Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,231.
Feeding a large family on a small budget.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1,231.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Sorry.
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This episode is a dialogue between Parish and Sandy about having enough food for a big family and when you don't have a lot of money.
Let's get started.
Are you shopping for an army?
Oh, hi Parish.
No, my three nephews have come to live with me.
I'm not sure how I'm going to feed them on a tight budget.
My mother was a master at making a little go a long way.
There are seven kids in my family What did she do?
She only bought fruits and vegetables that were in season and generic or store brands.
I'm trying to do that and also buying only staples.
My mother also bought in bulk.
I'll need to start doing that.
By using some time-tested recipes.
She planned meals for an entire week and each ingredient did double duty.
Nothing went to waste.
That sounds like a good plan.
My mom also never turned her nose up at day-old bread or marked-down food.
She was amazing and she made it work.
I need to take a cue from your mother.
I love those boys, but they're going to eat me out of house and home.
Parish begins our dialogue by asking Sandy, Are you shopping for an army?
To shop means to go and buy things.
An army, of course, is a large group of people usually who are fighting for a country as part of their military.
So the question are you shopping for an army?
Is, of course, a joke, because We can imagine that Sandy and Parish are at the grocery store, a place where you buy food, and Sandy has a lot of food in her shopping cart, in that little thing that you push around a store that you put your food in while you are shopping.
Sandy says, oh, hi, Parish.
No, Sandy.
Sandy says that she has three nephews, sons of either her sister or her brother, who are now living at her house.
We're not sure why.
Sandy says I'm not sure how I'm going to feed them, how I am going to give them enough food on a tight budget.
Your budget B U D G E T is the amount of money you have to spend on something.
A tight T-I-G-H-T budget is the same as a small budget, which is not very much money, a very limited amount of money.
Parish says, my mother was a master at making a little go a long way.
To be a master, M-A-S-T-E-R, at something, means to be very good at something.
Parish says his mother was a master at making a little go a long way.
To make a little go a long way means to be able to use a very small amount of money to do a lot of things.
To be very efficient about the way you spend your money.
Parish says there are seven kids in my family.
Parish thinks he has a big family, but we all know he doesn't really.
I mean, I come from a family of 11 children, so Parish, eh, not so big.
Sandy says, what did she do?
Meaning, what did your mother do in order to feed all of you or give you all enough food?
Parish responds she only bought fruit and vegetables that were in season and generic or store brands.
When we say fruits or vegetables are in season, we mean that they are growing at this particular time of year, usually in the area where you live.
For example, in the Midwestern United States where I grew up, corn was in season in August and September.
That's when the corn was ready to eat that was being grown in the area around where I lived.
Well, there wasn't any corn where I grew up in.
Next to me.
I mean I grew up in the city but in the general area of Minnesota there was a lot of corn, especially in August and September.
The corn was in season.
Fruit and vegetables that are in season are usually cheaper or less expensive to buy.
That's one way that Parish's mother was able to feed her family.
Parisha's mother also only bought generic, G-E-N-E-R-I-C, or store brands, B-R-A-N-D-S.
A generic or store brand is usually a product that is made to taste like or look like a more famous kind of product, but is a lot cheaper.
For example, you can buy Coca-Cola, a type of soda, at most American grocery stores.
But you can also buy soda, or soda pop, as it is called in some places that tastes similar to Coca-Cola but has a different name on it.
This is often a generic or a store brand that is produced at a cheaper price and that isn't as expensive as a similar product made by a more famous company.
It's not exactly like the more famous brand.
You can't buy pop or soda pop that tastes like Coca-Cola exactly, but it's similar and it's usually cheaper.
That's a generic or store brand.
Sandy says she is trying to do something similar.
She's also trying to buy only staples.
A staple S T A P L?
E refers here to a basic ingredient that can be used in many different ways to make different kinds of food.
A staple, at least in the United States, would probably include things like milk eggs salt, perhaps sugar, certain kinds of meat.
These are ingredients or things you can make food out of, that can be used in many different ways or that are considered things that everyone needs or wants to eat.
In some countries, rice is a staple.
You will eat rice at almost every meal.
In other countries, potatoes are a staple.
They are things you eat all the time.
Parish continues, my mother also bought in bulk and stocked up when things were on sale.
To buy in bulk, B-U-L-K, means to buy a lot of something, to buy a large quantity of something.
So instead of buying... say two cans of corn, you would buy 10 cans of corn.
You would buy in bulk because often it's cheaper to buy a lot of something.
There are stores here in the U.S. where you can only buy in bulk.
You have to buy a lot of things of whatever it is you're buying.
Parish's mother also stocked up when things were on sale, that is, when they were being sold at a lower price by the store.
To stock S-T-O-C-K up on something is a phrasal verb meaning to buy a large amount of something to use in the future.
Sandy says, I'll need to start doing that.
Parish continues, she was also able to spend less by using some time tested recipes.
Something that is time-tested is something that has been used many times in the past, often in the past by different people, and has been found to be successful or has worked very well.
A recipe R-E-C-I-P-E.
Parish says his mother planned meals for an entire week and each ingredient did double duty.
An ingredient...
I-N-G-R-E-D-I-E-N-T is something that you combine with something else to make a certain kind of food.
So if you're going to make bread, you're going to need flour as one of your ingredients.
You're probably going to use eggs and water and a few other things.
Those are all ingredients you use to make the bread.
Parisha's mother made each ingredient that she bought from the store do double duty, D-U-T-Y.
The expression to do double duty means to use something in two different ways.
Nothing went to waste, Parish says, meaning everything his mother bought she used somehow in her cooking.
Sandy says, that sounds like, or that appears to me to be, a good plan, a good idea.
Parish says that his mother used Never turned her nose up at day-old bread or marked-down food.
To turn your nose N-O-S-E up at something means to refuse to do something because you think you're too good for that thing or you are better than something that you are being asked to do.
You may turn your nose up at working as a janitor cleaning toilets, because you think you are better than that.
Parish says his mother never turned her nose up at day old bread.
If you go to a bakery, a place that makes bread day-old bread will be cheaper, even though it isn't as good.
Day-old bread is an example of food that would be marked down.
To mark down the price of something is to reduce the price of something, to make something cheaper to buy.
Sandy says, I need to take a Q-C-U-E from your mother.
To take a cue from someone means to follow someone else's example, to do what someone else has done.
Sandy says, This is an old expression.
To eat someone out of house and home means to eat a lot of food, so much so that the parents don't have enough food to give everyone enough to eat.
It's a phrase used to describe children who have big appetites, who like to eat a lot of food.
Why do we say both house and home in the expression, you may be wondering?
I don't know.
It's just an old expression.
Sometimes there isn't a logic to why expressions are the way they are.
That's just what we say, to eat someone out of house and home.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Are you shopping for an army?
Oh, hi, Parish.
No, my three nephews have come to live with me.
I'm not sure how I'm going to feed them on a tight budget.
My mother was a master at making a little go a long way.
There are seven kids in my family.
What did she do?
She only bought fruits and vegetables that were in season and generic or store brands.
I'm trying to do that and also buying only staples.
My mother also bought in bulk and stocked up when things were on sale.
I'll need to start doing that.
She was also able to spend less by using some time-tested recipes.
She planned meals for an entire week, and each ingredient did double duty.
Nothing went to waste.
That sounds like a good plan.
My mom also never turned her nose up at day-old bread or markdown food.
She was amazing, and she made it work.
I need to take a cue from your mother.
I love those boys, but they're going to eat me out of house and home.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2016 by the Center for Educational Development.
