Episode four fifty one, Frugal Entertaining and Hosting.
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and live a life here your hosts, Jen and Jill.
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my name is Jill, and today we are talking about how to host people frugally, and we think this We're even going to tell you how it's good for you and why you should do it. All frugal people should and which is great because a lot of people, when we pold you in the friend letter, a lot of you said yes, you do enjoy having people over.
A good amount of you said no. The close second is no, and then others view said I wish I could, but my face space feels too small, or I'd like to, but it can be so expensive. So most of you either are or would like to, but there's barriers. Yeah. Anothers of you you just know yourself and you're not doing it. You're probably not listening to this episode either. Yeah.
So, I mean a lot of you mentioned groceries are too much. That's one of the reasons cleaning and in baking in advance. So we are going to talk. We're going to overcome the stigma and get you entertaining this holiday season without breaking the budget with actually, we don't save you money. Okay, So forget that drive through light thing in the baseball field. I guess it's not drive through, but walk through that costs like sixty five bucks. Forget it.
You go through a party. It's going to be great. But first, our sponsor today, this episode is brought to you by the Horrors. The horrors person like opening an email ten seconds before you start to record to find out your child has your child school's closing for the next two days, and you don't know what to do with yourself because you have five interviews and meetings over
the next two days. The horrors. Another horror is that interest rates on highield savings accounts are going down, and so if you have been waiting to open a high yield savings account, you cannot afford to wait anymore. Ciit is still one of the highest. It went to four point five percent APUY, which is still really good. So get your emergency fund in a highield savings account. Now they're all still like ten times more than regular savings accounts.
Attached to your checking account. So if you want to go with our current favorite frugal friendspodcast dot com slash ciit, do not wait. The horrors will continue to persist as the Fed continues to lower interest.
Rates, but you can be prepared for the individual horrors of your life by having your emergency fund locked and loaded.
Like when you have to emergencily do something with your child, because.
Floor just just.
Taking them out of school every every hurricane, right like whatever, I'm just kidding. It's fine, It's it's good that they're doing it. I just you know, you need to pivot.
I need to pivot.
And if you need to pivot into a more festive mind set, then well, actually more this episode is really about connection, right. We all are festive in our own ways. Some of us like death and that's really Halloween is our you know, our season, and some of us really like twinkly lights and we go for that and for you know, those holidays, and others like food, you know, and there's a holiday for you too. So there is a holiday for everybody coming up, and we want you
to celebrate it by connecting with people. So we've got a couple episodes you can cueue up. After this episode three eighty nine, creativity over Consumerism. We'll be talking a lot about that idea today. But then also episode three hundred, how to say no to family and friends who want you to spend maybe having a more lavish party because somebody else you knew had their party was very, very lavish. You can say no to that, And so that's a episode three hundred is a good one to build that muscle.
But let's get into our headlines today.
This first headline that we're going to go through comes from Venue Report, and it is titled seven reasons why throwing a party is good for your health. We're only going to go through sex just because we like to keep it even. But I want to say I'm glad that we've titled this entered and hosting and not just throwing a party, because I think there is some delineation.
Parties absolutely fall under this umbrella, but I think just having people over, being willing to open our door and host people in our home is also what we're talking about here, and we want to talk. We want to start the episode out with kind of getting even more
buy in to this idea. For those of you who answered no in the friend letter but still might be tuning in or even for those of you who think it's too expensive or my home is too small, I think getting our minds around this concept that it is good to open our homes, no matter how big or small, no matter how clean, no matter how aesthetic, it is to be able to have connection. And it's one of the ways that we can experience connection without all of the expenses of going out for an activity or out
to eat, and more just time together. So I like this concept of just let's get together, and how can we do this in a way that's manageable for us. Yeah.
So the first reason throwing a party is good for your health is that friends are good for your immune system. So apparently epidemiologists have been saying for years that people who have more diverse social networks are less likely to get a heart disease and live longer. And it does have a source. And we all know that the parties you throw, the more people you bring into your social network. And I love it, and I want to I want
to emphasize that. I think one of the reasons we may be apprehensive to throw parties quote unquote parties is that we think it's a lot of people. We think it's everyone that we know has to be invited. But a lot of apprehension in the friend letter from your responses was that your place isn't big enough to host a party. You don't have to have a big place to host a couple people. If your living room holds six, then you can invite six people to your quote unquote party.
