[speaker001:] Budgeting activity in our household I, has is, uh, uh, kind of an informal kind of situation. We, we, you know, put, actually what happens is, uh, is, my check gets automatically deposited. I don't even have the glories of bringing home my check anymore. It just gets deposited. And,
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER] and, and my, my wife, you know, you know, looks at all those bills that come in and, you know, and all those people are counting on me to have my wife pay them. You see, and so our, our budgeting, w-, we really don't have a formal budgeting situation. Every time I've ever tried one, it's, uh, I've just got wrapped in my inertia. And, uh, I've just decided not to pursue it. Uh, what, what's your budget situation?
[speaker002:] Well, actually, uh, I've, I've had a couple of different situations. My current one has been the most successful. Uh, at a certain point in life an-, my husband, my ex-husband was an alcoholic. And we got divorced back in the mid-seventies and that left me with three teenagers.
[speaker001:] You know, well a-, a-, actually that kind of situation is just wonderful for budgets.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] It certainly is [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] Isn't it?
[speaker002:] But at any rate, what happened was that I, I just absolutely put away all the credit cards. I didn't rip them up. I didn't send them back. Nothing. I just put them away. Because there was one that it was really handy to have. If I absolutely had to have something, I could go use it.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] But, uh, mostly we just spent cash. Whatever we had. And if we didn't have it, we absolutely didn't spend it. But then, as things improved, you know. Once, once I got them all through college, uh, it came to the point where, uh, my parents came through the depression. I'm not sure how old you are.
[speaker001:] Well, my, you know, my, my parents too. You, you
[speaker002:] But my,
[speaker001:] you were born in, in the, in the late thirties or early forties.
[speaker002:] Late thirties, yeah. Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] And, uh, my mother hardly ever spent anything on herself or on the house. And that's kind of the way I was raised. And so I'm not a very demanding person in, in that aspect. So for quite a period of time, I just flat didn't spend any money.
[speaker001:] Um.
[speaker002:] Now, meanwhile, I got, had a, a building bank balance. And my intent was that whenever something went on sale that I really had to have, I would have the cash to buy it right then and there.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] And not ever have to spend any money on interest.
[speaker001:] Well, that, that's good.
[speaker002:] And that, that's the way I've operated ever since then. It, and you know, if, if something goes on sale and I don't have the money, I still don't buy it.
[speaker001:] [Noise] Well, we, we buy what, well, we just got through buying a twenty-five foot refrigerator, a new ceramic top stove, and a new dishwasher.
[speaker002:] Oh my [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] And, and we put twenty-eight hundred dollars on the charge. Along with my trip to Japan
[speaker002:] Oh my!
[speaker001:] which was, was fourteen or fifteen hundred dollars and you know.
[speaker002:] Oh my.
[speaker001:] Right. I mean, we just, we got a monster, you know, bill coming in. But, but we also have zero in-, interest being paid. And we pay it off as, as it goes.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh. And that's the way I do my credit cards now.
[speaker001:] Yeah. So we never really get that much over, uh, over extended.
[speaker002:] Yeah. I do almost all my purchasing on credit cards.
[speaker001:] Huh.
[speaker002:] But it's the fact that I have enough of a, of a cushion in the bank so that when they come, I can pay them in full.
[speaker001:] Yeah. We're, we're doing that. We have, you know, uh, th-, this is our, our, our big, uh, we did redecorating. Two, you know, two new pieces in the ref-, in the family room and new carpet. I mean we just
[speaker002:] Oh my.
[speaker001:] uh, we've just been spending, spending, spending.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] I'm envious [LAUGHTER]. Well I,
[speaker001:] Bu-, but we haven't really done anything for a long time because we've, we've had two kids in college that
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] just have graduated in the past year. So we're, you know, we don't have that.
[speaker002:] It's time for you to do these things then. Right?
[speaker001:] Yeah, it's, uh, it's about time that we did that. But, th-, the, the terrible part about it. I've looked at it all * Seems to be clearly 2 slash units. and it all looks still pretty good to me. Why, why [LAUGHTER] we need to replace it?
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] But, but, [LAUGHTER] un-, unfortunately my, my, my wife really [mispronounced] feels as though it's, it's just been an inappropriate, uh, thing to, to, I mean that rug is thirteen years old, why not replace it. I mean, uh, I say it might go for another thirteen but, uh, too late, we'll never find that out.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] This is so funny. That's wonderful. But
[speaker001:] And,
[speaker002:] you're lucky to have her because if you're like me and you have difficulty spending money, you need somebody to help you spend it. I mean, certain things really do need to be done whether or not you think they should,
[speaker001:] [Sneezing].
[speaker002:] be or not [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] You know, I, I, [NOISE] I don't spend that much money. I just, uh, we just sort of have had, uh, you know, too many obligations to, you know, we sort of take care of the kids when they were school and they, they got through school. And that was the major, you know, decade of expenses, you know. So we, we feel as, uh, but as far as any formal budgeting, uh, you know, I, I, we just apparently have been very fortunate. When we went, want to go out to eat, we go out to eat. We never really, [pounding] you know, have to program money for that or make choices, you know. But, uh, we don't have that uproarious a, a lifestyle. After all, we're,