"It's on me!"

If someone shouts food (or drinks, a movie, whatever) for you, are you morally obligated to repay them by paying for some other expense of theirs? I say yes. And no.

Here's the thing - when I shout food for people, I generally do it because I'm at a certain level of closeness to them (hence my willingness to spend my hard-earned money on them) and I just happen to like the feeling I get when I say, "It's on me!"; however I don't really expect them to pay for anything on my behalf in return.

When someone else pays for my lunch or dinner though, I sort of feel really guilty and happy at the same time. Mostly guilty because a lot of my friends don't have jobs, or they're not in the greatest financial situation (much like myself). That means that they're probably spending extra money on me which they could have saved or spent on something more worthy and less expendable like clothes, shoes, or just something nice for themselves. I always make a note to myself to pay them back, but I feel especially bad to one friend who's paid for so many of my meals that I'll probably have to shout him for the rest of the uni year to get even, hahah. (Yes Paul, that would be you.)