“The food’s not great—I think that’s a problem,” says Tom G. Stapleton ’07, en route to dinner at Houston’s with his roommate’s parents. “Kids eat out all the time.”

Lisbeth A. Zelle ’06 says she spends money “buying food because the dining hall can’t get the job done.” Marina H. Hart, ’07, eats at the dining hall for more than half of her meals but says, “I go through bouts: last May I couldn’t handle it anymore because Annenberg was disgusting so I used my credit card at The Wrap all the time and it got really expensive.” Heymann also says she sometimes gets “disconcerted with the dining hall and eats at John Harvard’s—the frequency adds up and my parents start to notice.”

With so many kids choosing not to eat in the dining halls, some feel social pressure to spend money on chowing down. “I’ve talked to people who only eat in the dining hall twice a week,” says Jason B. Munster ’07. “When I first came there were always people who would say, ‘Hey, let’s grab some pizza from ‘Noch’s, and I’d just say ‘No thanks, maybe next time.’”

Others have succumbed to such pressures but then realized the error of their consumptive ways. “It depends on who your friends are,” says Stauropoulos, enjoying potato fritters on a Friday night in Eliot dining hall. “Sophomore year there was a lot of pressure to do group activities—we’d all buy cakes from Finale and feel obliged to chip in.” As savvier seniors, she says, “We all realize that we’re poor and we just do cheaper things.” “I generally feel I have my wits about me and I know how much things cost,” says Jordan J. Evans ’06. “If I went out for a $30 dinner every night, I’d be broke halfway through the month. You learn to decline invitations.”

If You Want to Dance...

Entertainment can add up, too. “One time I had to spend $60 on a stripper and I didn’t want to,” says Will A. Rodger ’06, who typically “only consumes beer and movies.” However, his friends had hired the professional and he felt duty-bound to pitch in. Kids feel the crunch in other sectors of the entertainment industry as well. “I went to see an a capella concert last week and stayed for half an hour but paid eight bucks,” complains Mary O. Thomas ’07.

Harvard is concerned about this issue, says Sally Donahue, Director of the Financial Aid Office. In the past, she says, students had to choose: “Is it worth working for 3 more hours to finance this hour?” In response to this dilemma, the Office of Financial Aid, the Dean’s Office, the Box Office and the Undergraduate Council collaborated to “fashion a program to help alleviate those kinds of pressures.” The end result was the Student Events Fund, which gives free tickets to on-campus events to students the Financial Aid Office deems eligible. All of the transactions take place on-line and the student’s names are never released. “A lot of students use the fund,” says Donahue, and “no one else knows that the students are participating.”

But for those who don’t qualify for the Student Events Fund, engaging culturally can be difficult. “I want to support my friends by seeing their singing, acting, etc., but it all costs money. Those $5-$25 tickets add up,” says Gupta. But Jem E. Veljic ’06, of the Radcliffe Pitches, argues that the sense of consumption actually enhances the experience of a concert. “If you pay to get in it’s kind of a legitimate concert. It’s one of the features of established a cappela groups—they ask for money just because they can.”

Even for those who aren’t culturally inclined, long Harvard nights can be an expensive problem.

“There’s no such thing as a ‘fun, free night’ here,” says Stapleton. He says he spends his money “just socializing, not even going out and drinking, just movies.” When he does go out, he finds it easy to spend: “I’ll come back and have money missing,” he says.

When partying is on the horizon, the Square’s liquor emporiums hardly facilitate it, complains Danny C. Brown ’07. “Things are more expensive—for instance I can buy a 30-pack of Busch at home for $15 and here it’s about $20 dollars. I live 45 minutes away from here! That’s profound—five dollars.”

Evans estimates that the majority of his expenses “go on alcohol, cigarettes, food and shoes or clothes in general.” Evans drinks “frequently, but not a lot—I probably go out five nights a week and sometimes I’ll go there for one drink and sometimes I’ll go there for 3 hours.” For Evans, “There” is Daedalus. He says, “It’s probably one of the cheaper ones and it’s not cheap—it’s not meant to be a college bar.”

Jim Lynch, the owner of Brother Jimmy’s, says “we try to create an environment here where you don’t have to spend a lot of money.” He says that running an establishment in Harvard Square is “an odd dynamic because you have college kids who don’t have a lot of money so we have 3 dollar PBR cans.” But cheap beers are the best bars can do in Cambridge, because, according to Lynch, Massachusetts law forbis drink specials.

Some students do believe it’s possible to entertain themselves without spending money. “As a college student it’s almost part of the education to find out how to have a ‘fun, free’ night. You can always grab some grub at Loker Commons’ study break and then have a movie night in your dorm. You can wander over to the upper class parties to dance and have fun, and then chill into the late hours of the night at a friend’s dorm, talking about politics and other random stuff,” says Gupta.

“I don’t spend a lot of money at all—I don’t think I could spend a lot money if I wanted,” says Wes S. Cosgriff ’06. “There’s always something to do, you don’t need to spend money to have fun,” says Munster. “I mean, you can go to tons of parties and get free alcohol.” The booze may be gratis, but some still question the quality of such events. “Parties tend to be free,” says Heymann. “Whether or not they’re fun is up for debate.”