Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 563, Reducing Household Expenses.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 563.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
And most importantly, a complete transcript of everything we say on this episode.
This episode is a dialogue between Roland and Ginger about household expenses the money that you have to spend to live in a house or apartment.
Let's get started.
If we want to save enough money to buy a house, we need to get serious about our finances and do some financial planning.
I think the first step is to create a household budget.
You know that I'm all about the bottom line.
Yeah, right.
I think we have a pretty good idea of our spending patterns, so it shouldn't be too hard to come up with a budget that we can both live with.
Right.
Okay, one thing we need to keep in mind is that we tend to underestimate our monthly expenses.
If you look at our discretionary spending on this spreadsheet I created, you'll be surprised at how much money we spend on non-essentials.
Okay, I can cut back on non-essentials.
You can?
Sure.
Instead of getting my nails done every week, I'll get them done only three times a month.
Well, that's a start.
And instead of buying a new 60 inch TV, we can get a 52 inch one instead.
That should save us a lot of money.
Roland begins by saying to Ginger, If we want to save enough money to buy a house...
We need to get serious about our finances and do some financial planning.
Roland and Ginger want to buy a house.
They need to save their money.
So they need to get serious about or focus on, be concentrated on, and actually do things seriously.
Your finances are how you manage your money, the way you save and spend, the amount of money that you save and spend.
Financial planning is the process of sitting down and thinking about your future and the money that you will need.
When you retire, how much money will you have to live on?
The answer is a lot.
Well, Roland says that he thinks the first step, the first thing they should do, is create a household budget.
Household refers to everyone who lives in your house, apartment, or condominium.
The father, the mother, the children, maybe grandma, maybe grandpa, and so forth.
A budget is a plan about how much you are going to spend for different things.
How much are we going to spend for food?
How much are we going to spend for gasoline for our car?
And so forth.
Ginger says, You know that I'm all about the bottom line.
The expression to be all about something means to be very interested in something, very involved perhaps.
In something.
I'm all about the Dodger baseball team.
I love to watch the Dodgers here in Los Angeles.
Ginger is all about the bottom line.
The bottom line refers to the amount of money that you have at the end of a certain period.
How much did you spend?
How much did you save?
Did you spend more than you saved, or did you save more than you spent?
I should mention that About, as a preposition, is used with a lot of different verbs and idioms.
Phrasal verbs
Take a look at the learning guide for some more information about that one.
Rowland says, yeah, right.
I think we have a pretty good idea of our spending patterns.
Your spending patterns are the ways in which you spend money.
A pattern is something that happens usually repeatedly over time.
You always spend about this much money every month on food, this much money on cable television, this much money on Starbucks, coffee and so forth.
Roland says it shouldn't be too hard, too difficult to come up with, to write down a budget that we can both live with, that we both agree to follow.
Ginger says, right, meaning I agree.
Roland says, okay.
Meaning one thing we need to remember is that we tend to underestimate our monthly expenses.
We tend to means we usually underestimate.
To estimate means to guess approximately how much of something that you need or want.
To underestimate means to guess or believe that something is smaller or less or perhaps less important than it actually is.
So if you say, oh, I estimate...
I spend 10 a month on gasoline and you actually spend 100 a month on gasoline.
Well then, you are underestimating.
The opposite would be, of course, to overestimate, to guess too high rather than too low.
Roland says that he and Ginger underestimate their monthly expenses.
Expense is money that is spent on something.
The money that you give to other people for something, that's an expense.
Roland says, if you look at our discretionary spending...
Discretionary means optional, something you have a choice about, something you could do or not do.
Discretionary spending is money that you don't have to spend, money that you could save or spend, depending on your decision.
A spreadsheet is an electronic document usually created by a program such as Excel or Lotus or other software that's used to store numbers and to make calculations about things, numerical things.
So what Roland has done is made a spreadsheet on the computer of how much they spend on, And he says they spend a lot of money on non-essentials.
Something that is essential is something you must have.
Food and water are essentials for human life.
Non-essentials are things you don't need.
A 56-inch flat-screen television is a non-essential.
Human beings can actually live without one.
I know that's hard to believe for some of you.
Computers are really essential for many people in their jobs and businesses.
They're not non-essential, at least they're not for me.
Ginger says, okay, I can cut back.
I can spend less on non-essentials.
Roland says, somewhat surprised, you can?
Ginger says, sure.
Instead of getting my nails done every week, I'll get them done only three times a month.
To get your nails done is to go to a place where they shape and paint your fingernails and toenails something that women usually do and some rock stars.
What Ginger is saying is that, instead of going every week to get her nails done, she'll only go three times a month, not four times a month.
Roland says, well, that's a start.
That's a beginning.
Ginger then says and instead of buying a new 60-inch TV, that is, a television where the screen is 60 inches, measuring diagonally from one corner to the opposite corner, we can get a 52-inch one instead.
That should save us a lot of money.
Of course, these are not very important sacrifices.
You're not going to save a lot of money doing these sorts of things.
Rowland says, I think you need to do the math.
When someone says, do the math, they mean look at the numbers.
Calculate, add and subtract, figure out exactly what the numbers are.
Do the math.
Math is short for mathematics.
Here it means really do the calculations.
If we don't cut back more drastically, we'll be ready for retirement by the time we can afford a house.
To cut back drastically, as I mentioned earlier, means to reduce, to decrease the amount of something.
The verb cut has several meanings in English.
To cut back is a phrasal verb, but there are other ways of using this verb that are explained in the learning guide.
Roland says that they have to cut back drastically. drastically means in a big way, a lot.
If they do not, they'll be ready for retirement by the time they can afford a house.
Retirement is when you quit your job, usually after you're 55 60, 65 years old and you don't work anymore.
In the United States, it's typical around the age of 65, though some people retire earlier and some later.
To afford means to be able to pay for something.
Roland is saying that they won't be able to buy a house for many, many years unless they cut back much more drastically.
Now we'll listen to the dialogue at a normal speed.
If we want to save enough money to buy a house, we need to get serious about our finances and do some financial planning.
I think the first step is to create a household budget.
Okay by me.
You know that I'm all about the bottom line.
Yeah, right.
I think we have a pretty good idea of our spending patterns, so it shouldn't be too hard to come up with a budget that we can both live with.
Right.
Okay, one thing we need to keep in mind is that we tend to underestimate our monthly expenses.
If you look at our discretionary spending on this spreadsheet I created, you'll be surprised at how much money we spend on non-essentials.
Okay, I can cut back on non-essentials.
You can?
Sure.
Instead of getting my nails done every week, I'll get them done only three times a month.
Well, that's a start.
And instead of buying a new 60-inch TV, we can get a 52-inch one instead.
That should save us a lot of money.
I think you need to do the math.
If we don't cut back much more drastically, we'll be ready for retirement by the time we can afford a house.
The script for this episode was written by someone who's all about writing great scripts, Dr Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time, won't you?
On ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2010 by the Center for Educational Development.
