[speaker001:] I got a budget that I worked out on a spreadsheet that I keep on my home computer the only thing is that I kind of drifted away from it originally when I set it up um I'd started back to school and had all these grand plans and sat down and figured out everything to the penny all the way down to haircuts every little thing I could imagine spending money on and got it all set up and then kind of got tuned to it and for about a year or so I kept real good track of bills and made sure things fit into it but I got to the point where my spending habits pretty much stabilized and I just knew what they were I don't think I've looked at that thing in a year and a half
[speaker002:] uh I wish I could say that we did the same in terms of our family uh it we have considered it from time to time and the problem that I always got into was the hassle of keeping track of all the data and then deciding basically what we was going to do about it
[speaker001:] um
[speaker002:] because to me the need for a budget is especially when money's tight and I'm happy to say that money's not too tight we just kind of drift along
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] uh we've gotten into troubles recently while the last couple of years we're all of a suddenly uh it's IRS time and we look and say ooh we owe a lot of money but we've even recovered from that and so I guess our budget is mostly in our head
[speaker001:] yeah keeping it keeping all the records and all that stuff is a pretty high maintenance thing takes some dedication to really sit down and do it but it definitely does pay off if you keep track of things keep a good grip on it
[speaker002:] how does it pay off for you
[speaker001:] well by seeing the flow and stuff like that I can see where there's a lot of uh frivolous frivolous waste too much uh going out things like that that really I can do without those kind of things it's hard to um to just go out and keep a day to day balance of stuff
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] reminds me years ago I had trouble quitting biting my nails and I read some uh suggestion that said well you know if you keep them all and tape on a piece of paper and see how many you know nails you're biting off you'll be amazed and uh man that that ended it in about a week um
[speaker002:] and the same thing for the budget huh
[speaker001:] yeah very similar procedure
[speaker002:] interesting I I just got a lecture today from my mother about being frivolous she wants me to be more frivolous and so I guess my thought there is uh not to uh not to look at it and say oh my goodness I'm not allowed to do this on the other hand uh I think I'm ready to elect you to Congress uh uh in terms of actually considering a budget  and staying with it
[speaker001:] really that has got to be one of the worst problems we've got here today
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] and it's hardly considered you know here it is uh a an election election year and you hardly hear anything about it
[speaker002:] right right
[speaker001:] especially the deficit this massive looming black cloud waiting to break out on us
[speaker002:] yep and so I think we as a society tend to have uh at least now kind of uh well budget who needs a budget I mean we're having fun
[speaker001:] yeah yep
[speaker002:] and so I guess I'm kind of midway between the the party party party side and the uh uh oh my goodness we got to look at every last cent actually your story reminds me of uh when back in college uh I had overspent my budget which was kind of haphazardly kept but it became very obvious when I had something like twenty eight dollars left for the month of February uh and it got very obvious as to what I was going to do uh and some of that included eating
[speaker001:] um yep
[speaker002:] uh I it was called subsist on peanut butter and jelly for the the month and at one point some girls in a sorority that I knew uh that I hung out at felt sorry for me and took me in the back room and fed me a salad
[speaker001:] yeah colleges and education in many ways
[speaker002:] you bet you bet I think the reason why they did was they were afraid that somebody else was going to win the pool on whether I was going to die of berry berry or some sort of disease like that
[speaker001:] I haven't resorted to um peanut butter but I have had to go to long periods of ragu and um pasta
[speaker002:] well at least you're not down to cat food
[speaker001:] ooh ooh actually we've got a stash of that we had a cat but it ran away
[speaker002:] uh oh no
[speaker001:] um so we've got a good bit we've got a dog now and it'll eat the cat food though that's its treat at the end of the day
[speaker002:] sounds like a dog with a complex
[speaker001:] well he's a puppy I don't thing he really knows knows too much of uh the difference yet
[speaker002:] uh great
[speaker001:] it's good food fortunately that's cheap and it fits in the budget twenty five cents a can
[speaker002:] yeah right right well as long as you're not teaching him how to meow or something like that
[speaker001:] well I've been trying to teach him to sing lately yeah that's uh it hasn't been real successful but he barks real well
[speaker002:] oh really uh reminds reminds me of that old adage never teach a pig to sing the results can be really terrible and besides it annoys the pig
[speaker001:] uh