With the end of the year ever closer in sight, you may start becoming nostalgic thinking about all the friends, fun and food you enjoyed. For many students, those memories rest outside of the dining hall — at The Melt, Chipotle or Top Dog. You even may have forgotten that you purchased a full meal plan, and now you find yourself with hundreds of points to run through before they go to waste. Well, The Daily Clog has a few suggestions for quick ways to burn through excess meal points:
Throw a birthday bash for your friend
Be the one to supply the chips, drinks and jumbo Rice Krispie Treats at the next birthday party. Everyone will be grateful and think you are incredibly generous, but you will also have the added benefit of making sure you approve of the food at the next party you attend.
Stock up for the winter
With Bear Market and Golden Bear Cafe at your disposal, you can do some grocery shopping before you arrive back in your hometown. Get as much cereal, milk and candy as you need to get you through your food needs for those four weeks, because when you get home, you may not be in charge of grocery duty anymore.
Buy the next round at a dining hall
Everyone wants to be that guy who pays for a ton of strangers because he or she can afford it. If you want to act with all the arrogance you can muster up, next time you get dinner, offer to pay for all the people in line behind you. This is easily the easiest way to get rid of those excess points, especially if you tell some upperclassmen you are doing this ahead of time.
Surprise your family with homecoming gifts
Nothing says “I care about you, Mom” then chocolate-covered blueberries or delicious peppermint bark from Peet’s Coffee.
Trade food for favors
There are hundreds of freshmen who were irresponsible at budgeting their meal points and will do practically anything to get swiped in at Crossroads or Cafe 3. Whether you need someone to do your laundry or go out in the wind to buy you a cup of hot chocolate, a hungry freshman will always be at your disposal if you promise him or her a meal. This is kind of an ill-hearted way to spend your points, but it is effective. Just try to be nice about getting others to do your bidding.
Get yourself some plastic containers
We do not necessarily advocate this, but if you keep going in an out of Crossroads, you can get yourself a ton of Chews to Reuse boxes and drink containers, which can always come in handy for something. At three points a food container and one point a drink container, you can build yourself a castle of dining hall containers for fairly cheap, so why not?
Image sources: INeedCoffee.com, bittermelon, Alice Harold, amlz, asenat29, English106, http://www.tradingacademy.com
