[j_m_b]

Anecdotally, my family has significantly cut back on going out. We used to have a weekly habit of going out to eat with a family of four. We rarely go out now, and usually just as a couple. It's just too expensive.

In the long term, it might be a good thing. Part of the obesity epidemic in the US could be attributed to the fact of how cheap it was to get a meal at a fast food joint compared to just eating in. That differential has significantly increased, probably by at least a factor of 2x in the past few years.

Of course they always say places like McDonald's are really a real estate business disguised as a fast food joint. We'll see how well that holds up in this age of crumbling CRE values.

[SebFender]

We're more and more doing this exact thing and you know what - that's a good thing. Happy to see you and your family has gone this way - very smart thing.

[twelve40]

surely people who were stuffing their face at MCD are not going to switch to fresh cilantro and belpeppers and cooking every day. More like TV dinners and frozen hash browns. At any rate, slime mold had tons of links to how people are actually eating healthier and exercising more for many years now, but obesity is still trending up and even accelerating.