Where has all this fabric come from?

The fabric I ordered a few weeks ago on Etsy from Fresh Modern Fabrics has arrived!  And boy it's nice looking.  Originally I had just planned to order some of Melody Millers "Ruby Star Rising" Transistor radios and viewfinders for Squiggles.  But then I saw that they still had some of Lizzie House's Castle collection.

Let just say I really really like castles and Medieval stuff, so I had to get some.  For what? Not sure yet, but I wonder if I can pull off making something for me from it?

The other bit of fabric is for a christmas gift.  We plan on a pretty minimal Christmas this year.  We are only buying a few things, the rest I'm making.  And I'm not necessarily making that much either.  We really want to move to quality, not quantity and start to teach Squiggles that he doesn't need to get lots of stuff to have an awesome Christmas.

I also visited a local quilt shop to buy the rest of the fabric for the handmade gifts.  This store stocks some of the nice designer fabrics I see online.  Like Amy Butler, as seen frequently below.

They also had this awesome fabric with a print of an old paris map. Awesome.  And since then, I've seen online that the same collection (3 Sisters for Moda)  includes fabric with old building plans on it.  Even awesomer, I'm hoping they get some of that.  And if so, I will be buying a bunch to make something for me!

I do heart fabric, yes, yes I do...  Anyone else already planning/making Christmas gifts yet?

We love food, perhaps too much

Last night we went out for dinner.  It cost a good chunk of money, and we had a coupon.  But it was oh so yummy and allowed some much needed adult time.

I admit that one my husband and I's biggest weaknesses is food.  We both love it, and in particular the ritual of eating out.  I'm not sure where this came from though.  When I was growing up, we ate out maybe twice a year. And normally that was a meal at the mall, which we traveled too twice a year for spring and fall clothes shopping (The nearest mall was an hour away)  There was also very, very few choices to eat at where I grew up, So when I moved to the big city for University, restaurants and take out were plentiful and convenient.  I've also always had good paying jobs, even through University, so I could afford it.  Or so I thought.

Eating out is the one part of our budget we are having real trouble paring down.  And I think if we could, we'd see our debt disappear much faster.  Mr. Bear is an awesome cook, and we get fresh local organic produce delivered every other week to cook with.  And I love to bake, so eating at home should be easy.  But it isn't.  It is very easy to find excuses to eat out.  "Oh we have errands to run after work and so we'll be home too late to make dinner, so lets pick something up".  Oh we had a hard busy day today, lets eat out to avoid the clean up etc."  And I admit, I'm the worst offender!

That said, I think food should take up a good chunk of your budget.  All this talk about rising food prices is interesting to me.  Historically food would have taken up a massive chunk of  a households income, but nowadays we expect it to take a tinier and tinier portion.  Presumably to leave more money to buy stuff we really don't need.  So while I don't mind spending money on food per-say, eating out as much as we do is still too costly.

Anyone have any tips on keeping dining out costs down?  Our current plan is to set a very tight budget for casual/spontaneous eating out, and also to set up regular (monthly) date nights for Mr. Bear and I to get our fix of formal restaurant dinner meals.   But I'm not convinced it will work... yet...