Last week, Mindy and I went and enjoyed dinner (courtesy of a gift certificate from my work) and a movie (courtesy of inconvenientchristians.org) without our taking a dent in our pocket books. For better or worse (usually worse) I took a moment during our meal to bring up the conversation of how much is too much eating out. Mindy pointed out that the meal was free and I responded in saying that I still felt like it was “going out” and that we should have some sort of limit on it. It so happened that we were about to see our second movie of the week (the previous had also been free), and so mindy asked me how often I felt it was acceptable to go out to the movies in a given week. Initially, I responded “as much as you want as long as it’s free,” but then I reconsidered.

You see I think there is a culture of consumption about us and it’s not something I want to be a part of, regardless of how much I pay for it. I imagine with enough connections, I could go out to eat, to the movies and out to coffee daily without ever having to pay a penny. Yet, even if it never cost a dime, I still feel a bit uncomfortable with our superfulous consumerist lifestyle.
Though I don’t have any those connections to free meals, we do get free movie screening passes, gift cards for the holidays and much more from friends and family. I don’t believe we should be employing a “if you got it, spend it” type attitude with these things either.

Mindy and I have decided to take a step in downsizing. For us that means that we will only eat out twice a month. This is a good step (it does not include coffee), and a very encouraging moment for me. Maybe we’ll decide we need to reduce this even more, or eliminate it completely, but for now it’s a step on the journey.