Also while the camping/food materials seem plenty i have heard that if you Long Rest too often then some story plots/events "secretly" proceed in the background which tends to block you out from a notable chunk of the story/events (like a person you could have saved might already be dead if you Long Rest too often).
There are some events like that, but *usually* the game pretty clearly tells you if a quest is on a timer. On the flip side, there are quite a few camp events that only happen when you long rest. I imagine you would miss out on those if you avoided long resting and progressed too far in the story. Because of that, I make a point of resting enough to exhaust those events before making any major moves in the story.
On average, I think I rest, like, maybe after every 2nd or 3rd fight? I don't avoid using spells, because spells are fun and I think "saving them for later" is a bad habit (much like hoarding potions and single-use magic items), and after a few fights my magic users are usually completely spent.