Parties don't have to be ragers. It can be a game night, it can be a dinner. It doesn't have to be super formal with invites and all of that stuff. But just having like deeper connections with friends is better for your health. And so I think we have this all or nothing and we need to find a radical middle for where we are for the season that we're in to think, Okay, it's not that I can't have people over, but how can I have people over?
Yeah? The second reason to entertain in your own home is that hosting can teach you to embrace stress, which hear me out. I like how they reference this research that was done by a psychologist Kelly McGonagall, and she talks about how embracing stress rather than fearing it in simple scenarios can help increase your ability to manage more
stressful situations. And I would just say anecdotally, I feel like I can see this in my own self, especially through COVID, things got a lot more quiet, more insulated, and the things that typically weren't very overwhelming to me
became overwhelming because my world got smaller. And I think our capacities EBB and flow, what we can handle and manage on a day to day basis can shift, but we can also expand some of our capacities by introducing ourselves to some of these situations, not to overwhelm ourselves, but hosting a party or having a couple people over there is a bit of stress, but it's not necessarily bad stress, and we don't have to just live in a state of trying to avoid a repel stress. It's
a natural part of life. And the more that we can train ourselves in our stress response, how we engage with our stress reactions, can help us have experience opportunities to shift the way that we engage with our stress response and be able to manage it more effectively and be more prepared for stressors in the future. So sometimes I'll do this myself. It is a way that I can have a disruptor in my life. Otherwise it's just me and Eric hanging out in our house and it's
so quiet. That's nice, but what is that doing to me in the long term. So being able to have people over entertain, allow things to get messy, that is good for me, and I need to embrace that.
Yeah, I think that's such an important distinction between the good stress and the bad stress, because there is bad stress and we want to eliminate that from our life. And sometimes you're in a season with a lot going on and you can't afford to put more.
On your plate.
And in that instance, like maybe you are asking a friend if they want to have people over at their house. Obviously you should know that friend pretty well. But I think we have to be willing to do the to be the thing that we want.
Right.
We can't get mad that people aren't inviting us to their house if we are not inviting people to our home.
Right.
So, if you have a track record of doing that and you're just in a season where you can't, then you have permission to ask that of someone else. If you're not, you first have to be the change. You have to be the person that you want to interact with, and that create and that can create a good stress, like when you stretch something. When something is being stretched, that's putting it under stress. But usually like if it's pasta, do that's great. That's how you get yummy pasta. Is
you're stretching it and that's delicious stress. Right, So there is a difference, and it builds resilience, right, And it's the good kind of resilience. We don't always have to put ourselves into bad situations to build resilience. It can be sometimes controlled and good good stress. So the next one is it creates better sleep. Oh, sorry, that's yours. Three.
Socializing is good for memory skipping down, So it says according to a study by the American Academy of Neurology, people who who are travel and or socially active are fifty five percent less likely to develop symptoms of moderate cognitive impairment such as dementia. So that's really interesting. I don't know if I would say it's good for I guess you know your long term memory, sure, but I would say it's I think really learning new things is a definite piece to lessen the symptoms or you know
of dementia, and I think you do. When you're hosting people, You're learning about people, You're learning about people's experiences, you're learning about you know, things aro out hosting. So I do think it has something there. I think that's some aspecially active and travel piece.
Some of this is just highlighting the benefits of community and being socially active, and hosting is one way of being socially active. So it all kind of blends together and cumulatively, the more that we are engaging with friendships and our community, the better off we're going to be, just mentally cognitively, it can help. The next one on here is that you'll sleep better. This one's a funny one, but I can attest just that when you're a host,
it can be exhausting. It's a lot of work to set up the party and host the party and make sure everyone's having a good time and finding time to have meaningful conversations with your guests, and then cleaning up afterwards. Yeah, it is work. I would say it's worthwhile work, but you will be tired. Eric and I just hosted a fortieth birthday party a couple weekends ago, and by the end of the night, I was tired, and I did. I slept very good that night. So for no other reason,
throw a party so that you just absolutely exhaust yourself. Yeah.
