Most meal plans are front-loaded without anyone meaning them to be. The first few weeks of a semester feel like there's an unlimited number of swipes or points left, so ordering the extra side or grabbing a second coffee costs nothing. By week ten, a lot of students are watching a balance that won't cover three meals a day for the weeks that are left.
What happens when the balance runs low
The fix most people reach for is skipping meals early in the day to save points for later - which usually backfires. Arriving at dinner having skipped lunch means ordering more than a normal dinner covers, and the meal plan account still drains at close to the same rate it would have anyway. The other common fix is filling the gap with a convenience store run, which is priced per item rather than per meal and empties a wallet faster than the dining hall ever did.
Spreading it out instead of running out
Checking the actual balance against the number of days left, early rather than in week ten, is what prevents both problems. A rough per-day number, even a bad one, beats finding out the account is empty with three weeks of the semester still on the calendar.
Keeping a stash of something that does not need the meal plan or a fridge covers the gap on the days the math still doesn't work out. Dried dates hold at room temperature for weeks, travel fine in a backpack, and cost a fraction of a convenience-store snack per serving - useful on the day the swipe count says "no" before dinner has happened. Local and imported grades both work for this; whichever is cheaper by the kilo makes more sense to stock than a single fancy pack.
None of this is about cutting calories. It's about not being forced into the worst food choice of the week by a balance that ran out three days early - which is exactly when the bad decisions tend to happen. A little planning around what actually keeps in a dorm room solves more of this than any diet advice does.