Next steps; grip-relaxing bimbling, and avoiding the temptations

Watty1

I love the beekeeping diary 😊

My food spends usually out of control but impressively low last month due to freezer stash.

rtandon27

Looking back to 10 years ago, our food spends are routinely 20% more than what we spent then. We were both working full time and did not shop for bargains as a matter of course. We also had a seperate date night budget for one meal out during the week and coffee/cake on the weekend, which is now reduced by 75%. Compared to pandemic, we are a good 30% lower for groceries than what we spent during lockdown & wfh days (we were on one salary but no travel expenses) - which for us was about 1.5 years. What we do now is consiously hunt out bargains, and choose budget eating as a matter of course, so on one salary and one pension we don't feel deprived, and eating out feels like a real treat as it is so infrequent. What we have noticed is that eating out has more than tripled since 10 years ago, so we don't get much for our money or end up feelfeeling like we have overspent!

foxgloves

Agree on eating out, @rtandon27 - A recent example here was 2 cappuccinos & a single shared cinnamon bun at over £11. That just feels like a lot, doesn't it?