By: Peter Milobar
While the ease at which you can use your UBC card may leave you with the blissful impression that your meal dollars are endless, I can assure you that they definitely are not! For many of you, there may come a time in your not so distant future where you will walk up to the cashier brandishing your UBCcard only to have it ungracefully declined. However, with some careful planning and due diligence, you can finish first year without such a horrible fate—and, if you are really committed, with a surplus of meal dollars. What follows are some tips to turn this dream into a reality.
- Purchase A Blender: My greatest gift to you, seriously! A blender provides you with a nutritious snack at all hours of the day. Aside from purchasing the blender itself, a blender gives you access to smoothies at a fraction of the cost that is offered at the Dining Hall. I would recommend checking out the nearby grocery stores, where you can purchase berries and juice in bulk for cheap. Since a smoothie is a meal in itself, making a single smoothie will save you the ~$10 you would spend in the Dining Hall.
Looks delicious to me
- Oatmeal and Honey/Berries: Another healthy choice, oatmeal can be purchased in bulk for dirt-cheap. While some of you may be so intense that you can eat oatmeal plain, there are tastier complements—such as honey and berries—for those of a lesser constitution.
This is not a picture from the internet… #candid shot
- Pre-Cooked Chickens: Grocery stores often offer pre-cooked chickens and other types of meat. Pre-cooked chickens often sell for ~$10. Even though you will need to remove the meat from the chicken, there is often enough meat to last 3-4 days. This is a phenomenal bargain considering that the same quantity of meat would cost $20-$30 at the Dining Hall.
So much better than the caf
With these tips, you should be well on your way to eating healthy while minimizing your living costs at UBC. If you’re even the least bit skeptical, know this: these tips allowed me to have $500 leftover last year while being on the minimum plan!
Saving money had me like
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