There's no such thing as a free lunch

Yesterday we both came in under budget, in part because I had a free lunch available at work that day. We discussed beforehand the best way to cost such events- I also have milk provided for tea and coffee only (woe betide an occasional cereal user but that is another issue). In part I felt it was cheating- eating potentially expensive food that I hadn't paid for. Ultimately, we decided not to count them and our logic was this: the food is generally already paid for, regardless of whether we try to stop it and wasting food to try to prove a point is silly. I'm making an effort not to complain about being hungry (a big change for me) to try to avoid inadvertent "donations" but if someone in the office brings in cake I'm not going to torture myself.  The same principle applies to pre-planned meals with family and friends, office parties etc.  

Hopefully as time goes on we'll build a rough profile of how much each meal typically costs, and then we can have a choice about whether or not to spend our free lunch money.  For example- today we both had a free lunch, Paul at work and me at my mother's but we didn't then blow our day's budget on dinner.  Maybe we should have though.  

Part of me wonders if I'm inadvertently stifling how creative we'll be with our food/ money by having so many opportunities to eat normally but on the other hand I suppose it's possible to feel overwhelmed and give up if it's all too stringent.  So far so good though (though it's only day 3).