Next is that it's a mood booster. Parties are a mood booster. And we're saying parties, but again we are really just saying anytime you have people in your home, it says getting together with people and laughing is hugely important. Neuroscientists Sophie Scott says, you're doing something when you laugh with people that's actually letting you access a really ancient evolutionary system that mammals have evolved to make and maintain social bonds and clearly to regulate emotions to make ourselves
feel better. And I'll take it one step further, is we usually we associate shopping with this dopamine response, right, and that's why we use shopping as an activity. But you can get the same dopamine response in anticipation of and actually much more during building connections with people than you even do with shopping shopping, A lot of the dopamine rush is the anticipation of buying, and once you
click buy, it's over. It's very short lived. It's a poor fulfillment for what you're actually wanting when you are building relationships with people, then that dopamine you're getting it in anticipation of the party and while you're there and when you're having like memories of it later. Right, and those are positive dopamine Rusha's not what we get when we're remembering what we impulse bought.
So yeah, we don't feel great about those, right, So we don't.
Want to fight against dopamine. That's a good thing in our brain. We want that, but we want to retrain our brains in how we fulfill that need.
The final reason we'll talk about from this article is
that hosting can help improve your organizational skills. You may not be perfect at it the first time if you're new to hosting or planning a get together, but if you allow yourself to exercise this a couple of times, you will get better and better, and that skill set can follow you into other types of things that you do, whether it's just daily life and managing your time or for the work that you do on a day to day Base says, learning how to best manage that time
is really crucial, especially with planning an event, and so learning how to give the adequate amount of time to whether you're decorating or getting the food ready, or sending out invitations or cleaning something, not focusing too long on anyone task, and how to break it down, how to make it even really simple, how to prioritize what is absolutely important that is ready for this party and what is not. What are the things that it's okay if that doesn't get done, And that skill set is going
to help us in a variety of other things. So it's just another way to be able to exercise your organizational skills. All right.
So our next article is where we're actually going to dive into how do you host an awesome party or get together on a budget? And this one comes from the very basics and as a basic bee, as a basic bury myself, I appreciate that. So we're going to go into a few things that can help you. The first is timing. When we think party, we think has to be Saturday night or Friday night, but it doesn't actually have to be. So maybe you're just doing a weekday.
You're doing something small on a weekday. It limits the number of people that are going to be coming over. So if you have a small place you can invite many more people and fewer people will come. That's a little trick. And then you're just doing something small, you know, like dinner and a game, or dinner and a scary movie for Halloween, or a Hallmark Christmas movie or whatever. So we have a friend that does a friends giving
and she cooks all the food. She really likes to go all out, but it's and then we always watch Harry Potter movies during the friendsgiving, like before during after, and it's such a fun little tradition. Right, So you can start your own small traditions. And maybe you are doing it on a weekend, but maybe you're doing it earlier. Maybe you're doing a brunch which is much more affordable
than a dinner. Eggs are such an affordable protein, or just a coffee, like a morning coffee for your girls, where you're doing coffees and donies, you know, like it's timing is everything, and having a party doesn't mean that that party has to be on Saturday night.
It also doesn't mean that it has to be over a meal. So all of our people in the friend letter who responded that it just costs too much, this is a big component is when are you having your get together? When are you hosting? You can have people over after dinner and maybe choose to have made a dessert or just do tea or a nightcap or whatever it is that you want to do, or like you said, have people over for coffee. It doesn't have to be expensive,
but that doesn't mean that you can't get together. The next thing is to send out e invites. I don't know many people who are actually sending invites in the mail to to get togethers other than maybe like a bridal shower or a webbing or a baby shower exactly.
You can just text, but if it is a little bit more of a party where you're having a lot of people and you don't want to have this massive text chain that inundates everybody's inbox, you could create something really simple on a free platform like Canva and send that out. So there are options to even make it look like an elevated party without it costing you anything. You can make free invites and send those out.
