Here's my own dumb confession: I used to justify my spending because of stories like this.
"Yeah, look, I know I spend $30 a week on lunch. But that's five meals, five lunches. Frank over there spends $30 on one meal. And we make the same amount of money. So I'm being wiser with mine."
I'm sure it won't affect people here on this blog, but that's my worry. Someone reads how idiotic it is that this woman buys $20 mac 'n cheese meals just a few blocks from her home, and they then subconsciously rationalize that $10 meal they have.
I'm deciding for myself, it's okay to go out and eat, if that's what you want. In fact, it's super nice to do that. But it's got to be something in the budget, at least for me. Which means, it's something I can do later, once I've cleaned up this credit card mess I've left myself.