In first year I got the biggest meal plan and had $500 left at the end. 50 chocolate bars and 10 pounds later I realized what an idiot I was not getting the small meal plan.

Hi,

As someone mentioned, the basic/non-refundable amount is the same for each of the meal plans, so in the end it doesn't really matter. I, having just finished first year, chose the "regular" meal plan in the first year. I went home on many weekends, often bringing food with me, etc. and found that I still had a lot of money left on the non-refundable portion even as university neared its end.

My family came over a few times, and my high school friends another time, and we all had nice meals at bistro/commons (all funded by my meal card) and I was able to finish the non-refundable portion before I left for home. The refundable freedom account portion is still on my card, it's still fairly intact (a few visits to boston pizza aside), and should carry over to next year.

Your experience with your meal card will likely depend on your eating habits, whether you go home on the weekends, whether you eat off campus a lot etc. In the end, I guess taking the smallest meal plan makes sense because you're not going to the get the non-refundable amount (called the basic plan i think) reduced anyways, and you can always add more of the refundable amount (called the freedom plan i think), so might as well pay the least right now to reduce your expenses, as I'm sure you also have to pay for lodging and tuition, and it can be overwhelming.

Hope that helped.

get a regular; i added like 400 to my plan towards the end of the year

I'd recommend going for the smallest meal plan and adding money as you need it. Stay away from drinks on campus as they are grossly overpriced.

Originally Posted by czizzi

I'd recommend going for the smallest meal plan and adding money as you need it. Stay away from drinks on campus as they are grossly overpriced.

Yup, well said. I did this and I still have about 100 dollars left on my freedom.

Originally Posted by Purple2309

Yup, well said. I did this and I still have about 100 dollars left on my freedom.

Teach me, oh Master Yoda.

Yup! The way to go is to get the cheapest/smallest meal plan like many have said. And just keep adding as needed! Remember you'll have money on your freedom account to pass on to the next year. So you don't have to use all of it.

In my first year, I ended up using up all my freedom because I thought I would lose it all! haha.

Originally Posted by herBs

Teach me, oh Master Yoda.

Haha well since you asked, never buy drinks on campus! And go home once in a while if you can(I went home once a month and brought back some snacks/drinl). I'd recommend buying your own granola bars, popcorn, fruit and etc. from home or fortinos as opposed to buying them on campus because they are soo expensive lol.

Also as a side note, bring in extra batteries incase your iclicker dies before the end of the year. Im saying this because I had to buy 2 triple A batteries for about 7 bucks on campus. What a rip off! Well then again it was my fault for only noticing by battery died about 10 min before my lecture.

Originally Posted by Du92

Hey! I'm confused about which meal plan to choose.
If the money on my meal plan runs out during the year, can i add more to it?

I would recommend going for a lighter meal plan b/c you can always add more money if you wish too. It's really easy and simple - you could do it online or there's an office at the bottom of Centro (a main eating area) where you can deposit more money onto your card. However, if you get a larger meal plan and cant finish it, you may risk not being able to use that money your following year (or getting it refunded).

Originally Posted by kimaa2

I would recommend going for a lighter meal plan b/c you can always add more money if you wish too. It's really easy and simple - you could do it online or there's an office at the bottom of Centro (a main eating area) where you can deposit more money onto your card. However, if you get a larger meal plan and cant finish it, you may risk not being able to use that money your following year (or getting it refunded).

The last part is irrelevant, the basic portion of every meal plan is the same. The rest of the meal plan either rolls over or you can have it refunded at the end of the year.

Is it worth it to get the meal plan if you live off campus?

If you plan on spending the majority of your day on campus and just utilizing your place to live for just sleeping and whatnot, sure go ahead.

i don't know about you guys, but i destroyed the regular meal plan. i put on like $500 extra on it; but that's mainly because i lived on campus all year round / didn't cook.

Even if you buy the largest meal plan and end up with extra money at the end of the year, you can always transfer all of it to your Flex/Freedom account, which transfers over to the next year. It's what I did

Originally Posted by mediagurl

Is it worth it to get the meal plan if you live off campus?

Also, I suggest you go with the freedom plan unless you plan on buying atleast a meal every day at McMaster. The initial set up for a term plan is 880$ for 1 month and extending it by 55$ per week (or 220$ per month) which means it would cost a total of 2420$ for 7 months (September to March) and 2640$ if you want to extend it into April (exam month).

You would have to spend approximately 20$ a day (probably more since I was too lazy to count the actual days of school, I just divided by the number of weekdays between september and march), and unlike the residence meal plan, the entire thing is on your basic account. So none of it rolls over when your term plan expires.

The freedom plan allows you to just add money to your freedom account whenever you want and rolls over forever, you can also withdraw all of it (Unlike the term plan where you have to drop out of university in order to get any money back). You can also use this money to buy food at locations off campus which accept the student card (List at hospitality.mcmaster. ca).

If you do plan on spending 2420 on food on-campus, then it's worth getting the term plan since you save an extra 8% on food (which turns out to be almost 200$).