Since my life is pretty much confined to being within the Carleton bubble, I want to talk about how the principles of microeconomics apply to my life here: specifically to how I spend my money at Sayles. We have talked in class about how the income and substitution effects impact our consumption patterns, but I want to examine a more general trend, why do I always tend to save my money at Sayles until the end of each term.
I’m on the 14-meal plan meaning that I start out each term with 300 dollars at Sayles. Assuming that I eat Sayles equally throughout the term, I should be around 150 dollars by fifth week. However, both terms I have been on the 14-meal plan, I have been closer to 200 or 250. By the end of the term, I always end up at 0. I think this tendency to save early on in the term and spend later can be explained using the economic concept of opportunity cost and utility.
First off, it is important to note that Sayles gives me high utility. I far prefer it to LDC or Burton. Another important note is that I never end up eating my full 14 meals in the dining halls. To me, dining hall meals are essentially free and infinite. One reason I think I save my Sayles money at the start of the term is because the opportunity cost of eating at Sayles is higher. Why would I eat Sayles when I can get free LDC? As the term goes on the opportunity cost of eating Sayles goes down, since if I don’t bring the balance down to 0 I miss out on utility. Utility is the other reason I believe I save my Sayles dollars. To me, there is high utility in being able to eat during times of the day when the dining halls are closed. I would prefer to save my available Sayles dollars for meals during times like this, and eat free dining hall food the other times. Finally, I do not experience diminishing marginal utility from Sayles, except in extreme cases. That said, even if I do have 50 dollars at sayles at the end of the term, I could always spend it on mango juices and other items I can bring home with me and eat there. Therefore, I save my dining dollars at Sayles to be spent during times when it would be of high utility to me, which tend to be later on in the term. I also begin to spend money later in the term as I see that I risk running out of time to spend the rest of my money.
After my first term being on the 12 meal plan, I’ve experienced the same tendencies. However, I’ve realized that I can be efficient with my sayles dollars by consuming some of the same items that they offer both in the dinning halls and at Sayles Cafe, such as coffee, sandwiches, fruit, cookies and muffins. Instead of using my sayles dollars I’ll go into the dinning hall and pick up those items that I would have otherwise bought at Sayles Cafe (Luckily Bon Appetit is lenient with their take-out policy). The items are not always identical, however they are close substitutes. During the first few weeks I was fairly reliant on Sayles for these common items (mostly coffee), but after I started to be use more of my meal swipes, the rate at which I was spending my Sayles dollars has gone down.
Also, it’s rumored that there will be a 15 meal plan available next term. It will interesting to see how many students will make the switch to this plan and if it provides more utility.
This is an interesting and thorough analysis of your food spending habits. As someone on the 20-meal plan (which comes with 75 Sayles dollars, and one “meal equivalency”) I use Sayles for some occasional variety in what I’m eating. In other words, when the utility I get from eating at Burton or LDC has diminished due to eating there for several consecutive meals, I’ll use my Sayles dollars to break up the pattern, thereby raising my dining hall utility.
This is a very careful analysis of your Sayles food consumption habit. I am on the same meal plan as you are so I can clearly see your reasoning behind your dining dollar spending. I also agree with your statement that for you, the meal plans at LDC or Burton are basically free. I always eat at LDC because I live in Cassat and what I usually do is go to lunch and check out the meal menu since the LDC’s lunch menu and dinner menu are pretty much identical. If I feel like the LDC menu for a certain day does not look delicious, I choose to go to Sayles because I would get much higher utility from consuming food at Sayles. Of course, it costs me about $6 worth of Sayles money, but I am happy with the utility of eating at Sayles.