This is not just budgeting; this is M&S budgeting.

Famed for their knee-quivering food adverts, Marks & Spencer have taken a dramatic step to boost sales: they have embraced the credit crunch.  After revealing their recent dramatic loss of market share, the Rolls Royce of UK supermarkets has abandoned their attitude of indulgence and is tapping into the changing mindset of UK consumers, who have seen the steepest decline in their disposable incomes during 2008 than at any other time in the last decade. 

The latest set of M&S adverts to hit our screens invites us cash-strapped consumers to rethink our attitude to M&S as indulgent (for both the hips and the wallet), by offering dinner for two for £10.  You get two main courses, two desserts and a bottle of wine for £10 – a pretty good deal in anyone’s book.  And yes, they still manage to delight with their food porn style adverts, but even better – this is food porn on a budget.

Personally, I have definitely been cutting back on the entertainment spending of late, and I know I’m not the only one.  Weekly cocktails with girlfriends are becoming fortnightly events – and more often than not we now opt for a bottle of wine rather than the cosmopolitans.  So I’m interested to know, are you spending less on entertainment lately?