PAYD definately does suck! Had the pleasure of two weeks at a fighter jock base "somewhere north of a large golf course" and was ready to slit my wrists by the end of it! We were sure by the end of it that mess staff had mis-interpreted the concept of PAYD, because, especially at breakfast, if you chose one item that wasn't "core menu" you had to pay for the rest of the food at the non-core menu rate as well! SOP at brekkie was for everyone to order their permitted 5 core menu items (no more!) regardless of whether they intended to eat it or not, because the servings were so small! Everybody puts their unused bits on a plate in the middle, then the rest help themselves!
Crazy concept. As has been said many times already, all we wanted was to tick when we ate and when we didnt, none of this "core menu vs non core menu" stuff!