[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER] Go ahead. So Ken, how do you do your family budget?
[speaker002:] Well, we don't actually have a budget, budget per se. What we do is, uh, maintain a normal checkbook. You know, like,
[speaker001:] Huh-uh.
[speaker002:] everyone in the world does, I guess, and occasionally it actually balances, [LAUGHTER]. And, um, we also, we, um, we have a, a U S Air and Visa card.
[speaker001:] Huh-uh.
[speaker002:] Every, every dollar we, every dollar we charge is a mile for our frequent flier mileage.
[speaker001:] Oh, yeah.
[speaker002:] It's a real good deal actually, if you charge a lot. So what we, what my wife and I have taken to doing is charging everything in sight. Anything we buy, we charge, including groceries and so forth.
[speaker001:] Huh-uh.
[speaker002:] So what we'll do is,
[speaker001:] Well, then you just pay it off at the end of the month?
[speaker002:] Right. We actually maintain a, we have, a, we, we, we, we have a checking account that we treat like a savings, scratch that, we have a savings account that we treat like a checking account.
[speaker001:] Huh-uh.
[speaker002:] And so what we do is, we anytime we do or make or charge something, we write it out as if we wrote a check.
[speaker001:] Huh-uh.
[speaker002:] And then at the end of the month all the money to covered already. So we just pay it off without having to worry about any interest or anything.
[speaker001:] Oh. That's a real good idea.
[speaker002:] It keeps us hopping.
[speaker001:] Yeah. See, now I'd never get my wife to be able to follow that. Before we got married I had money in the bank. I owned my own home. I put in so much money, each, you know, month towards long term savings, you know, like in, uh, mutual funds and things, you know,
[speaker002:] Huh-uh.
[speaker001:] and, uh, after I got married, no, it just didn't work anymore. She spends a lot. She likes to spend on anything and everything [LAUGHTER]. With body lotion, everything [LAUGHTER]. So, we really haven't, we don't have a good organized system, yet. Maybe after awhile I'll rub off on her or something [LAUGHTER]. I don't think,
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] Well, you know, you know, you know, what's always good is sort of a for savings, where they just take money out of you're pay.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] We did that for awhile where, um, we actually still do it with, with my wife's salary,
[speaker001:] Huh-uh.
[speaker002:] where we put it, we have a separate, a third account even, a savings account in, in an entirely different bank
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] where what we do is take money out of her paycheck every week. I'm a graduate student.
[speaker001:] Yes. So am I.
[speaker002:] Oh, really. In what field?
[speaker001:] Well, uh, in information systems. I'm a voice researcher.
[speaker002:] Oh, okay. I'm in, uh, psycholinguistics, actually.
[speaker001:] Huh-uh.
[speaker002:] Um, but my wife has a real job.
[speaker001:] Yeah. So does mine.
[speaker002:] Yeah [LAUGHTER]. What we do is, we take money out of her, out of her paycheck each week.
[speaker001:] Huh-uh.
[speaker002:] And put it, it goes directly to another account, that we don't, at an entirely different bank, that we don't have access to so easily, and it goes there and it stays there and it builds up until we need it for something.
[speaker001:] Yeah. See, I think we might have to do that [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] Of course, she looks at what she brings home each week. It's going to be hard for her to, uh, not have her own money. Because, like now, you know, I put money in the bank and saved to go back to graduate school for two years. And now she wants to go back to school, but she saved enough maybe to get her through August.
[speaker002:] Oh.
[speaker001:] You know, and that's it. And I keep saying, now, Laura, you're going to have to save a little money. I don't know if my paltry graduate student fees are going to get us through. It doesn't work, Ken [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] Gee.
[speaker001:] My mother always said, "now, don't argue about money", so we don't.
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] But, you know, there goes my savings [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] God.
[speaker001:] But, you know, it's one of those things.
[speaker002:] I got lucky. My wife apparently is not a, she likes to spend, but she's pretty good about things.
[speaker001:] Yeah. Now, see my wife will do things like make clothes.
[speaker002:] Wow.
[speaker001:] One of our, one of our big investments that, you know, I was wholeheartedly in favor of, was to buy a sewing machine. Because she makes clothes. And, you know, a descent sewing machine will really help her out and she's already made, you know, presents and gifts and things for,
[speaker002:] That was great.
[speaker001:] shorts for me and things for the summer. You know, so I guess I can't, you know, we've probably almost paid off the sewing with, uh,
[speaker002:] With the money savings there.
[speaker001:] yeah, with the savings from that. So I can't complain too much, you know, she's, she's good about that. And, also, we, we dine at home a lot. You know, she likes to cook. So that saves us from restaurants or whatever but,
[speaker002:] That's good.
[speaker001:] but, she does have things where she likes to pamper herself that just to me seem like money dumped down a drain.
[speaker002:] Right. Well,
[speaker001:] You know.
[speaker002:] I guess we all have those feelings.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] I, uh, I uh, I, I go to, uh, I pay what I think is a lot of money to go to a karate class, you know.
[speaker001:] Huh-uh. You know, but you need a hobby.
[speaker002:] Right. Exactly, but that to her is sort of like a waste.
[speaker001:] Yeah. That's true.
[speaker002:] But she does her nails. So,
[speaker001:] I know, and those nails are so expensive [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] Oh, gosh. I was so excited when she decided she wasn't going to do her nails anymore. I guess she just stopped polishing them because they were yellow.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] And then she waits for them to get their color back. And then she'll polish them again. I don't know, whatever. So she stopped for awhile. Boy, what a difference. They buy nail polish every two weeks, it's, uh, [LAUGHTER], my gosh,
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] And lotion, oh, my goodness, body lotion,
[speaker002:] Oh, yeah.
