It isn't just what and where you eat, it's how you eat. Do you have appetizers, do you want to have nothing but appetizers (I sometimes do this instead of an entree because I find the entrees too large), do you eat dessert, do you eat lots of snacks, would you use the refillable mug? We do not eat the way that the dining plan expects you to eat so it's simply not worth it for us. Although we have been occasionally eating items that would now qualify as a snack credit, something we didn't historically do, we wouldn't use the mug, probably still wouldn't use all the snack credits, and still generally prefer 1-2 TS meals per day, usually have an appetizer and no dessert and, as mentioned, I often have multiple appetizers and share one or more with DH. I can't see it ever working for us - you'll have to do the same kind of thought exercise and determine if it even meets your needs before calculating costs. If it doesn't meet with the way you typically would eat, it probably won't be cost-effective.