Sharing Meals

I try and find lots of ways to save money.  Some of them are pretty aggressive and probably unnecessary, like waiting five years to buy the the new HDTV.  Some of them are actually quite easy.  The simplest one I do is to share meals with my girlfriend whenever we go out.

It actually started really early for us, on our first date.  Funny enough, it was one of the things that attracted me to my girlfriend.  Not because she wanted to save money by sharing food (I'm not that cheap :)) but because I loved how comfortable she already was with me on our very first date.  Anyway, ever since our first date, we have made it a point to almost never order two entrees whenever we go out to a restauarant.

At first, I admit I felt a little guilty.  I didn't want to "cheat" the restauarant out of business by not ordering two meals.  I soon got over it.   I just had to look at it the other way.  Most restaurants give you WAY TOO MUCH food.  These meals can easily feed two people.  What was worse?  For me to "waste" money by buying food I didn't want, or for me to waste food by ordering something I wouldn't eat?   You just have to channel your mother telling you about the starving children in Africa.

This ends up being fantastic for two reasons.  Not only do I save money, but I end up not over-eating which has benefits all by itself.  As I've gotten older, I definitely can't eat like Michael Phelps anymore, so sharing the food ends up acting as portion control for me.  Just the other day, my girlfriend and I shared a hot dog and Coke at Costco.  Total cost $1.50.  That's crazy cheap for a meal for two.  Better yet, it prevented me from eating too much of something I really shouldn't be eating in the first place.  And the thing was, I wasn't hungry after eating my half of the hot dog.  I wasn't full either, but I find that I often only need to graze a little here and there to feel satieted for the day.

What do you think?  Is this a good idea, or am I just being cheap?