Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 434, Using Coupons and Rebates.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 434.
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.
Go there to download a learning guide for this episode and to take a look at our ESL Podcast store and ESL Podcast blog.
This episode is called Using Coupons and Rebates.
Many people use coupons and rebates to save money.
We'll talk about what those are by listening to a dialogue between Torsten and Cindy.
Let's go.
What are you doing?
Clipping coupons?
That's a waste of time.
You can think what you like, but these days we have to cut corners wherever we can.
No one actually saves much money using coupons.
That's what you think.
The last time I went to the grocery store, I saved over $20 just by using coupons.
How can you keep track of all of the expiration dates and the terms and conditions?
It's not worth the trouble.
Do you feel that way about rebate offers, too?
A month ago, I bought our new TV and saved 20%.
And yesterday, I bought a pack of DVDs for just $2.
Are you putting me on a pack of DVDs for $2?
Yeah, it was a great offer, but it was only for one day.
I had to cut out the UPC code. fill out a form, and mail it in with the receipt to the manufacturer.
Then I sent a copy of the receipt to the retailer and got another discount.
That's how I got the DVDs for next to nothing.
You might save money with rebates, but you have to sit around forever waiting for the rebate check.
It's true that the turnaround is often eight to ten weeks, but some of the offers are worth the wait.
Do what you like, but I'm too busy to mess around with coupons and rebates.
That's why you married a penny pincher.
If I left it up to you, we'd be in the poorhouse by now.
Torsten begins by asking Cindy, What are you doing?
Clipping coupons?
To clip something means to cut something, sometimes to make it shorter or smaller.
Here it means to cut something to separate it from what is around it.
A coupon is a small piece of paper usually that a shopper, someone in a store, will show in order to get a discount.
In the newspapers and magazines you'll often see coupons and you cut the coupon out.
We would say you clip the coupon and take it to usually a grocery store.
But it could be another kind of store and you get a discount.
You get to pay less money for that thing.
Torsten thinks clipping coupons is a waste of time.
Cindy says, means to save money or to save time by doing something differently, something that is not the normal or usual way.
Usually, cutting corners refers to saving money, but it could be saving time.
You don't want the airline pilot, for example, to cut corners when it comes to your safety.
You want him to take as much time as possible, or her.
Cindy says that they have to cut corners wherever they can.
Torsten says no one actually saves much money using coupons.
Cindy says that's what you think.
The expression that's what you think means you disagree with what the other person has said.
Usually this is followed by your reasons why you think that person is wrong.
Notice that there's an emphasis on the word you.
Well, that's what you think, but, and then you give your reasons why this person is wrong.
Cindy says the last time she went to the grocery store to buy food she saved over 20 just by using coupons.
Torsten says, how can you keep track of all of the expiration dates and terms and conditions?
An expiration date is the date after which something cannot be used or something will no longer be valid.
So if the coupon has an expiration date of November 1st, that means that you can't use it after November 1st.
Terms and conditions.
What some people in the business world call T's and C's.
Terms and conditions are parts of a legal agreement that gives specific details about how something will work or how something will function.
So it's the legal information about what you are selling or what service you are providing.
Torsten says that coupons are not worth the trouble, meaning they are not beneficial.
They don't really help very much, especially because you have to spend time clipping them and so forth.
Cindy says, do you feel that way about rebate offers too?
A rebate is money that you get back from the company that makes or sells a product, something that you buy after you buy it.
You can get from some companies on some products a rebate money back now.
Often you have to do something to get that money back.
A rebate offer is when the company says that they will give you some of your money back, or perhaps even all of the money back, if you buy this thing at a certain time or on a certain day, and usually you have to prove that you bought it.
So you have to send a form, send a piece of paper to the company with a copy of your receipt or some other, what we would call proof of purchase, meaning evidence that you bought something.
Cindy says a month ago she bought a pack or a set of DVDs for just $2.
Torsten says, are you putting me on drugs?
To put someone on is a phrasal verb meaning to trick someone, to deceive someone, to get someone to believe something that isn't true.
Sometimes people do this just to be funny.
When I say for example that...
You can find tickets to Hawaii in our learning guide for this episode.
I'm putting you on.
I'm not really serious.
Really, I'm not.
We don't have tickets in our learning guide for this episode.
I'm sorry.
Cindy says it was a great offer, but it was only for one day.
