[speaker001:] yeah go ahead
[speaker002:] okay well um I've never I've didn't really ever have to have a budget um until I quit going to Georgia Tech and um then I learned to budget really fast um I had been working part-time before that and uh my parents were helping me some but um I got to where I mean I knew where every penny was going but then as I started making more money um my budget's kind of hasn't doesn't exist except for at certain times you know
[speaker001:] right and you make more money but it goes away anyway
[speaker002:] right well I don't have to worry I mean I don't have to think ahead as much like you know but I haven't really saved anything I'm still trying to uh I've I have school debts I'm still paying back and stuff
[speaker001:] yeah I have three children and a house so uh it's a serious it's a serious matter but uh my wife's just starting to go back to work maybe that'll take the
[speaker002:] oh okay so you have to budget
[speaker001:] pressure off but I must I must confess the only control I have over our budget is to try and make as many things as constant as possible like
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] tuition and try to make things monthly so that there are as few surprises as possible but I don't I've started keeping a budget on computer
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] I guess each of the last five years and never followed through and about this time of year is when I get religion I have to do my income taxes I realize that better recording keeping would've helped and uh
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] I still haven't managed to uh uh do it the way I should
[speaker002:] yeah but even even if you do break your budget I think when you write things down or however if if you do it on the computer whatever or something where you can just constantly see exactly what where your money's going
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] then you it's it's easier even if you don't stick to it I think it you know it's better to have you a little bit more conservative hm
[speaker001:] right I believe if I had to that I could estimate all the major form all the major sources of spending uh on a monthly basis and come pretty close but I'm sure that there are a bunch of surprises in there that uh I would find and maybe learn how to control if I uh kept a formal budget or uh financial plan
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] but
[speaker002:] but even if you can't I don't think have enough a really when before when I had a strict budget it's because I had too I knew exactly where every penny was going before I had it but it's it's a little bit harder when you have a little bit more leeway
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] but also it I think it's bad to have like you know say you have these debts and you you know you're paying a lot of interest on one and you wanna go ahead and get it you know paid off sometimes I've looked at it that way and really just you know pinched myself in other places so that I could do that you know uh pay it off and
[speaker001:] yeah the only problem is that if you have if you have children what you're gonna need for them a few years from now is what you need to be putting aside now and that's uh you can fool yourself if you don't set that up somehow
[speaker002:] right and that's hard to see but if you if you try to be too strict on yourself then your then you just end up getting really frustrated don't ever you know just
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] just blow a little bit that's you know
[speaker001:] right but you'll find that the kids don't really have a very good sense of where the money is going and so they'll ask for things pretty much constantly
[speaker002:] right I remember doing that as a child
[speaker001:] and I've I learned to say no pretty much constantly and uh uh so I would be better if I had a budget and I had a certain amount of uh fun money that had to be spent each month or that was allowed to be spent each month I'd feel better about it
[speaker002:] yeah yeah
[speaker001:] so who knows maybe this' ll get me to do it you don't have children
[speaker002:] yeah no I sure don't
[speaker001:] well that's a big change in life in a lot of ways but budgeting is one of them
[speaker002:] oh I know I mean I've I've had I have a cat and that's you know that's
[speaker001:] well that's one solution
[speaker002:] that's hard enough I mean I know but I mean you know that's a lot some sort of you know when some there's times when I if I couldn't afford to buy myself groceries I would buy them for her first you know just because you I mean you feel a lot worse because this being is completely dependent on you you know
[speaker001:] that's an interesting spirit but and I suppose cats are like children they don't take no for an answer as easily
[speaker002:] well then uh yeah they are a lot simpler but but I'm I'm just saying you know I
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] it it would it would be hard to know that someone else's life was completely dependent on you you know
[speaker001:] yeah the hard part though is not uh it the hard part is um um setting aside for what they're gonna need in five or ten years that's uh really difficult
[speaker002:] right it's hard to see that right now even though you know you have too
[speaker001:] yep right well I've made my confession
[speaker002:] yeah I'm
[speaker001:] and
[speaker002:] I'm glad we had this conversation because it makes me think I need to sit down and maybe write