I expected to see changes on the spending side, but that didn't happen. We're fairly frugal, so without large discretionary spending you kinda spend as you have to.

What did change, though, is how I view friction. I started embracing it.
While on the fiat standard, I was chasing convenience above all else. Even if it cost slightly more, I was able to convince myself it was worth the time savings.
As I started using bitcoin as money, I had to track more things manually.
It takes a bit of work, much less than I thought, but it still is friction.

Extending from that, I took on more friction when choosing where to spend. If there's a merchant accepting sats with good (enough) products, I'll put in the extra effort needed to spend there.

I guess, sometimes friction can be a good thing. It makes me pause and remember why I am not always choosing the route with the least resistance. It also makes me think how much friction would be too much. How much am I willing to compromise on quality, and a few other things I never thought about before.

What's your favorite non-bitcoin thing about South Africa?

The people. They're so used to inefficient and at times incompetent government on all levels that they find ways to make things work.

And then the landscapes. Particularly around my favorite area, Cape Town. Beautiful mountains, white beaches, extremely beautiful coastal road. Search for "Chapman's Peak Drive" and take a look at a few images to get an idea. And there's more just like that.

What's your least favorite?

Bureaucracy. It's an absolute nightmare. Add in demotivated clerks, many of which haven't exactly had the best education, a slightly non-standard situation, and you know you're in for a months long if not not multi-year process.

Yes, but with caveats.

The TLD;DR is: I have the numbers to show that the sats we have spent and continue to spend were bought at a steep discount considering how long ago we bought them.

That required three key pieces.

First, we live on less than we earn. That's been automatic for us ever since we got out of debt a long time ago.

The second part was, during the first year and a bit, I was stacking like everyone else. I wouldn't spend at all, just stack and hodl.
That built a buffer, and the sats bought via DCA during that time have "aged" so to speak. They gained in terms of fiat value over time.

The third part, finally, is spending and replacing. And replacing more than spent (which obv wouldn't be possible without the first point).

The net result is that the time gap between the sats we spend today and when we bought them keeps growing.
And the longer that time gap, we usually gain more in purchasing power even if there are temporary setbacks.

I encourage anyone to give it a go. Not all in but just start with one small thing. Buy it with sats every month. Replace those sats with a bit on top. Keep track of purchases and spends and see for yourself how you keep growing your purchasing power as the same thing keeps costing fewer sats.

Wherever the current weather is in the 20-25C range (that's 68-77 in freedom temperature units) and I can count on frequent sunshine.

Or in a pinch, wherever it ain't winter-esque right now.

Not yet! That would be the dream. I'm working on it for my next engagements.

The closest I got was getting paid in filthy stable shitcoins. At least that was somewhat easier to exchange without going through centralized kyc riddled places.

Excellent question and a tough one. Thank you.

I suppose the most surprising was how much my wife as embraced it. She's very far from you usual "bitcoiner type", very frugal and conservative when it comes to money matters.
When I discovered Bitcoin, I sat down and explained to her what I see in it, and that I'd give it a real go with a limited portion of money.

My first surprise was that she wasn't vehemently against it.
The second surprise when, about a half year of stacking in, she asked if she can have some in her own custody too, to learn it.
Since then, she's been getting used to it, spending freely (and replacing ore than spent obv), and just embracing it.

Now, a few years later, when she hears the price has tanked she says she wishes we would have spare fiat to buy more. xD

It took a lot of research. Frequent visits to BTC Map, and trying to get into local Bitcoin meetups/groups to find out where to spend.

Not so much hustling, as we're moving around a lot and that makes it very hard to build a strong relationship with merchants if we're only around a few months at most.

Good question. My taco exposure is limited as we don't spend much time in taco countries.

I still recall an awesome fish taco I got from some cart as we were traveling through Portland, somewhere around 2012?

We love pinxos with a nice, easygoing red wine such as a Crianza or alike. Makes for great sharing too.

Medium rare, ie. left most pic.

About a month ago, at our favorite local place, Turn n Tender, my wife and I had a steak each, shared some sides, and a few drinks.
It cost us just shy of 63k sats (tips included).

Self-custodial Lightning without us being in a fixed location where I can plonk down a computer as node.

I wish there were good, affordable, non-kyc hosted solutions in jurisdictions where I don't have to worry about it being back-doored from the word go.

As in gift card?
Prolly any one of the many Bitrefill options, use it with a throaway/anon email address.

My fav used to be a voucher for a gas station (Engen) in South Africa.
Now that MoneyBadger works at many gas stations, including Engen, I prefer using them.

If they were the only option, I would consider using them for that transaction only as long as they a) aren't programmable and I can get them via b) decentralized, c) non-kyc means.

Those three items are non-negotiable for me.

Lightning wins by volume. Easily.
As for total value, it might actually be close. Even slightly bigger ticket items tend to happen on chain more often than not.