Remember all the times you sat around the dining room table, staring at the meal your mom prepared with so much love, wishing it was McDonald’s? Now, you're halfway through the semester and beginning to regret not savoring every bite of your mom’s homemade lasagna. Initially, you were sailing on by, planning out your day, scheduling in meal time, but now you’re lucky if you can squeeze in breakfast.

Every single undergrad at some point or another has substituted a meal with something completely absurd. Sure we know it’s bad for us, but in that moment, it gets the job done. So here are 10 things that pass for dinner, although everyone and their mother knows it’s not an actual meal:

1. Straight up junk food.

This is the ultimate offense, and no matter how hard you try to avoid eating that chocolate bar for dinner, you always end up doing it anyway—and usually more than once. Do you feel guilty about it? Almost never. Why feel guilty when you already promised to eat better tomorrow. Do you ever? Of course not, but whatever gets you through the day.

2. Junk food that's labeled the "healthier" option.

Okay fine, the unsalted popcorn is technically better for you than the popcorn slathered in butter, BUT that doesn’t mean it’s good for you. It simply means it’s doing less harm than if you were to choose the other option, but junk food is still junk food.

3. Ramen noodles.

Seriously, most of us still end up eating ramen for dinner after we graduate. It’s what most of us refer to as the “college student budget,” because once you run out of meal points you’re basically screwed. Sure you had the highest meal plan, that doesn’t mean you didn’t end up using all your meal points on Nacho Cheese Doritos and Twix.

4. Snacks you grabbed from the vending machine.

It’s 9 p.m. and you’re working on a project due at midnight, because clearly it’s acceptable to wait to the last possible minute to hand in an assignment. Since making it to the dining commons is no longer an option, you end up buying a ridiculous amount of snacks from the nearest vending machine. Because hello, it only counts as a meal if you buy enough snacks.

5. Food you bummed from a friend.

No one likes to admit it, but everyone’s been here. Whether you’re asking a friend for a piece of their Subway footlong or for some pretzels, we’ve all felt the pain of having no other option but to ask for food. How do we live with ourselves afterwards? We tell ourselves that we’ll pay them back, even though you clearly won’t.

6. Care package food sent from home.

You’re convinced that your Aunt Sally is a mind reader because her care package came right on time. The semester’s coming to an end, and you were casually scrapping every drop of oatmeal from your bowl because you couldn’t afford to waste even the slightest bit. But the appearance of your most recent care package, you’re casually living large yet again. Phew!

7. Your cup of joe.

The cup of coffee you ordered to go ultimately turns into dinner, sure it might not have nutritional value, but at least you’ll stay awake in class. And when your stomach starts to grumble, just remind yourself that it could always be worse—like not having a cup of coffee at all.

8. A random piece of gum.

Finally, being a hot mess paid off, but come on, you always knew it would—eventually. You’ve never been so hungry in your life, but leaving your mandatory meeting is frowned upon, so you dig through your entire bag only to find a lonesome piece of gum. Sure the wrappers half gone, and the crumbs from all your other snacks managed to weasel their way in, but you should consider yourself lucky. Because this stick of gum literally just saved your life.

9. Food offered at club meetings.

It’s obvious that the only reason you even showed up, was because they mentioned that pizza would be offered at the next club meeting. You have literally never showed up to a meeting, but today is the day—to get a free meal. And who are you to say no?

10. Freebies!

Sometimes the taste testers offered at supermarkets or from promotions teams are just what you need. If it weren’t for that free mini bag of M&M’s or a small taste of the new ice cream flavor offer at Ralph’s Italian Ices, then the likelihood of you eating is slim to none.