Yeah, ev I paperless post. They all still have free options, I believe, but are they are out there? Next is to accept help, and this kind of is a callback to our episode on your lack of community is costing you. This is where we want to help people, but we don't want to accept help. And so I think if somebody asks what can I bring, almost there's almost this like thing where you're like, you don't expect somebody to say you can bring anything, because like, normally people want
to get it all themselves. But I think with more intimate parties, then you can't, like, if somebody offers to help, you should accept it. It's more of a it's our party, not just it's my party sort of thing. That's also an option if you can't host at your house but you want to host at somebody else's, be like, hey, if you open up your home, like, I'll bring some of these things, and you know, I'll help with set up,
cleanup all that stuff. Some people just don't want. There was a lot of people that just hated cleaning right before and after a party, and that is a is a big thing. The bigger the party, the bigger the cleanup. So if we just kind of make our parties more intimate and less intricate, then we kind of eliminate some
of that. But we can also accept some help if you want the party to be bigger, and if it's not like a birthday party or something, you know, when I ask a person whose birthday it is, to help clean up.
Yeah, I've cared less and less over the years about telling people to bring things. I used to be like, no, just yourself, just yourself, and that's lovely. But most of the time then people guess and they bring, and that's fine too. People are kind that way, but we know for ourselves we don't like to show up empty handed, So neither is your guests. So rather than make them guess at something, let them actually contribute. So if they're asking, I am all here for it. Yeah, can you bring
some ice? Can you bring limes? Can you bring this? Can you bring that? And of course you can have a get together that's a pot luck and really just say bring whatever's in your fridge and that really saves money. But if you are kind of getting the majority of the things, like the party that I just had, I just did charcouterie. I had cheese and bread and crackers and a brushetta and let other people bring drinks to
share and ice and a dessert. There were different things that I let other people bring and they felt happy to be able to do that, so definitely recruit the help. The next one on here I am pushing back on, but I'll state it. They talk about buying discounted paper goods, which yes, fine, if it's going to make cleanup easier for you and you want to use some one time use paper products, you can find them discounted at stores
like Ross or Marshals that kind of a thing. But I would say, if you're not having a ton of people over use what you have on hand, use the dishes that you already have, and recruit the help for people to wash it at the end of the night or throw it in the dishwasher, or pick and choose which paper products you're gonna end up using. So for instance, the party we just had, I did use paper plates, but everything else was not, Like was just my things.
So I put out glasses with rubber bands so people could mark their glass with a rubber band to be able to keep track of it, because that's part of it. You're able to write on your plastic cups and keep track of your cups. But if you just implement a little bit creativity, you can also reduce the amount of waste that ends up happening and not have to purchase all of the plastic products either. Mm hmm.
Yeah, And I would say just getting if you're having a bigger party, don't be afraid to buy like just cheap paper products. I know, sometimes we want them to be festive, you know, we want to buy themed paper products, but they're ending up in the garbage, so and then we feel.
Weird about using them the rest of the year, right, you know, use.
Them all right, you are going to have leftovers. So just like maybe if you want it to be themed, pick a color like red. Red will go with Halloween, like for blood, it'll go with Thanksgiving, it'll go with Christmas, it'll go with Valentine's Day. You know, like there you go. It's I always try to pick a wrapping paper that
goes with birthdays and holidays, and then paper plates. I just get the regular ones, but if you want them themed, go with that or gold glitter, because that's what I got for when we had our Olympics party, and gold glitter just also goes with everything. But that's not a discount, that's.
Not a discount option.
Uh So, But that kind of leads me to the next one is decorate with household items and incorporate nature. So there can also be a lot of stigma around decorating for parties. If I'm throwing a Halloween party, do I need to decorate for Halloween? No, you don't. You can pick and choose. So maybe you're having a costume party and you don't decorate the house, but all the people are decorated. They decorate themselves, which is even better, and then they leave and you don't have to store
their decor. But or holidays, like I think everybody kind of already has, you know, their decoration already up, whether it's a Christmas tree or a manora or what have you. Like, it's going to be there anyway, so why do more? But I would say, pick and choose, like what you have with your decore, use the trash can trick that we love. Put it next to a trash can at Target or in the trash canal wherever you are, and
see if it still looks cute. If it doesn't, put it back, put it back and it's carefully curated, beautiful area. But use nature too.
