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Hello and welcome back to English Unleashed.
I'm Tom.
And I'm Sarah.
Thanks for joining us today.
Today, we're going to talk about something very real for everybody.
Money.
Yeah.
Whether you have a little money or a lot of money, we all have to deal with it every single day.
And when English speakers talk about money, they often use idioms.
OK.
What do you mean by idioms, Sarah?
Well, that's a good question.
Idioms are special phrases that don't mean exactly what the words say.
For example, if I say this phone cost me an arm and a leg, I don't mean I gave my arm or leg to the shop.
I just mean it was very expensive.
Okay, that's very clear.
So here is how this episode works.
First, we will listen to a dialogue between two friends.
They're talking about money problems and dreams.
Then Tom and I will explain the idioms one by one with lots of simple examples.
Okay?
So are you ready?
Let's begin.
Oh, Mark.
I'm really struggling this month.
I'm having a hard time.
I'm flat broke.
After I paid my rent and my bills, I have no money left.
Not even five dollars.
I can't even buy dinner outside.
Oh, me too.
I'm trying to tighten my belt until payday.
I don't go to cafes.
I don't buy snacks.
Last week, my friends asked me to go to a party, but I said no.
I didn't want to spend more money.
Yeah, I understand.
Last weekend, I went shopping, and I spent money like water.
I saw a sale, and I thought, oh, this is cheap.
I should buy it.
First shoes, then a dress, then a bag.
It felt exciting in the shop, but when I came home and opened my wallet, empty.
Now I feel so silly.
That happens to me as well.
I got paid last week and for one day I felt rich.
I even bought takeaway food for dinner.
But two days later, most of the money was gone.
And then, as always, something bad happened.
My car broke down.
The repair cost me an arm and a leg.
The man at the garage gave me the bill, and I almost cried.
It was $500.
Oh no, that's really bad. cars always cost an arm and a leg.
First petrol, then insurance, then repairs.
That's why I don't even want to buy a car.
I just use the bus.
Maybe you are smarter than me.
But still, life is expensive.
Every month, I pay my rent, I buy food, I buy a bus ticket, and then nothing is left.
I feel I'm living from hand to mouth.
There is no extra money, no savings, nothing.
Same here.
Sometimes my friends say, let's go on holiday.
I want to say yes, but I can't.
I don't have money for holidays.
I only have enough for food and bills.
I'm living from hand to mouth too.
It makes me feel worried every month.
Yeah, it's the same for me.
Every time I think, this month I will save.
But then, something happens.
A big bill, or a birthday, or the car, and my savings disappear.
It makes me feel really tired.
Sometimes I look at people on Instagram.
They travel, they eat in fancy restaurants, they buy new clothes every week.
I don't understand how they do it.
But for me, I don't want to be rich like that.
I just want to feel safe.
I want to have some money in the bank so I don't worry every time something happens.
Exactly.
But still, sometimes I dream.
I dream about winning the lottery.
Imagine hitting the jackpot.
If I won, I would buy a small house by the sea.
I would wake up, drink coffee on the balcony, listen to the waves and never worry about bills again.
That sounds great.
If I hit the jackpot, I would travel the world.
First Japan, then Italy, then Brazil.
I would stay in nice hotels, eat good food and send photos to all my friends.
Oh, that's a dream.
Okay, deal.
If you hit the jackpot first, you must take me on one of your trips.
Of course.
And if you win first, I want to stay in your seaside house.
I'll sit on the balcony and you can make me coffee every morning.
Deal.
But let's be honest.
Next month, we will still be tightening our belts.
True.
But at least we can dream together.
Okay, that was an interesting conversation.
The first idiom is flat broke.
This means you have no money at all.
Your wallet is empty.
Your bank account is empty.
You can't buy anything, not even small things like coffee or a bus ticket.
Imagine it's the end of the month.
You already paid your rent.
You bought food.
You paid the electricity bill.
And now you look in your wallet and you only see $2.
You can't buy coffee with a friend.
You are flat broke.
This happened to me last year after Christmas.
I wanted to give nice presents to my family and friends.
I bought clothes for my sister, a book for my dad, and toys for my little cousins.
It was fun to give gifts, but in January, I had no money left.
I was flat broke.
Yeah, I remember that.
You told me you even made coffee at home instead of buying it.
Yeah, I saved every coin I could.
For me, it was when I was a student.
One summer, I went on a big holiday with friends.
We traveled to Spain.
We ate in restaurants and stayed in nice hotels.
We had a great time.
But when I came back to England, I opened my bank account and saw almost nothing.
I was flat broke.
I even had to borrow money from my brother to buy food for one week.
Oh no.
Yeah, it was not fun.
Being flat broke feels very stressful.
That's why this idiom is useful.
Sometimes many people feel flat broke, especially after a holiday or after buying something expensive.
Alright, the second idiom is tighten your belt.
This means you spend less money than usual.
You stop buying extra things.
You only pay for the most important things like food and rent.
Yeah, imagine your boss gives you less money this month, or maybe your electricity bill is suddenly very high.
