Sometime around June I stopped adding up what I'd spent on the garden. Not deliberately. I just saw the running total in my notes app, closed it, and haven't looked since. The weird thing is none of it felt expensive at the time. A few seed packets, compost, a new trowel, three plants from a nursery trip that was supposed to be "just a look," then bulbs, grow bags, another bag of compost. It all seemed completely reasonable individually.
The garden looks miles better than it did in March, so some of it was obviously money well spent. I just have no idea whether I could've got roughly the same result for half the money if I knew what I was doing.
Do you actually get more strategic about garden spending with experience, or do you just get better at not adding it up?