[speaker001:] uh what is what is your practice as far as budgeting do you manage the money
[speaker002:] well I we talk about it but I'm usually the one that sits down and puts the pencil to the paper and and tries to somehow make the ends meet which uh
[speaker001:] oh I see that's how kind I am too are you married you are I think the women for the most part end up managing the money my husband always says he earns it and I have to spend only what he earns it
[speaker002:] um yes yeah I don't mind the spending it's just that I trying to trying to get what you need out of out of what you have that seems to be our challenge so
[speaker001:] well I don't work outside of the home and he always threatens that when I spend more than what's coming in I have to go back to work so I I manage
[speaker002:] I see well I'm I'm at home also so it does get rather interesting trying to survive on one salary but uh
[speaker001:] no do you actually follow a budget
[speaker002:] well we pretty well do um several years we didn't and we found that we just weren't making the most of of what we had and so we we um set aside a certain amount each week that goes for things that have to be paid for you know just our bills and then what's left we divvy up we try to save a little bit although we're not always successful and then the rest of it just goes for normal weekly needs
[speaker001:] well that's pretty much the way we do um or we did in the past I would say what right at this point our children are grown and so I really don't have the obligations there anymore that we have to balance to
[speaker002:] yeah right
[speaker001:] you know get things together for them and I really just keep very good records and most of our expenses are fairly the same every month with the exception of utilities and things like that and I try to keep my MasterCards and things paid currently
[speaker002:] right uh-huh
[speaker001:] uh I don't always succeed at that I usually keep one with a low interest rate and I'd put things on there that I think I'm not gonna give to
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] and then I have another one but for the most part our mortgage and our utilities at this point we're in a new home and uh they take a pretty big chunk compared to what they used to
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] so I'm still getting used to that but we make sure that we just do not buy unless we really can see how we're going to pay for it ahead
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] and we do not buy used ah new cars uh do you get into the car
[speaker002:] well we had new cars um always until about four years ago my husband um owned his own company and it went under and so we could no longer afford that monthly payment and now it's just seems just such a large amount of money to spend that that we do have a used car well he has a company car also but for our personal car we have a used car um do you think that it's wiser to buy used
[speaker001:] we do for us very much so in fact we are in a position that most of our friends why wonder why we just don't go to a new car you know whatever and I said
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] look you guys are all into car payments we haven't had car payments for so many years I love it this way and recently we just created the laugh among everyone because we had a car that we really liked and it has eighty two thousand miles on it and we were kept saying boy wouldn't it be great if we could find another one just like it
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] believe it or not we did we found one one newer the worst part is it's the same color
[speaker002:] oh no oh wow
[speaker001:] and so everybody's saying you're kidding you have two cars the same and I said you know how when you have a bad one you say never again
[speaker002:] that's right
[speaker001:] I said well we had one and we found one with just seventeen thousand miles on it and it's an eighty five
[speaker002:] wow
[speaker001:] and so I said hey this was a cinch we've paid for the car and we still know now that we have this car to put all the miles on
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] this is for all the long running back and forth on you know interstate driving and things and we intend to replace our other one with a much newer car in the next couple of years or next year probably
[speaker002:] do you um buy from dealers or from individuals
[speaker001:] generally from dealers and uh it depends because I don't like to sell what we're trading in to an individual
[speaker002:] um-hum right
[speaker001:] uh unless we we have done that when we had a really good one that we wanted to sell you know uh we were going up to a larger one
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] but we have found that by trading in and going through a dealer and we always make a deal I mean we have walked out of more dealerships saying don't bring us the manager and all of that unless you wanna bring him right away you're gonna get one shot at us
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] we will you know and they say well you're kidding you know I no this is the price we're going to give you out the door we don't wanna hear about taxes