Every meal you’ve eaten had a receipt. Someone paid it, even if you never saw it.

Everything that reached your table was bought, and the bill went somewhere. For years those bills were handled out of sight, by somebody working out what could be afforded this week and what would have to wait, and the whole process was kept away from you on purpose. You only ever see the finished plate. That arrangement is easy to mistake for the natural order of things.

Find out this week roughly what feeding your household costs. Ask rather than guess. Then do something with the number, whether that is wasting less, cooking once, or thanking whoever carries it.