A blanket, some grass and a bag of chips can beat a pricey restaurant if the company is right.

What makes an evening good is mostly who is in it. Setting and spending contribute at the margins, and past a fairly low threshold they stop contributing much at all, which is why an expensive dinner with the wrong company drags and a bag of chips on some grass does not. The variable people work hardest on is usually the one that matters least.

Plan something cheap and deliberately unimpressive this week. A park, a walk, somebody’s kitchen floor. Put the effort into who you invite and how long you stay rather than into what it costs.