okay Vic our topic is budgets
 	
 	
 		
 
 		yes
 	
 	
 		do you keep a monthly budget
 	
 	
 		uh i talk about doing that a lot
 	
 	
 		welcome to the club
 	
 	
 		uh i i use a uh computer software program to keep track of all expenses primarily it's a checking
 	
 	
 		uh-huh
 	
 	
 		you know a check balancing program but it does categorize categorize everything
 	
 	
 		oh how interesting
 	
 	
 		and and it allows you to either to go in and create a budget and then compare against it or actually will sort of generate one based on you know how you categorize things over the over the months
 	
 	
 		oh
 	
 	
 		so i have all the information there um it's just that i haven't been very diligent at at really tracking it and following it
 	
 	
 		well uh it's just like the money it's hard to keep track of it  as it goes out
 	
 	
 		right right what do you do
 	
 	
 		uh i'm a teacher and we're at a my husband and i are at a stage in life where we've got one left in college
 	
 	
 		okay
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		so budgeting is not our priority since we have one in college  their expenses run beyond any budgeting allowances
 	
 	
 		right
 		okay okay
 	
 	
 		we've quit
 	
 	
 		um well the biggest problem that i've had or one of the one of the problems is um
 		keeping track of cash expenditures you know expenditures
 	
 	
 		yeah
 	
 	
 		uh i think that one of the things that's uh makes budgeting very hard is the convenience of automatic teller machines
 		uh the ability to go up and get cash so easily
 	
 	
 		okay i see i stopped those four years ago yeah
 	
 	
 		really
 		okay well see you have control
 	
 	
 		yeah oh yeah now we are you know um well we're at a point in life that we're looking to retirement rather than you know earnings
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		so it's gotten to the point where um yeah automatic automatic teller i only had the card and it was on my own personal account and it got way out of control very fast
 	
 	
 		okay
 		huh
 	
 	
 		so i have a tendency now i take an allowance
 		and when it's gone it's gone you know i'm finished if it's gone the fifteenth of the month then it's gone
 	
 	
 		well that's pretty good
 		uh-huh
 		it's gone huh oh that's great
 	
 	
 		and uh we have a tendency not to use cash we pay everything by check
 	
 	
 		right yeah that's a good way to do it
 	
 	
 		and so that way we we keep control of what we're spending where it's going what it's going for
 	
 	
 		um-hum well that's great
 	
 	
 		so um you know it i take a hundred dollars a month that's all i take and you know i mean i don't buy groceries out of it it's my own little
 	
 	
 		oh wow
 	
 	
 		slush fund if you wanna call it that and that's for my little incidentals or running to the grocery store to get a you know gallon of milk or whatever
 	
 	
 		um-hum yeah
 		right
 	
 	
 		but um after that it's check only
 	
 	
 		right
 	
 	
 		so we can you know really know where our money's going and you know what's happening
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		what about how are you on charge cards
 	
 	
 		uh pretty good about that that the last few years anyway we did have a Master Card that got out of hand for awhile but we just just stopped using it didn't get rid of it
 	
 	
 		good
 	
 	
 		there are times uh such as oh some mail order type things uh where it's very convenient to have
 	
 	
 		yes
 	
 	
 		uh but that's really the only thing it it's used for and uh one one problem i do have is with uh
 		is it i in my job i travel a good bit and have to use my own uh credit card i don't have a business credit card
 	
 	
 		okay
 	
 	
 		so i use that and then have to file expense reports and uh
 		it just adds another complication to properly tracking expenses knowing how much of it is reimbursed business expense
 		uh or how much is my own expense for
 	
 	
 		well
 	
 	
 		yeah i i use uh credit cards not for credit but just for convenience in other words i pay we pay monthly the balance due uh but we do
 	
 	
 		okay yeah well this might help you because see my husband travels as well
 	
 	
 		uh-huh
 	
 	
 		and we have separate charge accounts
 	
 	
 		okay
 	
 	
 		he's got an American Express and that's only traveling
 	
 	
 		okay
 	
 	
 		then we both have a Visa or MasterCard
 	
 	
 		okay
 	
 	
 		so anything on his American Express is his
 	
 	
 		that's a pretty good way to do it
 	
 	
 		and it's his expense now he gave me one and if i go with him on work
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		i only charge on that card i don't put it on my MasterCard
 	
 	
 		okay
 		right
 	
 	
 		so we've separated those two completely and i know what you mean because at first we used to intermingle our funds and we weren't sure  why our bills were outrageous
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 		oh yeah it's hard to be sure to be sure
 		right
 	
 	
 		you know because his traveling expenses were you know i mean he's a traveling salesman so we're looking at six five
 	
 	
 		oh boy