Inside before :each blocks you can refer to variables that you introduce via let later on.

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They do not need to be defined ahead of your before block and can be different for individual sections.

It works just like that:

describe User do
  describe '#locked?' do
    
    before :each do
      subject.should_receive(:current_plan).and_return plan
    end
    
    context 'when expiring today' do
      let(:plan) { stub(:expiry => Date.today) }
      it 'should be false' do
        subject.should_not be_locked
      end
    end
    
    context 'when expired yesterday' do
      let(:plan) { stub(:expiry => Date.yesterday) }
      it 'should be true' do
        subject.should be_locked
      end
    end
    
  end
end

Note this does not work for local variables you set in your it blocks.