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Gretchen’s $92 Grocery Shopping Trip and Weekly Menu Plan for 6!

How to Find and Build Better Friendships

Gretchen’s $92 Grocery Shopping Trip and Weekly Menu Plan for 6!

Aldi

1 bag Frozen Chicken Breasts – $8.49

1 pkg Oven Roasted Turkey – $5.29

4 boxes Mac & Cheese – $0.55 each

1 Half & Half – $2.55

2 dozen Cage Free Eggs – $2.59 each

1 Cucumber – $0.95

2 Peaches – $1.69

1 Honey Graham Cereal – $2.25

1 Tortilla Chips – $1.95

1 bag Shredded Cheese – $3.59

1 Strawberry Jam – $2.25

1 lb Ground Beef – $3.99

3 Avocados – $0.89 each

1 bag Veggie Straws – $2.49

1 pkg Hot Dog Buns – $1.29

1 bag Chocolate Chips – $1.99

1 can Refried Beans – $0.99

1 Chunk Cheese – $1.99

1 Taco Mix – $0.42

1 pkg Cinnamon Bagels – $1.95

1 bag Baby Carrots – $1.19

1 pkg Romaine Lettuce – $2.69

1 pkg Tortillas – $1.95

1 bag Mini Cucumbers – $1.89

2 pkg Strawberries – $1.89 each

1 box Dino Nuggets – $7.99

1 lb Butter – $3.19

Total: $75.80

Ingles

3 pkg Steak – Marked down to $2.59, $2.32 and $3.06

3 pkg French Bread – Marked down to $1.58 each

1 pkg Hush Puppies – $2.58

1 gallon Milk – Marked down to $1.49

Total: $16.78

Total for all groceries: $92.58

Menu Plan for This Week

Breakfasts

Cereal, Eggs, Bacon, Bagels, Oatmeal, Yogurt

Lunches

Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches/Chips/Fruit x 2, Mac & Cheese/Veggies/Yogurt x 2, Turkey Sandwiches/Chips/Carrot Sticks, Cheese/Crackers/Cucumbers/Apple Slices, Leftovers

Dinners

Grilled Steak, Tossed Salad, Hush Puppies, French Bread

Pancakes, Eggs, Bacon

Hamburger Vegetable Soup, Homemade Bread

Tossed Salad Bar with Chicken, Leftover Homemade Bread

Soft Taco Bar, Chips & Homemade Guacamole

Meatloaf, Biscuits, Steamed Broccoli

Pizza

How to Find and Build Better Friendships

What do you do if you’re dealing with feeling like no one ever invites you to do anything and you are lonely? My guest on the podcast this week, Laura Tremaine, is the perfect person to help me tackle this topic because she has written a whole book about it titled The Life Council: 10 Friends Every Woman Needs!

Laura joins me today to discuss friendship and community especially when it comes to women. She discusses how women struggle to make and then keep friends as adults and how the pandemic made the struggle even worse for some people, and then she recommends that we think of friends as a life council (hence the title of her book) of different types of people who each bring different strengths to our lives.

We also talk about how unrealistic expectations of others and of friendships can be harmful because they can lead to disappointment. I love how she encourages us in practical ways to look around and see the gifts in people already in our lives. It’s so easy to miss that and to take those already in our lives for granted.

Laura also shares personally about recognizing her own weaknesses (not prioritizing returning texts promptly enough and more) and how she worked on being more intentional in these areas in order to show her friends love in ways that would be meaningful to them. She also leaves listeners with some helpful advice, encouraging lonely women to not give up, to keep trying with new friends but to get rid of the narrative that they tell themselves that they are unlikable. She challenges us to let go of holding too tightly to our idea of a perfect friendship to make space for appreciating the people already in our lives and being in a healthy space to allow new friendships to bloom.

Laura helps us understand how to reframe friendships and think of them from a brand-new perspective. Many of the things she shared in this episode are things I’ve thought about time and time again since we recorded this.