A set of comments by Michael Hopkins on the Maximizers post —
We are really focusing on cutting out restaurants right now for health and financial reasons. One of our rules is that we can eat *anything* so long as it's at home or another person's house. We're spending a little more than we'd like on groceries, but we like the consequence a lot.
That intrigued, so I asked if there were any interesting takeaways. Michael wrote —
What it does for us is replace a bad habit with a good habit without relying on the exciting momentum of doing a new thing. Home eating is allowed to become more attractive than restaurant eating regardless of cost. The first week, it's easy to say to yourself, "no way I'm stopping in that cafe," and take pleasure in denying yourself. Three weeks later in the middle of a hard day, it's pretty tough to will your way through it, but when you have the permission to buy whatever you want at a grocery store, including complete garbage, you have an easy way out, and every time you don't break the One Rule it feels more unbreakable next time. That seems risky because you can spend hundreds of dollars at a grocer, but in practice, we are satiated well before we reach our old restaurant budget. Knowing we have that safety valve is enough and we have not actually had to use it more than a few times.
Useful and insightful. I love the phrasing of "One Rule" — it really is like that, eh? Grateful to have such smart readers.