[speaker001:] Uh, what i-, 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 of I am, too. Are you married?
[speaker002:] Um, yes.
[speaker001:] You are.
[speaker002:] Yes.
[speaker001:] 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 [LAUGHTER]. It,
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] I don't mind the spending, it's just that trying to, trying to get what you need out of, out of what you have. That seems to be our challenge.
[speaker001:] Well, I don't work outside of the home, and he always threatens that when I spend more than,
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] what's coming in, I have to go back to work
[speaker002:] I see.
[speaker001:] so I, I manage it [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] Well, I'm, I'm at home also, so, it does get rather interesting trying to survive on one salary, uh,
[speaker001:] Now, do you actually follow a budget?
[speaker002:] Well, we [breathing] pretty well do. Um, several years we didn't, and we found that we just weren't making the most 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. Uh, at this point our children are grown, and so I really don't have the obligations there any more
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] that we have to balance to
[speaker002:] 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
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] I try to keep my MasterCards and things paid currently
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] uh, I don't always succeed at that. I usually keep one with a low interest rate, and I put things on there that I think I'm not going to get to [LAUGHTER]
[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 us, new cars. Uh, do you get into 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 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
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] and we were, kept saying, wouldn't it be great if we could find another one just like it.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] Believe it or not, we did, we found one, one newer
[speaker002:] Oh, no,
[speaker001:] the worst part is, it's the same color
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] and so everybody's saying, you're kidding,
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] you have two cars the same, and I said, you know how when you have a bad one, you say, never again [LAUGHTER]
[speaker002:] That's right [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] I said, well, we had one, and we found one with just seventeen thousand miles on it
[speaker002:] Wow.
[speaker001:] and it's an eighty-five, and so I said, Hey, this was a cinch, we 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:] Right.
[speaker001:] uh, unless we, we have done that when we had a really good one that we wanted to sell
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] you know, we were going up to a larger one, 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 want to bring him right away. You're going to get one shot at us
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] we will, [LAUGHTER] you know, and they say, Well, you're kidding, you know. I s-, no,
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] this is the price we're going to give you out the door. We don't want to hear about taxes,