This is another one that I have let go of my previous expectations of myself. I am accepting help, I am not prioritizing decore, and so in those ways it reduces the barriers to just have people over and connect with them. And it's the same thing the same concepts with our whole values based spending. I decide what is most valuable, where I want to invest my time and energy and money, and what I want to experience and
gain as a result. So because I'm not stressing about the decor or how good the food is going to be, or being super extravagant or not accepting any help, I'm able to do it so much more often. And I've noticed that people feel a lot more relaxed when I'm not so on edge that everything is just so and is everyone having the best time of their lives based on my decor do they think this is amazing? That's not what's important, just a space for all of us to be able to connect. I'm able to offer that.
The other things I think are a little bit peripheral.
There's always music. Music is great decor. Honestly, it creates an experience and you can play some spooking music. Also, we all have a friend that goes all out for a holiday, though, like that is their thing. Maybe it's not yours, but it is their thing. And if they're not hosting an annual party, you can help them do that. Show off their gift, don't hide it, show it off, help them show it off, and that's less stress for you.
Well, and I would rather spend my money on the things that are gonna make a difference for my house. I feel like we put a lot of money into our renovations. We've made our house I think really beautiful to us, and so I don't think the space needs
a lot more. I would have rather, and I continue to rather put money towards some upgrades for our home that are going to last over the decor that will either get thrown away or spend most of its time in a closet, And just let the house shine and spend my time cleaning it and then just eat good food. That's what I prefer anyways. Speaking of good food, my last tip on here is drinks the addition to the food. Save money on drinks. So they're talking about being able
to serve some Buday friendly things like water. Absolutely make sure water is available tea or lemonade or infused water or coffee. These are all things that you can make from scratch, or if you're not opposed to the tea and lemonade powders, that's fine too. They talk about not serving soda. I don't think I've ever served soda at a party. That's my bad. But again, I think drinks are one of the things that you can easily ask your guests to bring, even if they didn't ask. Can
I bring anything? I will often on an invite that I send out, Here's what I'll have on hand. I love to give people a heads up because I personally like knowing what to expect when I goes somewhere. So when I invite people, I let them know what I'm going to have on hand, and of course an open invite. If there's anything additional you're gonna want, feel free to bring it, but also feel free to bring a drink
to share. So I let other people handle the drinks, and then I tip just have maybe I have a bottle of wine or one cocktail on offer and water or just some tea, depending on what type of gathering it's going to be. But I don't go all out assuming that I'm going to provide all of the drinks for everybody because that can be a specific line item that makes throwing a party much more expensive.
Mm hmm, all right. And for the final the piece de resistance of party planning party throwing is food. So their recommendation is to buy food that's on sale, so that obviously is a very don't plan your menu until you know what's going to be on sale, and then let the sales guide you with what you want. I will say that when I throw a party, it is always BYO snack, so I'll provide like two and then they can bring, you know, any extras.
That's kind of because talk about your opening ceremonies party for the Olympics.
That was very fun, so that that was a larger scale so I can talk more in depth about it later, but essentially it was the opening ceremonies for the Olympics. Everybody got to pick a country that they wanted to bring a snack from, and we handled America and France because USA and then the host country and everybody else could pick what they wanted and we had a lot
of great options. I provided four snack options and then all the other families maybe brought one, some people didn't bring anything, and that's fine, and we had more than enough food. It was great. And when I am attending a party, then I will make something maybe like pigs in a blanket. If I'm hosting a party, I don't do something like that. I did do burger sliders for this one because it was a big deal for me,
but normally I would do something like that. I will do very simple foods if I'm hosting, because everything else I'm doing is very intricate, and I know, as the host sometimes we feel obligated to do the more intricate foods, but that I don't think that's the case. I think
let's focus on simpler foods. So they've got like fifteen minute chocolate chip brownie cups, skewers, veggies, marshmallows, cheeses all of his meats, like the charcuterie board, like Jill was talking, so just so, and charcuterie boards can get expensive, but I think if we're if we're thinking low cost staples, So like baking something that's not very intricate, it's usually pretty easy. Baking is a science, not so much a skill. So if you can follow directions, you can bake something
with flour. So keep it simple. It make it low cost, don't plan to feel everyone get you know, do two things. You can make two things from almost scratch. Doesn't need to be from scratch, and it's much more affordable than getting platters and trays and pre made baked goods.
