If you live on campus, then it’s likely that you have a meal plan. You probably already have a good idea of how a meal plan works, but you’re bound to make some rookie mistakes when using it—like making the mistake of trying to buy a full lunch on a breakfast meal swipe at 10:59 a.m.
Here are some ways to effectively use your meal plan at any on-campus location:
Know when to use swipes
Ball State Dining may not follow the same times you prefer to eat breakfast or lunch. At all dining halls, you may use one $5.75 swipe from 7 a.m.-11 a.m. From 11:01 a.m. – midnight, you have two $9.45 swipes to use. If you walk up to a cashier at 11:01 hoping to use a breakfast swipe, you can’t.
Knowing these times will help you not waste a swipe. If you are paying for a 3-meals-a-day meal plan but miss your breakfast swipe, you lose it for the whole day.
Plan your swipes!
The strategy of how to use your swipes depends on what plan you have. The simplest is the 21 meals per week, which breaks down to 3 meals a day. With the 18 meals per week, you can get breakfast 4 times a week—so pick and choose when you want to get breakfast. The 14 meals per week is typically for students who only eat lunch and dinner. Lastly, if you don’t usually eat breakfast during the week, the 10 meals per week is perfect.
Your meal swipes will reset on Sunday. Any swipe left unused Saturday night is gone…forever. Try and use all your swipes so you don’t lose money by not using them. If you have a leftover swipe, consider using your swipe to buy drinks or snacks that you can keep in your room. Not every swipe needs to be a hot meal!
Dining Plus vs Dining Cash vs Cardinal Cash
These three have similar names but serve the same purpose of allowing you to use money at dining halls.
Dining Plus – Dining Plus comes with your on-campus meal plan & can be used at any time regardless of what time it is. Dining Plus from the fall semester rolls over to the spring semester, but goes away at the end of the spring semester, so make sure you use it all!
Tip: It can be tempting to sometimes use Dining Plus to cover a whole meal, but the best way to use dining plus is when your meal is a little over the swipe limit. If your lunch is 20¢ over, Dining Plus is what you can use. All those little transactions will pile up!
Dining Cash – If you do run out of Dining Plus, you can purchase Dining Cash. Dining Cash is the same as Dining Plus except it will not expire at the end of the academic year. If you currently have a meal plan, you receive a 10% discount on a Dining Cash purchase (if that purchase is in even hundred-dollar increments).
Cardinal Cash – You probably won’t need Cardinal Cash much your freshmen year, but it is another option for buying food on Campus. Unlike Dining Plus and Dining Cash, Cardinal Cash is accepted at a variety of locations including:
- Dining halls
- Sporting events at Scheumann Stadium and Worthen Arena
- Vending machines
- Certain restaurants in The Village
- HotBox Pizza
- Jimmy John’s
- Insomnia Cookies
- Roots
- and more!