[speaker001:] we spend more on soft, on, on body lotions with sesame oil and all these different things, than, uh, she must spend more on one application of body lotion than I do on soap for an entire year.
[speaker002:] Yeah [LAUGHTER]. Good old Ivory [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] Yeah. It's funny.
[speaker002:] Um, well, it's for your benefit though, right.
[speaker001:] Oh, I think so, she's always soft. That's true.
[speaker002:] , so that's helpful.
[speaker001:] Yeah. But I think, um, I don't know, maybe after we're not in school anymore, we'll be much better at saving. I think, uh,
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] I think that's, uh,
[speaker002:] Now do you still own a house? You said you owned one.
[speaker001:] I sold my house. And that's what's really paying for my time unemployed or whatever.
[speaker002:] That's great.
[speaker001:] Because the graduate assistantship really doesn't cover, the ten thousand dollars in tuition, really doesn't cover living expenses. Um,
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] we actually live in two different places right now because she has her job. So that makes it hard with, uh, you know, we're paying double rent, double utilities,
[speaker002:] Oh, wow.
[speaker001:] and that makes it sort of expensive but see, I live within my,
[speaker002:] .
[speaker001:] I live within my me-, very menial income and she doesn't [LAUGHTER]. She doesn't live within her professional income, you know. So I just get a,
[speaker002:] that's the killer, two apartments,
[speaker001:] yeah, and then even if we want to see each other on weekends, it's twenty-five, thirty dollars in gas, every weekend, and that really adds up too, you know, so it gets tough,
[speaker002:] Wow.
[speaker001:] I think, we'll, do much better when we're living together and we're only paying one rent and one telephone. You know, it will cut our telephone bills, you know, by five, by four-fifths, you know,
[speaker002:] Eventually, right. I mean you're not going to, Right.
[speaker001:] if she's here, so it's actually tough this year, but it will be better in June. She will move in with me in June, so hopefully our budget will in increase then.
[speaker002:] Have you been married for long?
[speaker001:] No. Just since December.
[speaker002:] Oh, wow. So you guys really are newlyweds.
[speaker001:] Yeah. We're, very newlyweds, but that's the, we, we're together probably for, um, uh, very close for about six months before we got married. So, you know, we lived within, though I had my own house and things, you know, we still, uh, we're still pretty close. I knew her spending habits and they're about the same [LAUGHTER],
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] Oh, wow.
[speaker001:] they haven't changed at all, you know.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] My mother always said to me, "Tom, now, the best thing to do is be like you're father. Never say a word when you're wife spends money". And I was like, well, that's true my dad never said a word, you know.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] So.
[speaker002:] I actually encourage my wife to spend money sometimes.
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] Because I think, you know, um, I sort of feel guilty, you know, given that she makes twice as much as I do.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] So I say if she wants to go out and buy something, I never argue with her, because she's real good at, you know, sort of.
[speaker001:] I don't argue with her, but I just get all, it must show in my face.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] Must be like, must be cringes or something, you know,
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] especially yesterday or this past weekend. We met half way between, at her parents house and, um, she had on a new pair of jeans and she'd gotten all new underwear, and I was like, Laura.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] How did you get all this stuff? [Speaker imitates a woman's voice]. "Well, I just got paid." And, and I was like, oh.
[speaker002:] Had some money in her pocket, yeah.
[speaker001:] It was there. It was burning. It had to be spent. You know, and I'm like and she said everything was on sale. Oh, oh, that's good, at least it was on sale [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] That's good honey, I'm glad you bought it on sale [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] What else can you say?
[speaker002:] That's right. I do recommend the for savings bit. They, uh,
[speaker001:] Yeah. I think,
[speaker002:] they take it out or your paycheck before you see it because it doesn't hurt.
[speaker001:] Yeah. You don't notice it. I think that's probably a really good idea.
[speaker002:] You know, you don't even think about it if it's gone.
[speaker001:] Huh-uh.
[speaker002:] Yeah, so, uh, until you really need it and then you realize, you've got a couple of thousand dollars built up someplace else.
[speaker001:] Yeah. Yeah, see I was, when I had, when I was living alone and I had my own house and things, uh, I put one, I was paid twice a month, one paycheck went into savings and one went into the checking account that paid the mortgage,
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] and the food bills and it, and I was even able to, you know, to accumulate some savings in a sense in the checking account, because I'm pretty thrifty and, you know. But my wife likes to spend. She enjoys, so that's fine [LAUGHTER]. But a for savings, I'll have to look into that.
[speaker002:] Yeah. that's, that's been our godsend, you know.
[speaker001:] Huh-uh.
[speaker002:] We've had some sort of major emergencies come up, you know, where, we also own our own house,
[speaker001:] Huh-uh.
[speaker002:] um, we had an ice storm up here,
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] recently, where it was pathe-, I mean, it was horrible. I mean, half the city owned trees. One-third of all vegetation in this county is just wiped out.
[speaker001:] Oh, really, because of the heavy ice.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] It broke the limbs.
[speaker002:] Exactly.
[speaker001:] Huh-uh.
[speaker002:] We had to our backyard tremendous willow tree that just fortunately, but it cost us, you know, a couple of hundred dollars just to bring the tree down.
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] I mean, just to take off what was broken. Plus, we went with a friend, and they said you know, and then the whole ice storm cost us quite a bit of money, even though insurance picked up some of it,
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] still, not all of it. They don't get, you know,
[speaker001:] Huh-uh.
[speaker002:] and that, plus and then we had a car expense like that same week. One of the cars died, you know. All of this adds up and that for savings really comes in handy.
[speaker001:] Yeah. Yeah. I can see that. I can that, I keep trying to say to her, Laura don't spend so much. What happens if something happens to a car, you know.
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] Oh, well, nothing will happen. Oh.