Meal Plans - Doing the math - Why double the price?
(5.50 per meal) x (10 meal plan) x (15 weeks) = 825 not 1660
posted over 11 years ago
Please forgive the use of exaggeration in the title. "Double" isn't exactly accurate, but it isn't exactly a huge leap either.
I feel like I must be missing something. Can someone help me make sense of this? It seems like there must be some information I am lacking or not understanding.
I will be using figures from these two web pages:
http://www.dineoncampus.com/umbc/show.cfm?cmd=commuters
http://www.dineoncampus.com/umbc/show.cfm?cmd=MealPlans
I am going to be commuting. This is my first semester at UMBC. I am trying to figure out which meal plan I should chose. I plan to spend a lot of time on campus in and out of classes. I was considering the Terrific 10 meal plan (10 meals per week + 90 flex dollars).
Quoting from the meal plan description: "You can enjoy up to 10 meals each week ... one meal per meal period at any Dining Services operated location ... valued at up to $4.85 for breakfast and $5.50 for lunch and dinner. Any balance over that amount can be paid for using Flex, cash, credit card or Campus Cash (formally Campus Cash)." - Edited for clarity
The way I understand the above is that I can use each meal to buy up to $5.50 worth of food. If I select more food then that I would need to make up the difference. So it seems to me each "meal" is simply a $5.50 (or less) credit.
Calculating the value of this plan (Terrific 10) seems like it should go something like this: So saying I get the maximum value out of every meal, and using all 10 meals per week would be a total value of $55 per week. For simplicity I will say there are 15 weeks in the semester. (Aug 28 to Dec 11 is 15 weeks but there are probably breaks and holidays that aren't being accounted for.) 55 x 15 is 825 for the total value of all the meals this meal plan offers. Add in the 90 flex dollars and you arrive at 915. Most of you probably didn't even need a calculator to follow along.
So the question is how is something which seems to have a maximum value of $915 being offered at a price of $1660? (Doing the math on the other meal plans will yield similar results.)
The first reason offered for why I should get a meal plan is that I will save on the 6% sales tax. I doubt the tax on $915 will come out to $745 in this decade.
The discrepancy is so massive I feel I must be missing something. If they were trying to be sly and slip something by people I wouldn't think they would try for this much. Surely this is a university where most of the people who work and go to school here can do basic arithmetic.
-Jonathan
I feel like I must be missing something. Can someone help me make sense of this? It seems like there must be some information I am lacking or not understanding.
I will be using figures from these two web pages:
http://www.dineoncampus.com/umbc/show.cfm?cmd=commuters
http://www.dineoncampus.com/umbc/show.cfm?cmd=MealPlans
I am going to be commuting. This is my first semester at UMBC. I am trying to figure out which meal plan I should chose. I plan to spend a lot of time on campus in and out of classes. I was considering the Terrific 10 meal plan (10 meals per week + 90 flex dollars).
Quoting from the meal plan description: "You can enjoy up to 10 meals each week ... one meal per meal period at any Dining Services operated location ... valued at up to $4.85 for breakfast and $5.50 for lunch and dinner. Any balance over that amount can be paid for using Flex, cash, credit card or Campus Cash (formally Campus Cash)." - Edited for clarity
The way I understand the above is that I can use each meal to buy up to $5.50 worth of food. If I select more food then that I would need to make up the difference. So it seems to me each "meal" is simply a $5.50 (or less) credit.
Calculating the value of this plan (Terrific 10) seems like it should go something like this: So saying I get the maximum value out of every meal, and using all 10 meals per week would be a total value of $55 per week. For simplicity I will say there are 15 weeks in the semester. (Aug 28 to Dec 11 is 15 weeks but there are probably breaks and holidays that aren't being accounted for.) 55 x 15 is 825 for the total value of all the meals this meal plan offers. Add in the 90 flex dollars and you arrive at 915. Most of you probably didn't even need a calculator to follow along.
So the question is how is something which seems to have a maximum value of $915 being offered at a price of $1660? (Doing the math on the other meal plans will yield similar results.)
The first reason offered for why I should get a meal plan is that I will save on the 6% sales tax. I doubt the tax on $915 will come out to $745 in this decade.
The discrepancy is so massive I feel I must be missing something. If they were trying to be sly and slip something by people I wouldn't think they would try for this much. Surely this is a university where most of the people who work and go to school here can do basic arithmetic.
-Jonathan
(edited over 11 years ago)
Selected Answer...
Some of these answers do help to narrow the gap. I did not understand that True Grits was all-you-can-eat. But still I don't think a meal plan saves any money. (at least the one I calculated doesn't)
I was almost swayed back to thinking I should give True Grits a shot, and see if I thought I could eat there often enough to make a meal plan worth it. However, even with the new information the math still doesn’t look great for the meal plan I was looking at.
Taking the 10 meal plan as an example again. Even if I ate at True Grit twice a day for 15 weeks during the most expensive meals, I wouldn't come out ahead. It is an easy calculation of $10 per meal. I took the average of the 2 most expensive meals because a) I am not going to eat 2 dinners per day and b) I am not planning on coming back on weekends so it is not likely for me to eat more than 5 dinners in a week.)
So again the math... (10 dollar average per meal) x (10 meals per week) x (15 weeks) = 1500
I can take the 1500 and add in the 6% they say I will be saving from tax which comes to 90 plus the extra 90 flex dollars. (do flex dollars get tax savings?... 6% of 90 is probably not significant here anyway...)
I end up with a plan worth $1680 which - I will give them credit - I can purchase said plan for a generous savings of $20 at $1660. So I guess if I plan on eating at twice a day every weekday, and never breakfast, then it could save me $20.
Bottom Line: My conclusion is that the meal plan is very unlikely to save me money. I think I would rather just use my money to eat where I want to eat. I don't think it will be more expensive then the meal plan.
