s just that I don’t get why can’t they just have a plan that you could buy for the whole year rather than having to buy a meal plan every month. I think they used to have a plan for the whole year, but they changed it this year. UGHH
From where you live to the closest dorm dining hall is still a bit inconvenient; wouldn’t you just be better off going to any number of restaurants on Durant since it’s on the way home? Doesn’t seem like cost is that great of a concern.
There are plenty of restaurants on Telegraph and the nearby area with vegetarian food options.
You may find that you may not want to eat all of your meals in the dining halls (e.g. maybe you just want a small bite of a couple of vegetarian tacos), so it may be helpful to buy meal plan in small amounts instead of having to buy a whole semester’s or year’s worth of meals at a time.
Yes, they changed the plan as of this year. It used to be by semester. My D (sophomore last year) was in a Martinez apartment, and we got her a non-resident meal plan just as an emergency type of thing. Otherwise, she cooked or went off campus (paying for this herself). When we asked her how often she went to the dining hall (all you can eat) vs. the other meal plan options (1 point = $1), she said she rarely hit the dining halls. This year, she is living off campus and will get a food budget about equal to what her food plan was last year.
OP, “nonresident” meal plans were designed as a supplement for people who have regular access to a kitchen, because the expectation is that you won’t need to use it as much as a dorm kid who doesn’t have a kitchen (communal kitchens in a building don’t count). You have that access, so you will not be able to buy a meal plan that feeds you 3 meals a day. If your parents didn’t want you to cook or eat off campus, why did you wind up in an apartment? Trust me, you will tire of dining hall food and either go to the 1-for-1 options or off campus or learn to cook for yourself. I think the shorter time frame option is kind of nice. Nothing like scrambling at the end of the school year to use up your meal points.