So, of course, she's not putting Torsten on.
She's telling the truth.
She then explains how she got the rebate.
She said she had to cut out the UPC code.
The UPC code stands for Universal Product Code.
Sometimes we call it simply the bar code.
It's a small rectangle.
With that you will find on most packages, most things that are sold in the United States in a store that has many vertical black lines and numbers that a machine can read.
That is, the machine can detect what the price is and what the thing is.
Most stores have a special machine called a scanner that you use with these UPC or barcodes.
However, Cindy is cutting out the UPC code as a proof of purchase evidence that she bought this thing.
In order to get the rebate, Cindy has to fill out a form, a piece of paper, with her name and address on it and mail that form in with the receipt, to the manufacturer.
The receipt is the piece of paper the store gives you to show that you bought something.
It has the price of what you bought.
The manufacturer is the company that makes a product, a physical product.
Computers are manufactured by companies such as Apple and other computer companies, for example.
Cindy says, The retailer is the store that sold the product.
So we have the manufacturer that made the product, and then you have the store that sold it.
Cindy is actually getting two rebates here, one from the manufacturer and one from the store, the retailer.
She got another discount, which is a reduction in the price of something.
Discount has a couple of different meanings in English.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
Torsten says you might save money with rebates.
But you have to sit around.
You have to wait forever for the rebate check.
The rebate check is the money that the company is sending you back.
Sometimes it will be 5 10, it could be 500, depending on how big the rebate is and, of course, depending on what you buy.
Now, not every company offers rebates on their products.
It's something that only some companies do sometimes to get people to buy their product.
Cindy says it's true that the turnaround is often 8 to 10 weeks.
The turnaround is the amount of time needed to send something, have the company look at it, take care of it and then send in this case, the rebate check back.
So it's the time that you send something in and then you get it back.
We can use this word in talking about anything that you, for example, submit an application for and then have to wait before you get back.
Whatever you are waiting for,
If you are going to get a driver's license in the United States, there may be a certain turnaround time.
That is, it may take a few days, or even a few weeks for the state government to send you your physical license.
Cindy says that the offers, the rebate offers, are worth the wait, meaning they are good enough that one is willing to wait a long period of time to receive it.
Torsten says, do what you like.
But I'm too busy to mess around with coupons and rebates.
To mess around here means to spend time doing something that is not productive.
That is not a good use of your time.
We also use this expression to mess around in talking about children who are misbehaving, who are playing and perhaps causing problems.
It can also be used in a sexual way to mess around, maybe to engage in some sort of sexual activity.
I'm married, so I wouldn't know.
Cindy says that's why you married a penny pincher.
The term penny pincher refers to someone who doesn't like to spend money, who always is looking for the lowest price for something.
Cindy says if I left it up to you, meaning if you were in charge of the situation...
We'd be in the poorhouse by now.
The poorhouse is a place where, many years ago, very poor people would go for help when they didn't have enough money or they didn't have a place to eat.
Poorhouses were common, for example in the 19th century in England, where If you read a novel by Charles Dickens, he often talks about these poorhouses.
They were not very nice places to be.
Here, Cindy is using the expression just to mean we would be poor.
We would not have very much money.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
What are you doing?
Clipping coupons?
That's a waste of time.
You can think what you like, but these days we have to cut corners wherever we can.
No one actually saves much money using coupons.
That's what you think.
The last time I went to the grocery store, I saved over $20 just by using coupons.
How can you keep track of all the expiration dates and the terms and conditions?
It's not worth the trouble.
Do you feel that way about rebate offers, too?
A month ago, I bought our new TV and saved 20%.
And yesterday, I bought a pack of DVDs for just $2.
Are you putting me on a pack of DVDs for $2?
Yeah, it was a great offer, but it was only for one day.
I had to cut out the UPC code, fill out a form, and mail it in with a receipt to the manufacturer.
Then I sent a copy of the receipt to the retailer and got another discount.
That's how I got the DVDs for next to nothing.
You might save money with rebates, but you have to sit around forever waiting for the rebate check.
It's true that the turnaround is often eight to ten weeks, but some of the offers are worth the wait.
Do what you like, but I'm too busy to mess around with coupons and rebates.
That's why you married a penny pincher.
If I left it up to you, we'd be in the poorhouse by now.
The script for this episode was written by someone who never cuts corners.
Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
This podcast is copyright 2008.
