[speaker001:] ready to talk okay
[speaker002:] I guess so okay
[speaker001:] uh I want to talk about um our family budget and the times that it's worked and the times that it hasn't worked and give you a general description of it and you can help me out a little bit
[speaker002:] okay yeah okay
[speaker001:] tell me how yours work  well at the my I introduced you a little bit to it a few minutes ago when I said that we are uh we're on the east coast now
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] my husband quit a perfectly wonderful job and decided that well we both decided we wanted to move to North Carolina
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and so naturally we put ourselves we looked at our budget
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and so what we did was draw up a budget that we thought uh was realistic and uh
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] so we had to make some adjustments because we really are kind of looking for something that we want to do uh he wants to do that's satisfactory and we've been here seven months and he's still hasn't hit up on anything permanently
[speaker002:] oh no that throws the budget out of whack real fast
[speaker001:] so you see well we actually planned for about one year
[speaker002:] oh good
[speaker001:] uh thank God because it never occurred
[speaker002:] really that was smart
[speaker001:] it never occurred to us that it would take seven months
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and uh what we did was just uh decide what how we had been spending our money before
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] and then we put that on the computer and then we took about three months and uh and adjusted where we could come down and where we didn't want to come down
[speaker002:] oh uh-huh yeah
[speaker001:] and we really uh lessened it uh our living expenses uh more than what we thought we would
[speaker002:] wow that's great did you have a special program on your computer to do that or was this just your own design of
[speaker001:] but oh just our own design uh-huh
[speaker002:] uh-huh gosh
[speaker001:] and uh so but we've had budgets that didn't work when our uh you know of our first fifteen years or eighteen years of being married nothing worked
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] we spent too much money until our kids children went to college so
[speaker002:] yeah yeah
[speaker001:] so tell me about do you all uh have a budget
[speaker002:] well we've been married for five and a half years and we started out without kids of course and found it much easier to save and used to do a lot more fun kinds of things that uh didn't really um you know have a real strict budget but budget but uh the the about into our when when when when we first got married we were in graduate school and we were just you know dirt poor then when we got our first jobs after about a year of marriage we decided we'd bank my salary so we could buy a house so we virtually did that for about two years which worked real well
[speaker001:] wonderful
[speaker002:] and then moved from California where we realized we could never buy a house anyway no matter how much we saved
[speaker001:] yes
[speaker002:] and moved to Texas and bought a house immediately you know which of course is now devalued with the housing market so I don't know if we we did a good thing to buy a house or not but at least we've got a place to live um so now since uh we have a three year old and a two year old now um
[speaker001:] three and a two year old bang bang
[speaker002:] uh-huh that's that that threw our budget really out of out of whack too and we um have been just forced to budget much more because I quit working to be home with the kids and um we just really have uh uh I don't know we've we've tried different times we've done like a survey of like taking you know the past three months of where all the money went
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and we really don't spend on anything much of a luxury or anything at all but it seems like there's um times when we just have to get out where we'll go and like get a babysitter and we'll go and we'll blow you know fifty sixty dollars in one night going out to eat going to a show or doing something you know
[speaker001:] well I think that's important for your budget to be realistically for it to work though you have to do something
[speaker002:] yeah that's the hard part because when we sit down to make it we try to make it real spartan and real narrow so we can put certain amount in savings every week and then it's not really that realistic because we do find that we want to go and do something or splurge for you know birthday for somebody or you know even we we even do things real frugally for the kids we get a lot of toys and clothes and stuff at garage sales or from friends because they don't know the difference at this age you know whether they're Jordache new or whether they're
[speaker001:] of course not
[speaker002:] you know something and they're both boys so they just fit one year after the other into each other's clothes so but um that's the hardest part for us is that it's really um you know budgeting and some extra things you know for that are more you know nonessential items
[speaker001:] well I found uh that in the place that it was harder for me to stick to a budget was not where we were concerned
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] but where maybe our friends were concerned and our relatives and parents uh we we tended to want to keep on giving lavish gifts as we had done before
[speaker002:] yeah yeah um-hum
[speaker001:] and I really believe that if you're going to cut down on yourself you need to cut down somewhat on your friends
[speaker002:] on your friends that's true that's true well we have so many unexpected things come up so often it seems with we both have older cars and something will come up and we'll end up having to spend a thousand dollars you know on the car in two months or something and
[speaker001:] yes
[speaker002:] you know a lot of things like that that really is are hard to plan for and uh
[speaker001:] well I really do I think you have to budget those things though
[speaker002:] yeah kind of put in a certain amount per year you're going to have on extra expenses for car and
[speaker001:] yes exactly or know so much per month anyway
[speaker002:] yeah yeah
[speaker001:] and uh that really should be in your bank but if you don't spend it it should be in your bank account at the end of the month
[speaker002:] yeah our biggest way of saving money is then just have all these deductions um you know isn't isn't let's see now I forget which way we do it we don't list all the deductions and then we get more money back you know at the end of the year
[speaker001:] oh no no no no you don't want the government to spend your money you want to be able
[speaker002:] so that's not a good way of doing it that's what my husband said so this last year he changed it then of course we didn't get hardly I mean nearly as much back and it was like oh no we better find another way of saving money
[speaker001:] well uh but I do realize that that is realistic for some people and it was for us many years for many years
[speaker002:] yeah yeah yeah
[speaker001:] uh and if and if that's the only way that will it will make you save and have a little nest egg at the end of the the year then doggone it that's what you should do
[speaker002:] yeah because we don't miss it we really don't when it's just taking out of the paycheck and stuff so
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] but we're trying to put a little money away for the kids because we can envision envision the uh expenses for college already you know eighteen years away or whatever
[speaker001:] well I was just reading an article in uh a North Carolina paper paper today where a high school student obtained over two hundred thousand dollars worth of scholarships for herself by sitting up at night and typing at uh letters of applications to universities
[speaker002:] gosh
[speaker001:] she was oh she was third out of a class of two hundred and twenty so it can be done
[speaker002:] I guess that's fantastic
[speaker001:] where there's a will where there's a will there's a way right
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] well I have enjoyed talking to you
[speaker002:] well I enjoyed talking to you too good luck and don't spend any money this weekend
[speaker001:] oh I know uh we'll have to stay home and mow the yard
[speaker002:] oh boy bye
[speaker001:] bye-bye