The Return of Maoz

We're back on campus! This means we're back to our good old supermarket that feeds us, to our familiar Chipotle where we can get wonderful deals, to the sprawling subway system if we ever have the money to leave campus, and of course... to Maoz!


As you may have read earlier, Maoz offers great deals with their sandwiches.  But there's another way you can win at Maoz.  This is what you do...

1. Go to Maoz at an obscure time on an obscure day. (How about 3:30 pm on a cloudy Friday?) Bring a friend who will order in at Maoz.  You can order in too, but you don't have to if this plan works out.
2. Sit inside.
3. Look out the window for any Maoz employees standing outside giving away free samples of falafel.
4. If there is, go outside and take a sample.  It's a full falafel ball- not a small bite like most stores usually give away for free!

This free sample has a 70 cent value, because you can order five falafels for $3.50. (At our store, at least.)
That's the cost of upgrading a Junior Maoz sandwich (half sandwich) to a regular Maoz sandwich (the full circle).  So if you're feeling disgruntled about getting a regular Maoz vs. a junior Maoz because of the extra 70 cents, you can eat away the free samples and feel better about yourself.
Take that!

Yes, you're welcome.

Disclaimer: I do not guarantee that you will find free samples outside Maoz at 3:30 pm every Friday. It just happened today.

Poor College Students Support Other Poor College Students

Did you forget it was Mother's Day? Why not buy your mom some Mimi Truffles? Handmade by our fellow friends Poor College Students Megan and Melissa, these truffles come in delicious flavors like Hazelnut, Blueberry Muffin and Red Velvet. At 3 for $4, these are a steal! Place an order online through their website or buy them in person at Westside Market on 110th and Broadway!

Cheap Drinks at Starbucks

Mmm, coffee. The sustenance for most college students. It's not uncommon to hear your friend, classmate, professor, TA...or anyone on campus really saying "I need coffee." We live off caffeine...but for the most part, it costs money.

Now, if you like brand name (and in my opinion, not so great) Starbucks coffee, you can spend nearly $4 dollars on an iced latte. Imagine getting 3 or 4 lattes a day during study week! That's a lot of caffeine! That's even more money!

For full disclosure, this may or may not work at all Starbucks. Some of the baristas know of the following trick, but if it works...score!

When it's your time to order, say "I'd like n shots of espresso poured over a tall/grande/vente cup of ice, thanks" and after receiving said cup, go to the napkin/straw/sugar/milk area and fill your cup with milk! Each shot of espresso is approximately 55 cents, and if you want a flavored latte, each flavor shot is 55 cents too! Talk about reasonably priced!

Another Starbucks pointer - there is another size of drinks called "short." It's on the register, so you're not making it up when you ask for it. It's an 8 ounce cup that is 1/3 less expensive than the tall! If you are looking for flavor over caffeine, this option saves you money and calories!

Next time you go to Starbucks, try these tips out!

(Author's note: I fully support smaller coffee shops and chains, such as Oren's and Joe the Art of coffee, so you should just buy their drinks. Also, they know the iced latte trick, and probably won't let you get away with it - and for good reason! Their coffee tastes GOOD.)

How to win at Maoz

Not too long ago, a new Maoz opened up near campus. In case you haven't discovered it or heard about yet, Maoz is a vegetarian restaurant chain that serves extremely delicious falafel sandwiches.

Now, I know plenty of vegetarians, but I know more omnivores who will say "Wait, what?? Only vegetables?? I can't get full from only eating vegetables!"
Omnivores, fear not. I will teach you how to win at Maoz.

There are a few "meal deals" at Maoz: a Maoz sandwich, fries, and a drink; a Junior Maoz sandwich (half the size of a regular Maoz sandwich), fries, and a drink; a salad and a juice. These cost $7 or $8 but are nice deals because the salad bar is free and you can keep going back for more. This is key!
However, the other great thing about the salad bar is that you don't have to order a salad to utilize it- if you get a sandwich you can stuff the top with salad bar vegetables too, which, by the way, are varied and plentiful.

Seven or eight dollars isn't too bad, but what if you don't care for fries or a drink and want to spend under $5? That happens, right?

This is what you do.

1. Order to stay in. This is key! You'll see why.
2. Order a full sandwich. You could get a half sandwich, but a full one only costs 70 more cents!
3. Receive your sandwich.
4. Take a fork, and eat the sandwich filling (falafel, etc), leaving the pita bread more or less intact. This is key! You'll see why.
5. Take the pita bread and return to the salad bar.
6. Stuff the bread with salad bar food (Chickpeas, eggplant, carrots, broccoli, etc... they may sound boring here but they are cooked fantastically!! ), using the bread as a salad bowl.
7. Eat the renewed sandwich filling with your fork. (Or fingers, whatever)
8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 until satisfied.
9. Return to salad bar and drench pita bread in dressing of choice (eg. yogurt sauce, garlic sauce, tahini sauce, white sauce)
10. Eat pita bread.

