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Rank: Valedictorian
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Whoops, sorry Redrose, that was my mistake. Says mirielleva: Quote:They do let you take food back to dorms, it's just the utensils, plates, bowls and trays they don't want you to take. I've done that anyways tons of times. Just remember to (eventually) take them back, but rinse them if they'll be in your room for awhile. Or, just take things to go; they'll but in on paper plates, and you can put your salad in plastic containers (although not environmentally friendly). Phew, right?
UWO 2012
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Rank: Student Body Vice-President
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With regards to taking food out of the cafeteria - if it's a cash balance system they shouldn't care what you do with the food after you buy it, but if it's a "buy x meals per week" type system, then they generally frown on taking much out, like more than a couple cookies or something, since each time you go in you are paying for one meal, not lunch now and snacks + dinner for later. That's not to say I haven't seen people abuse it - I saw this one girl, on more than one occasion, come in on a weekend morning, go back to a table with a tray loaded with stuff like hardboiled eggs, cut veggies from the salad bar, a full carton of special milk (soy or lactose reduced or something, the regular milk wasn't in cartons), pack it all up in containers, put it in her backpack, and leave ;) With regards to late night snacking, well, don't expect 100% of your food to be from university cafeterias..
 
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Rank: Valedictorian
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By the way, how survivable is the amount of spending money that is given to you in a meal plan? UWO's is cash balanced, and I got a medium plan... but I'm worried that it'll be too much or too little. Anybody with experience on unused food money or periods of no food money left?
UWO 2012
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Rank: Senior Student
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For UWO students:
The medium plan should last as long as you try not to buy too much food not made in the caf, as in, bottled pop, packaged icecream and popsicles, packaged sushi, instant noodles etc. I kind of made that mistake this year and bought so much of that. I had to refill my meal plan in early march.
As alternatives, just have fountain drinks in the cups they provide, or paper cups to go, buy a large pack of instant noodles when grocery shopping, get your icecream from the big tubs (filling the paper bowl will cost you cents! It's sometimes a contest to see if you can get a dollars worth of ice cream which is really a ridiculous amount), get sushi when they make it and have it out so you can take single pieces, etc. My friend whose a varsity athlete ate well off the light meal plan because she never ate any of that stuff (although, she lived in the city and went home many weekends).
Word of advice, if you go in just to by a bottled drink or sushi or something, ask for them to add on the price of a slice of bread (10 cents) to make the money come off your meal plan. If not, it'll come off your flex dollars, and there goes your money for eating at restaurants that take the western 1 card, and pizza ordering money. You can ask at anytime at the till for them to check how much money is left on your account.
In the "healthier" foods, meat and fish are going to cost the most. It kind of sucks that they don't display prices, but you can see how much your paying by looking at the final price that shoes up at the till display. Dinner should probably be your most expensive meal. If your low on money, sandwiches and salad are good to have because they charge you by how much they weigh, and unless you made a monster sandwhich/ridiculouslly topping filled salad, it will be around 2 dollars.
2nd Year Student
UWO BioMed Sci '11
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Rank: Valedictorian
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Oh, those are some smart alternatives! Especially the meal plan instead of flex dollars one, I never even thought about that. When you ask them that, do they ever refuse or give you a weird face? And uh, about drinks, if you bring your own mug or bottle........would that be ok?
I'm planning to get all my instant stuff from Toronto or something, unless there's a nice asian food market in London.
So basically, anything that is prepackaged will come off of your flex dollars, and anything the caf makes goes off of mean plan. Right?
While salad and sandwiches are weighed (anything else?), meats are counted per piece right? Do they not display prices for ANYTHING or.... I eat a lot of carbs so that's where most of my money will be going towards.
UWO 2012
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Rank: Senior Student
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Joined: 4/8/2008
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I hope I'm not reiterating here, but I'm pretty sure policies on taking food out of cafs vary quite a bit from university to university. For example, Queen's tends to be pretty strict about it (from what I heard) while as others mentioned above, Western is more flexible. Anyone know the situation at McMaster?
Pourquoi?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf94uiIbItg
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Rank: Student Council
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**Lil_Absinthey_Amarinthe** wrote:I hope I'm not reiterating here, but I'm pretty sure policies on taking food out of cafs vary quite a bit from university to university.
For example, Queen's tends to be pretty strict about it (from what I heard) while as others mentioned above, Western is more flexible. Anyone know the situation at McMaster? Mac is really different from those situations... Mac meal plans operate on a debit card system, you start out with a set balance on your student card and use it up throughout the year. It's good at lots of places around campus and even some off campus restuarants. You have to buy a meal plan if you live in res and off campus students have the option of buying one and putting whatever amount they want on it. Having a meal plan saves you the tax when you buy food so it does save quite a bit in the long term. We only have one 'cafeteria' really and you can take food out of there... disposible containers are available. You can eat in though and you obviously can't take the plateware with you. People do frequently steal the caf trays and go 'beer caf tray sledding' in Faculty Hollow  Usually you'll eat in the student centre and at the various small places in the different academic buildings. You won't go to Commons which is the central cafeteria unless you have a big gap for lunch or it's dinner time and you're living on campus. The prices tend to be kind of high, especially if you want to eat healthy. There are a few tips to help you conserve your meal plan dollars. This is good for all universities operating on this system. Get groceries so you're covered for breakfast. - This is really great because who wants to get up extra early so you can stop and eat on the way to an 8:30 class. They also don't have many healthy options for breakfast around campus which will be a drag on your ability to concentrate in class as well as your general health. Don't buy drinks - Drinks are a waste of precious meal plan dollars. The biggest meal plan on campus allows you about $14 a day to spend on food. That is easily spent on one meal, nevermind buying drinks multiple times a day. Just get a waterbottle and carry it around with you to your classes. Have drinks like juice, milk, etc back at rez for whenever. Also, a lot of the drinks that are cheaper and more readily available are high in sugar and fat which will lead to weight gain and make it more difficult to concentrate. Mac specific: Get stuff at Union Market - Union Market is the student union run convenience store and general place of awesomeness. The stuff there is soooo cheap and all the essentials are up for grabs (chocolate milk, energy drinks, coffee, etc) If you bring your own container you get even more discounts. Most stuff costs at least a dollar cheaper than the school run eatery places so frequent the Union Market. You can't use your meal plan here however.
