[speaker001:] okay um well do you uh keep a family budget or or do you have some
[speaker002:] no I don't use a family budget my father who's very old has kept one his entire life and I probably rebelled rebelled against it and probably should have kept one he keeps every penny that comes in and goes out
[speaker001:] uh-huh  oh interesting
[speaker002:] on a very strict percentage
[speaker001:] yes well um we sort of started doing it years and years ago and my husband started graduate school when we were first married and I sort of just got in the habit I guess and you know and never have gotten out of it I can't really say that it's a formal budget it's more just a a pretty um a fairly uh accurate accurate um recording of what I spend and what I think I'm going to have to spend and
[speaker002:] right  I think it makes much more sense and I've recently uh
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] gotten out of debt and everything and I'll probably keeping start keeping a little better track of it I just uh
[speaker001:] yeah yeah
[speaker002:] spent whatever came in and and uh didn't never knew what came in what went out but uh just you know like about like the government runs
[speaker001:] right yeah sounds real similar
[speaker002:] huh so I think it's probably better to have some sort of a a at least a record but my dad's was so precise that I mean if it said to spend eleven percent on something that's what it was spent and
[speaker001:] um oh my yeah
[speaker002:] that was put over there and I mean uh of course he's from the depression and uh
[speaker001:] yes
[speaker002:] so uh you know it's his life but uh I I would I think it'd be smart if somebody would keep uh
[speaker001:] sure
[speaker002:] some sort of a plan that works for them
[speaker001:] yeah I think you're right um well it it what's been sort of interesting to us is to um it because since I have uh pretty much kept my record books for the last fifteen years I guess I can go back and look and it's real fun to just see what how things have changed over the years uh for instance
[speaker002:] yeah it is I'm a historian and my father had kept them I think since nineteen twenty seven and
[speaker001:] my goodness
[speaker002:] but he burned the ones from twenty seven to fifty I couldn't believe he did that but then so I took the ones from fifty two on to the present but
[speaker001:] oh dear yes
[speaker002:] to look to have looked back into the twenties and thirties and forties it would have been fantastic to see that but uh
[speaker001:] oh yes well as a matter of fact uh my mother was going through some things uh not long long ago I guess it's been a couple of years ago in an old trunk that she had and she came upon a budget a budget book that she'd had back in the thirties uh when they it was the late well I guess it would have been I take that back it must have been the forties because they had been married uh probably fifteen years at the time
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] and it was just fascinating uh fascinating to see how little things cost I mean it was it was just almost laughable in some instances that you know of course it's all relative of course but
[speaker002:] oh I know right right
[speaker001:] uh never the less it was fun to see those figures next to you know for a price pair of shoes was uh like five dollars and
[speaker002:] I know well even in nineteen sixty three I found a a record that I had had traveled in Europe a lot and I what I'd paid for hotels
[speaker001:] um
[speaker002:] and a similar hotel in Paris is two hundred dollars a night now and I paid uh oh between four and five dollars in nineteen sixty and that's really crazy because that's about thirty years ago
[speaker001:] oh oh isn't that something really oh that is that is really really something
[speaker002:] oh but but of course it's just what the market'll bear and if people if people will pay two hundred then why charge ten you know yeah
[speaker001:] that's true yeah that's good that's right that's exactly that's just good old economics working
[speaker002:] right right that
[speaker001:] well uh we've tried to uh instill some sense some sense of uh of budgeting in our kids but our two children are just uh as um unlike as night night and day and our son could care less about a budget and our daughter watches her pennies so closely that
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] she almost she almost just sounds like your father I mean she has everything planned so closely closely that if something goes wrong it just throws her for a loop
[speaker002:] um-hum um-hum yeah well then you never know how they'll one they they may switch flip flop when they get to be uh older well older the other one may be very careful and
[speaker001:] yes right yes yes
[speaker002:] she may marry somebody and of course it'd be good because if you marry somebody a little loose then she'll have that stability of watching uh you should have one in the in the in the house and I think
[speaker001:] yeah I think that's true I and and it's I kind of think that's sort of what happened in our house because I think my husband was not quite as uh good at saving and so on before we got married and I was I was really diligent about that I always putting money aside and when before I was married you know when I was working in and out of college and
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] uh that really paid off because when it time came for him to go back to graduate school we were in in in fairly good good shape financially as far as not having many major debts and
[speaker002:] yeah that's about the way it is here if it hadn't been for my wife I would have probably been in debtor's prison if we had one
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] so but uh what does you husband do now
[speaker001:] well uh he is an engineer he's uh an electrical engineer and in fact went through uh many years of graduate school and got his PhD so we had a a lot of lot of years of budgeting
[speaker002:] oh um oh yeah you have to do it when you're in school my wife's still in school getting her doctorate and so I it it and I've got
[speaker001:] and you know yeah when you uh yes well I'm working I'm working on my masters degree now so in fact this last year we had three two both of the children were in college our son has a year left our daughter graduated this year and I'm uh just about ready to finish my masters degree so
[speaker002:] um um
[speaker001:] we've had uh once again you know some really a real lean year for us
[speaker002:] oh I I know we had three in college plus my wife so that was four so we're both in the same
[speaker001:] but uh yep yeah you know exactly what it's what it's like then and it's uh
[speaker002:] yeah yeah
[speaker001:] which you learn I guess you figure that that's an investment that is um really a invaluable invaluable um-hum yeah and
[speaker002:] that's the best one yeah with education you can't take that away from you
[speaker001:] that's right so it's it's one that you can live through and I think that that's way we looked at it in our beginnings when my husband was in graduate school is that there was a light at the end of that tunnel you know that
[speaker002:] right sure
[speaker001:] that it was worth it to save and then not have uh something and uh in return know that something better was going to be at the end of it so uh it really makes it easier but uh well I've enjoyed talking with you Jay
[speaker002:] yeah that's true yeah I have enjoyed talking wit h you Kathy
[speaker001:] and I I wish I could hear more about your historian part of your life because that sounds really fascinating to me I'm interested in that
[speaker002:] well if I had your address I'd send you I am also in the travel business I do tours and I can take some real great tours to Europe so uh if you
[speaker001:] oh oh wow well my my husband and I just were there last year um actually we didn't take a tour we we were in England and and uh went to Ireland and Scotland and just rented cars and and did it on our own but
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] um I uh that sounds interesting do is your business in Dallas then
[speaker002:] yeah it's in Dallas it's here in the Quorum so I'm I'm Jerry Hammond and I'm out at Brookhaven College so you could just holler at me out there yeah
[speaker001:] okay oh you're kidding well I'm going to be teaching at Brookhaven in the fall Kuenzer K U E N Z E R and I'm I'm going to
[speaker002:] all right well what's your last name K U E N
[speaker001:] uh-huh Z E R
[speaker002:] well good I'll uh
[speaker001:] and I'll be in the communications department teaching uh English one O one to I have a couple of sections yes yep that's the guy who hired me yes
[speaker002:] oh well I know Zack Miller real well so uh all right well wonderful I'll look you up in the fall then
[speaker001:] well fantastic good well it's good it's been a good talk conversation uh-huh bye-bye
[speaker002:] okay bye-bye