純正地道美語 第170期(外教講解):制定家庭預算
A: Welcome Mr and Mrs Carnwell, please take a seat.
B: Thank you.
A: So I understand that your family spending has skyrocketed and you want to start budgeting.
C: Yes that’s correct. Frankly speaking our household income is relatively high and we have never had any money problems, but I think this is the main reason as to why our spending has gone out of control.
B: We have two kids and with allowances, paying their credit cards, ours and not to mention our mortgage and car payments. With the recent economic downturn, my husband’s business has suffered and now we need some advice as to how we can prepare a family budget.
A: I see. Well you have come to the right place. First what we need to do, is determine your cash flow. Knowing how much money is coming in will help us allocate spending to different categories such as mortgage, education, groceries, etc.
B: Yes，that makes sense.
A: Secondly, I need you to bring all of your receipts for the last two to three months. That way, we can determine what your average expenditures are and see which category you are spending money on the most. Usually, your fixed costs are higher and we cant do much about that, but we can usually trim your variable costs such as entertainment or clothing.
C: Great! We will do that then! Now how about we treat you to a nice dinner?
A: That’s another thing. If you really want to stop spending so much money, throw away at least half of your credit cards!
skyrocket vi. 陡升, 猛漲
Prices skyrocketed.
物價猛漲。
budget vt.爲 ... 做預算
Congress has approved the new educational budget.
國會通過了新的教育預算。
out of control 失控
The bus got out of control and ran into a wall.
公共汽車失去控制而撞到牆上。
allocate vt. (常與to連用）分配； 配給
We must allocate the money.
我們必須分好這筆錢。
frankly speaking 坦率地說
Frankly speaking, he is not so bad as you might think.
坦白講，他沒有你想像中的壞。
【拓展詞彙】
capital n.資金
finances n.資金
to bring in the dough 來掙錢
breadwinner n. 養家餬口的人
to itemize 分條詳述, 詳細列舉
A: Carnwell夫婦，歡迎你們來。請坐。
B:謝謝。
A: 我理解你們的家庭開銷飛漲，你們要開始預算。
C:是的，你說得對。坦白地說我們的家庭收入還是很高的，我們從未有過錢方面的問題，但是我認爲最主要的原因是花費爲什麼超過了控制。
A: 我們有2個孩子，都有津貼，要支付他們和我們信用卡上的花銷，更不用提抵押和車貸。由於經濟下滑，我丈夫的生意受到重創，我們需要徵詢下一件來制定家庭預算。
B:我明白了，你們算來對了。我們首先要做的是，確定你們的現金流動。知道有多少收入能幫助來如何將錢花到不同的方面，比如抵押貸款，教育，日用品，等等。
A: 有道理。
B:其次，我需要你們將前2，3個月所有的發票都帶來。那樣的話，我們就能確定你們每月的平均開銷和那方面你們花錢最多。通常，你們固定的花費較高，在那方面改變不了多少，但是我們減少可變的花費，比如娛樂和買衣服。
A: 是的，我們會照做的。我們請你吃一頓晚飯如何？
B:那是另回事。如果你真的想停止花這麼多錢，至少要將你的信用卡扔掉一半。