You can't spend like before.
You eat at home.
You don't buy new clothes and you don't take taxis.
You tighten your belt.
For me, this happened when I first moved to London.
Rent was very expensive and my salary was small.
I had to tighten my belt.
I didn't go to restaurants.
I cooked at home every day.
I even stopped buying coffee in cafes.
I did the same thing when I started my first teaching job.
My pay was very low and I had to tighten my belt.
I remember walking everywhere instead of taking the bus.
Sometimes I walked for 40 minutes, even in the rain, just to save money.
Wow, that must have been hard.
Yeah, and I also said no to birthday parties.
I love my friends, but buying a present and paying for food at a restaurant was too much.
When you tighten your belt, life feels harder.
You say no to things you enjoy, but it also teaches you how to be careful with money.
Exactly I learned to make lists before shopping, so I only bought what I really needed.
Alright, the third idiom is to spend money like water.
This means you spend money very fast, very easily, and often without thinking.
The money just goes away, like water running from a tap.
Yeah.
Imagine you get your salary on Friday.
On Saturday, you feel excited, so you go shopping.
You buy new clothes, some shoes, maybe even a new phone.
On Sunday, you look in your wallet and most of the money is gone already.
That is spending money like water.
My cousin does this all the time.
She loves shopping.
When she gets her salary, she goes to the mall straight away.
She buys expensive makeup.
She buys expensive clothes, sometimes even things she doesn't need.
One week later, she says, oh no, I have no money left.
She really spends money like water.
It's easy to spend money like water when you are happy or excited.
But later, you will feel flat broke and you say, why did I do that?
All right.
The fourth idiom is to cost an arm and a leg.
This means something is very expensive.
You pay a lot of money for it, maybe too much.
Yeah.
For example, imagine you want to buy the newest phone.
It's over $1,000.
That is so much money for just one phone.
You can say it costs an arm and a leg.
For me, it was my first laptop.
I needed it for university.
I went to the shop, and I saw the price.
I thought, this is too high, but I needed it for my studies, so I had no choice.
I bought it.
That laptop cost me an arm and a leg.
For months, I had to be careful with money because I spent almost all my savings.
Yeah, for me, it was my car repair.
One day, my car stopped working on the way to work.
I took it to the garage and they told me, you need new parts.
The bill was almost $600.
I was shocked.
I felt so angry because the car itself was old, not even worth much.
But the repair cost me an arm and a leg.
Well, this idiom is great when you want to complain about something that feels too expensive.
Exactly.
Clothes, phones, cars, even rent these days.
Many things cost an arm and a leg.
Alright, the next idiom is to live from hand to mouth.
This means you only have enough money for food, rent, and the very basic things.
You have no extra money for fun, for holidays, or for saving.
Yeah, imagine you get your salary at the start of the month.
You pay your rent.
You pay your bills.
You buy food.
At the end, there is nothing left.
You can't go to the cinema.
You can't go on holiday.
You can't buy new clothes.
That is living from hand to mouth.
This was me when I was studying in London.
Every month, I got a little money from my part-time job.
I paid my rent.
I bought food.
I paid for my bus pass.
After that, nothing was left.
If my friend said, let's go out for dinner, I had to say no.
If they wanted to go to the cinema, I couldn't go.
I was really living from hand to mouth.
So, this idiom is very useful when you want to say you are surviving, but only just, okay?
You have enough for today, but no extra for tomorrow.
Yeah, and many students know this feeling very well.
All right, and the last idiom is to hit the jackpot.
This comes from casinos.
In a casino, if you pull a machine and it gives you a lot of money...
That is called hitting the jackpot.
But in everyday life we can use it to mean you suddenly get very lucky or you suddenly get a lot of money or success.
Yeah, if you buy a lottery ticket and win millions, you have hit the jackpot.
But we also use it when someone finds something really good, like a great job or a perfect house.
For me, I felt like I hit the jackpot when I got my first full-time teaching job.
Before that, I worked in small cafes and I didn't have much money.
But suddenly, I got this job I really loved.
The students were friendly, the pay was good, and I felt so happy.
I thought, wow, I really hit the jackpot with this job.
That's nice.
For me, it was when I moved into my flat.
I was looking for months.
All the flats were too expensive or too small or in bad areas.
Then I found this one.
Cheap, big and in a nice street.
I really felt like I hit the jackpot.
So remember this idiom can be about money, but also about luck jobs houses food, many things in life.
Yeah, it's a happy idiom, because when you hit the jackpot, something really good has happened to you.
Alright, so today we learned six idioms about money.
Yeah, and remember, idioms make your English sound more natural.
But don't worry if you can't remember all of them today.
Just choose one or two and try to use them this week.
The more you connect these idioms to your own life, the easier they are to remember.
Exactly.
And don't forget, learning English is like saving money.
A little every day makes a big difference in the future.
Oh, I love that.
So keep practicing, keep listening, and soon you will hit the jackpot with your English skills.
Thanks for listening to English Unleashed.
Take care, everyone, and see you next time.
