Real life: I can no longer afford to eat out
Tiffany lives in the Randstad and works four days a week at a District Office. She doesn’t earn a bad salary, but eating out? She hasn’t been able to afford that for the past few years.
‘I just don’t get it. How do people do it, eating out as if it’s nothing? Seriously, just yesterday I saw photos go by on Instagram. Of an apparently happy couple in some fancy restaurant – candlelight, full wine glasses and those perfectly presented plates where you see more porcelain than food. And then I read the caption: “Just enjoying an evening out. We deserve it.” Yeah, sure, you deserve it. But what do you earn at work that you can even afford this?
Everything is expensive
I mean, let’s be honest. Everything is expensive these days. Gas, electricity, groceries, public transport, insurance… And we haven’t even mentioned rent prices. I pay almost fifteen hundred euros a month for this tiny apartment! But no, other people don’t seem to be bothered by it.
They happily sit in restaurants where a main course costs at least thirty euros. And we’re not talking about steak, no, something with “caramelised cauliflower mousse with crispy capers.” What even is that? Is it food? Or a joke?
Adjusting priorities
It’s not as if I’m bad with money either. Or that I spend my money on the wrong things, such as stuff I don’t need. That isn’t even the case. Maybe I need to adjust my priorities and move somewhere cheaper, I’ve often thought. But the problem is: it’s hardly possible to live somewhere cheaper anymore.
And if I go out for dinner, to a good restaurant, I’ll easily spend 60 euros on a starter, main course and dessert. And that’s with just one glass of wine, because these days you can easily pay eight euros per glass. Eight euros! For a glass of wine that you can buy an entire bottle of at the supermarket. And yet, when I walk past a restaurant like that, they’re all sitting there, smiling and raising their glasses, as if inflation doesn’t affect them.
Pasta sauce from a jar
I’m not saying people aren’t allowed to enjoy themselves, okay? Really not. But it just feels… unfair, you know? As if I’m missing out on something. Do they have a secret trick? A money tree? Or do they work themselves to the bone during the week so they can afford a plate of carpaccio on Friday night? Because if that’s it, I’m not sure that would make me all that happy.
Eating out is so much fun
Not that I’m happy about cooking at home again tonight, because I really love eating out. And if you cook for yourself every day, you treat yourself less and less often. Tonight it’ll be pasta with tomato sauce again. The sauce comes from a jar, but hey, it fills you up. And it doesn’t cost me a month’s rent. But when I think about how I used to eat out regularly, and how bavette with truffle jus was still affordable, I sometimes do get genuinely sad.’
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Tiffany’s name has been changed for privacy reasons. Her real name is known to the editorial team. Would you also like to share a personal story (anonymously!)? You can email us at info@favorflav.com
