[speaker002:] well we in in in our family have been pretty remiss in trying to uh you know keep track of uh daily finances uh the uh way way back what twelve years ago or something when I got my first computer I did what everybody else does which is to put the whole family budget on the machine and put checks and you know checkbooks and all those kind of thing and we kept that going for about a month and it became so onerous that we gave up on it
[speaker001:] um-hum that sounds about right
[speaker002:] you know so uh the only thing we're you know that we do now is uh I keep a a little spreadsheet of uh what I call the net worth calculation which is just the the present value of various kinds of investments and so forth uh and I only update that oh I don't know maybe once every quarter or so every three months just basically when the statements come in
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] you know just to see whether or not we're falling you know getting ahead falling behind or staying staying even or what
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] um that's really about you know the extent of uh of the kind of uh financial score keeping that we're doing
[speaker001:] uh well it's kind of difficult for me because right now um like most teachers I'm laid off
[speaker002:] hm oh dear that's terrible
[speaker001:] and so um I spend most you know I substitute a lot
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] so it's a lot it's very hard on a nonfixed income because I don't know how many days I'm going to be called in and whether I am or not to try to keep track of finances
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and but I know uh how much I have to bring in a month and that's about it that's about as far as we go and then anything extra is you know more or less split up between all of us
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and just thrown in the kitty more or less for a rainy day
[speaker002:] oh I see are you are you married are you living with a bunch of with with people you're sharing expenses
[speaker001:] um no I'm a single mother I have three children
[speaker002:] oh I see uh-huh
[speaker001:] so uh right now we're on we get from you know aid from the state at this point because there's no other way to do it and my ex-husband just sort of took off and doesn't pay child support
[speaker002:] oh dear
[speaker001:] so right now I know what I'm getting from the state and um I have to balance more or less what I get from the state with my bills and um you know try to work as many days as possible
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] any time they call me in but I still have to figure out if I work too many days then I lose all my state aid and if I don't work enough days then I don't get enough to meet the bills and it's like a juggling act every single month
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] like this week I've been just holding my breath and hoping they'll call me in but they probably won't because next week the kids have school vacation
[speaker002:] I see
[speaker001:] so you know the four days before they only have a four day week and they usually don't need subs because everybody's pretty good about coming in
[speaker002:] uh-huh I oh I see
[speaker001:] they don't like to be absent before a vacation
[speaker002:] oh sure
[speaker001:] but we're shopping around as far as well I'm shopping around as far as trying to get uh that's why I'm doing this to get some extra money
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and um getting pledge sheets for the Boy Scouts my kids are in Boy Scouts so trying to get pledge sheets for the Boy Scouts because every penny I bring in is ten percent to me so it sort of helps defray the costs a little bit but you know we do a lot of robbing Peter to pay Paul I guess we're in the situation that a lot of Americans you know middle class Americans are in
[speaker002:] uh-huh yeah you're the first you know uh my next door neighbor just lost his job in a you know one of these uh his company went broke
[speaker001:] oh my Lord
[speaker002:] I mean went you know bankrupt actually it was a subsidiary of a of an outfit called US Shoe or something it was a computer subsidiary I don't know what a shoe company's doing running a computer company
[speaker001:] really
[speaker002:] but uh you know they just they just folded it up and um um told him to that they took the top management and gave them jobs
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] with the with the corporate uh at the corporate front office and everybody else was sent packing
[speaker001:] ah
[speaker002:] uh hang on one second I've got
[speaker001:] sure
[speaker002:] um somebody somebody was knocking on my door here um it sounds like in a certain sense at least at the present stage I mean it sounds sounds terrible to say but at the present stage you probably are even more in the market for a a budgetary thing than than than most people probably are might be terms of keeping keeping score of input and output
[speaker001:] right um-hum definitely
[speaker002:] do you have a computer do you have a computer at home or
[speaker001:] uh yes we do and we try to you know I keep track of every penny and more or less enter it in you know every single day I'm at the computer
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh I see
[speaker001:] and it's like okay what do we have left what do we have to pay what have we paid this month what hasn't come in yet you know
[speaker002:] um-hum yeah have you do you use a standard uh a standard spreadsheet or I mean