1 We are from Mac! 2 A little bit louder! 3 I still can't hear you! 4 more more more... McMaster Class of 2011
Combined Honours Political Science and Philosophy
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Rank: Senior Student
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Pinku wrote:Oh, those are some smart alternatives! Especially the meal plan instead of flex dollars one, I never even thought about that. When you ask them that, do they ever refuse or give you a weird face? And uh, about drinks, if you bring your own mug or bottle........would that be ok?
I'm planning to get all my instant stuff from Toronto or something, unless there's a nice asian food market in London.
So basically, anything that is prepackaged will come off of your flex dollars, and anything the caf makes goes off of mean plan. Right?
While salad and sandwiches are weighed (anything else?), meats are counted per piece right? Do they not display prices for ANYTHING or.... I eat a lot of carbs so that's where most of my money will be going towards. Haha..don't worry they won't give you weird faces. Caf workers all knew last year, in fact a lot of the time, they were asking if I wanted to add on a slice of bread if I forgot to. Most of them are nice. Last year a caf lady tell me that I should buy my chips at a grocery store because they were a little more expensive in rez.... As for the prepackaged thing, just to clarify, anything that's prepackaged, and obviously a brand name item, or doesn't have a residence sticker thingy (a small rectangular strip that I think is white with green and yellow dots that says something in the middle...ya its vague. check your high school caf, it was the same company as mine) comes off flex. They do prepackage fruit, carrot and celery sticks, nachos, tuna sandwhiches, etc. though. It'll be obvious once you see, I'm not very good at describing, and of course, eat with your floor on the first day...your soph should tell you similar tips. They sell instant food at any grocery store and even zellers and there's tons of variety.(especially at the huge loblaws by masonville place)..unless you were thinking of something more specific? I don't recommend buying too much food with you that's not that hard to carry. By all means, bring your bottled water, and stuff ...(things that the sophs will be moving in the first day), but light things can wait. Besides, its suprising how much stuff you'll be moving from home. Don't forget, the tubs of ice cream are weighed.. Meat isn't counted by slice. When you tell the sandwhich bar person what you want, they'll give you a red paper sandwhich wrap if there's meat in what you want, or a green wrapper if not. They calculate the price/weight differently. For carbs...pasta, slices of bread, and cereal are fairly cheap. As for potatoes..I don't think they're that expensive. The only thing that will really put you over 6 dollars at most for a standard meal (1 thing/food group) is meat. Advice for potatoes: Don't get mashed potatoes unless you can see tiny bits of potato skin. Thats the good kind..as well as scalloped potatoes. I don't recommend the smooth white mashed potato because most of the time, its not made from scratch. The only thing I can think of that they put prices is on is pre made food. Don't worry, everything is reasonable though, just always check the final price shown on the till display, and ask how much money is left on your card.
2nd Year Student UWO BioMed Sci '11
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Rank: Valedictorian
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mirielleva, you're my uwo savior =)
i hope i can befriend caf workers; at my hs they all love me and give me free food. XD
UWO 2012
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Rank: Senior Student
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Thanks aibrean, don't know what I'd do without your advice! 
Pourquoi?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf94uiIbItg
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Good ol' KD
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Rank: Student Council
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Location: Kingston, ON
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Ooosh wrote:Things stolen from the Queen's cafeterias
- Whole 2 gallon tubs of ice cream
- Trays, utensils, cups, plates. etc.
- A table
- Chairs
- Packages of tortilla wraps & bread
Etc... Dude. A table? Those huge tubs of icecream? oh emm gee.
BAH '08 (Queen's) MA'11 (Queen's)
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Rank: Valedictorian
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The table must have been an attempt by a professional heist team. Can you imagine them just prancing in there during the middle of the day and then prancing back out unnoticed with it? Unlikely.
UWO 2012
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Rank: Senior Student
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Joined: 3/4/2008
Posts: 255
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Pinku wrote:CRAZYBUBBA wrote:Ooosh wrote:Things stolen from the Queen's cafeterias
- Whole 2 gallon tubs of ice cream
- Trays, utensils, cups, plates. etc.
- A table
- Chairs
- Packages of tortilla wraps & bread
Etc... Dude. A table? Those huge tubs of icecream? oh emm gee. The table must have been an attempt by a professional heist team. Can you imagine them just prancing in there during the middle of the day and then prancing back out unnoticed with it? Unlikely. they probably wimped out and asked to borrow it and never gave it back. hahaha prancing....that word makes me laugh
UWO Biomed/Ivey '12
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Rank: Valedictorian
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Now you, my friend, should belong to the said professional heist team. It's smart thinking like that which will earn you tables........ hahaha wow seriously I never even thought of that possibility. I keep having wild fantasies of Mission Impossible style steals.
UWO 2012
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Rank: Senior Student
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lol
"yes sensai"
UWO Biomed/Ivey '12
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