See? See how much food you can get out of that? What's more, it was totally flavorful every step of the way. Omnivores, even those of you so devoted to eating meat will forget your carnivorous inclinations when you've taken these ten (or more) easy steps.

Try it!!

You are welcome.

Super-size and Save

Although America is facing an obesity epidemic because of it's need to super-size portions, you have to admit super-sizing has some merits. The cost to quantity ratio is just too good to ignore sometimes. As much as I would LOVE to have a discussion about America's waist line problems..this is a site dedicated to poor college students, and not college student discussions.

I love cold green tea. It's very refreshing, and has 0 calories. Normally, I purchase a bottle that contains only 2 servings, or approximately half a liter of tea, for about $2, plus tax. A lot to spend on a liquid, right?

Well, I went to my neighborhood supermarket one day, and found a whopping TWO liter sized bottle of the same tea from the same brand! And the news gets better! It was only FOUR dollars! Did I really just get 8 servings of my favorite green tea for only $2 more? Yes I did! This two liter sized bottle will last for days, and means I just saved $6!

Super-sizing has its time and place, and when it concerns my favorite, usually overpriced beverage, I give super-sizing a resounding thumbs up!

How to win at Chipotle

Do you like Chipotle? The delicious cilantro-lime rice, excellent beans, meat cooked to perfection, and the flour tortilla that wraps all of it together?

And the guacamole? Oh, the guacamole. Sooooooo good. "Made from fresh avocados, hand mashed, three times a day", like they say. But who likes to pay an extra $2-something for it, on top of a $7 or $8 burrito?

Chipotle is so good, but you can end up paying a lot more than you have to and then falling uncomfortably into a food coma afterward. That is what happens when you get a burrito (or even a burrito bowl) with (or even without) guacamole, but it doesn't have to happen. You can eat exactly what you want and pay less and feel great when you're done eating. You can win, bean and cheese burritos aside. You can win.

Here's how you can win at Chipotle.

1. Ask for two tacos (I like soft tacos).
2. Specify that you want one vegetarian, one with meat of your choosing (I like chicken).
3. Get rice on both tacos, and beans on one, peppers and onions on the other. (Or both ingredients on both tacos- I don't think it matters)
4. Ask for the meat on the tacos with beans and rice. This is important!!! Meat must only go on ONE taco!
5. Move on to toppings. I like to get everything: salsa (mild), corn, sour cream, cheese, and lettuce. Get the generic toppings on BOTH tacos. Then ask for guacamole on the other, only-veggie taco. This is important!!! Guac must only go on the taco with NO MEAT!
6. Pay. Make sure that the cashier knows it is two tacos vs. three (which costs $8). It is under $6 and I'd have gotten everything I wanted at a good quantity.

Under $6 for meat AND guacamole? WIN-WIN! How did this happen?

Guacamole comes free in vegetarian tacos, so if you keep one taco meat-free, you don't have to pay for the guacamole you get on the veggie one.

You may think two tacos will not fill you up, as I thought before I switched from burrito bowls to two tacos. But, surprisingly, it does. If you like eating burrito bowl style, you can dump the contents of the tacos into a bowl, too. Then it's like you got a burrito bowl with free tortillas! For under $6!!!

WIN!

You are welcome.

Eat Right

Hands down, the thing that makes me look forward to the next day the most is breakfast. What else is there to look forward to each ordinary college day? Going to sleep knowing that I have breakfast waiting for me the next morning makes me excited to wake up. That's right. The idea of food makes me want to wake up before I've even fallen asleep.

Of course, poor college student doesn't have the time or money to have an elaborate breakfast. That's why we eat cereal- so delicious, nutritious, and fast. And not too expensive either. You may argue that a box of cereal in New York can cost up to $5 and sometimes even more, but that's where the bargains come in.

Keep in mind, there are more places to get cereal than the store just around the corner where things may be ridiculously overpriced because of the store's proximity to campus.
How about the grocery store five blocks down? Two boxes of Special K cereal for $5!
How about the pharmacy a block away from there? Two boxes of General Mills cereal for $5!

Spending just a small chunk of time a week to find the good deals will land you great cereal for about two weeks. (Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Honey Nut Cheerios, two boxes of Special K with Strawberries? life doesn't get too much better than that)

Careful though, because hungry poor college student friends will be sure to raid your stock of cereal. But no worries- you just got yourself four boxes at a time.

Jackpot

Today, I bought a pack of Combos from the vending machine. As I reached in to claim my purchase, I noticed a pack of two beef sticks laying there, probably left there by accident by a previous customer.



Beef sticks became the appetizers to my Combos.
A poor college student's got to eat, right?