Bonus to peer. Two. If you are hosting and it is including food, you're gonna have leftovers. People are gonna bring stuff and leave it. You're gonna make stuff and there's gonna be more leftover, And that's such a benefit here. So for instance, the party that I just hosted, I spent about fifty dollars between food and drinks, and I realized afterwards that's about how much Eric and I spend when we go out to eat after tip is all
said and done. That's a standard just out to a sit down restaurant type of thing, and we do do that a couple times a month, if not at least once a week. And so it was the same amount spent. But to have a ton of peace pull over in our home, and we have had leftovers for days now. It has fed us lunch and dinner for multiple days in a row. So there's there's added benefits. I'm not saying like, just have people over so they can buy your groceries. But it is a benefit of having people
over and enjoying food togethers. You get the leftovers.
You know what else is a benefit?
Yeah, it's no, sloppy second, it's.
No, And I always have leftover laughter afterwards.
The bill of the week.
That's right, it's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is Williams. Maybe you paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. That's bills, butffalo bills, Bill Clinton, This is the bill of the week.
Hi, ba is Mackenzie, and I have a bill of the week. A baby was born and his name is William.
My sister had a baby boy and they named him William. And that is my bill of the week. I'm a new aunt. Bye, Oh my gosh.
I also have to note that Goldie reviews these before she puts them in and had and made a note that said I'm on the floor laughing. So Mackenzie, you not only made us laugh, you made Goldie laugh, like fall on the floor laughing.
And she didn't even use the acronym for it. It wasn't even rolf, it was literally she wrote out. I'm on the floor laughing, and so are we. I love how short to the point syscty is and exactly what the Bill of the Week soundtrack calls for. Maybe a baby was born his name is William, and this happened to you. And I also love to imagine that when your nephew was born and he was named William, that our Bill of the Week and our podcast was one of the first things that you thought of. I want
to believe that. And we're going to live in our own reality now. Thank you so much, McKenzie. If you all are listening and you want to submit your Bill of the week, if it has anything to do with the examples given in the Bill of the Week soundtrack, or your name is Bill, or you want to make Goldie roll on the floor laughing just because you've got an odd, bizarre Bill of the Week, Frugal friendspodcast dot com slash bill leave it for us. We can't wait, And now it's time for the.
Hangw all right, So do you enjoy being a host or a guest more? And why? And I think this is a trick question, but you go first, Jill.
I do I enjoy hosting most, And you know, I think maybe my why is not entirely altruistic or at all all druistic.
You love the leftovers.
I love the leftovers. I think I like the control. I think I like to be able to curate the experience that I want, So it's entirely selfish. I like to not have to get in my car and go somewhere. I like to have my own bathroom right there for.
Me, A.
People coming, there's so many birds. Yes, how about you, jen Oh?
I love both. But I do love hosting for the reasons that you've said. I love invite people into my home. That's something that made the renovation really tough for me is that my home was not even a safe place to have my own kids in, let alone other peoples and other people in general. But now that we have a better place for that, I want to have people over more, and not every month, but definitely quarterly, just doing some kind of I don't know, just get together
just at dinner or some snacks, just something like. We have a really good house for parties. It's open floor plan. So I really do love being in control. Of the narrative and executing my own vision. So I think hosting can absolutely be selfish. It should be, and simultaneously you're
building relationships. But I also love being a guested. We went to a movie night at a friend's house on Friday, and it was fun to just be able to go over there, get out of our own house for a little bit, and talk to other adults, let the other kids, you know, entertain themselves. It was really nice.
Yeah, go ahead.
I am an advocate for going into other people's houses versus parks and restaurants and coffee shops and all that. I think we need to see each other's homes. I think we need to our homes need to not be perfect. I think we need to see each other's homes being not perfect, because then we don't fall for the illusion that we see on social media with all these perfect kitchens and perfect houses. Like we need to remind ourselves that life is not perfectly esthetic. This is not real life.
And the only way we do that is by going into other people's homes and being brave enough to invite people into our homes when they're not esthetically perfect. Soapbox, thank you for going to my ted talk.
Yeah. I mean, but two, I will clean before people come. And that's a perk too for me, is that I might not have a reason to clean ahead of time, and so it's like it's a both Eric and I are like, it's our reason to do some of these things that we've been putting off. So that's just a whole other perks that it's that reason to do it.
