I was surprised to see my purely food and drink burn rate cross 2000 (2150) for some months last year (I don't drink alcohol, so only occasional non alcoholic beer, etc). I'm a software consultant and eat on the go a lot. I moved from EV to FiDi in Jan and decided I'm going to go with only groceries for a month. No food that I brought (there wasn't any left before my move). Fresh start. No eating out at all.

I hit 650 total. This was without considering too much in the way of bargains, etc.. just lots of fruits and fresh produce and nothing freezer section or prepared.

That includes a few non alcoholic beers at bars.

That's a 70% reduction rate! I'm def done with restaurants and eating out because I never actually felt like I was receiving much value from it. Mostly far less healthy than my own meal prep, loaded with salt no matter what tier of food you're buying. Happy to make changes!

What's your experience with burn rate?