One of the things I also wanted to mention, and I'm so sorry for burying the lead, but for those of you who made it this far in the episode, I've been following this one Instagram account called host in your Home, and that's been super inspiring to me and even pushes back against the whole I don't have enough space, it's too expensive, my home is non esthetic, and she just gives the template for being able to have people
over even if your space is small. I think she doesn't have more than six to eight people over at a time, usually small gatherings, or she'll talk about how she hosts outside. She will make some really nice meals for people, but provide the recipes, making sure it's super simple, the type of thing that you can have prepared in advance, so you're not distracted when people are over, but just
kind of addresses all of those different barriers. And it's been super inspiring to me to kind of lower my expectations on what it looks like to host and give me new ideas of how to host without spending a ton of money. Eric and I were just talking about
this after we had a party the other day. We just really enjoyed that we would love to do something like this every month, and I told him about this account that I've been following, and it does just kind of inspire me at least to think about the ways in which I can open my home more regularly without it being super expensive or this big task that I have to get ready for just the low level, simple ways that we can engage in community in a more intimate way, so we don't have to be battling all
the noise of a restaurant or spending maybe even more at a restaurant than we would have spent on hosting people in our house. So it's just our encouragement and find the accounts that are going to help to influence
you in a good way towards community. Yes, yeah, So thanks everyone so much for listening We hope that this was inspiring to you to either go to somebody else's house and engage in their party and be the help that they need, or to host your own, even if it's just having two to three other people over, it's gonna be good for you. Yeah.
The challenge meeting like if I get it, I'm an introvert. It's weird, but like lean in a few times a year. You don't have to be the party planner party thrower every month, but a few times a year. If you want people to invite you to their you know, gathering or build relationships with you, be the person who pursues relationships with people.
Yeah. And something else that we love doing beyond just hosting and attending other parties and get togethers, is reading your kind reviews like this one from LW ninety six thirty one love the show five stars. Many personal finance podcasts are difficult for me to understand, and I usually turn them off feeling overwhelmed and doomed. Jen and Jill provide helpful tips and insights for people wanting to think about their personal finances with entry points that are accessible
to anyone. Wow, thank you, I'm so glad we're easy to understand.
That's so encouraging because sometimes I feel like I'm just out here with gobbledegook. So I'm glad it's coherent to somebody other than my brain.
Agreed. Thanks everyone, Yeah.
Please take a minute to leave a review if you found this help full. It helps potential new listeners know what our show is all about. And we'll see next time. Google Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni. So the horrors persist. We are expecting a hurricane this week.
Uh yeah, this episode comes out mid October, but right now we are end of September.
Which is height. September is height of hurricane season, and we've had one I think so far this year. That's kind of been troublesome. And so this is our second for the season, and we'll see how Yes.
Your kids are going to be out of school for two days and depending on how the storm goes, potentially three. That's nice, iha. Not how are you preparing other than scrambling to figure out what you're going to do with your kids?
Well, actually, I this year, maybe for the first time in my life, actually prepared my hurricane readiness kit in June when you're supposed to June first is actually the start of hurricane season, so that's when you should get all of your waters, your emergency food, toilet paper, paper, towels, generator or like maybe if we actually got a generator for the first time, nice and we got on Facebook
marketplace cool. So yeah, I've like tangibly with stuff. We are prepared, so thankfully, it's just kind of figuring out, you know, just it's not figuring out what to do with the kids. It's the kids will have. They already just had a three day weekend because there was an in service like a teacher training day Monday and today's Tuesday. Kai actually went into school late today because he had a dentist appointment, so not even doing a full.
Day today, hardly gone to school and then missing two days and then possibly going back for one day on Friday.
And it should be it should not be that bad.
For our area.
It's not projected to be. But things all things, when they change, they changed in the last minute. So I think it's just the struggles we will have getting back into the routine. It'll be a delayed trauma.
Yeah, for sure, So we'll see. I'm most curious if we're going to end up getting evacuated.
But well, we will have we will have a generator. That's all I can say. But we'll see, we'll let you know and go, probably not the next episode, but the episodes following that. How we fare?
Yep, all right, good luck, godspeed. Here's the horrors not persisting. The horrors persist.