hi Ellen
hi
um do you uh could you tell me if you uh budget your monthly expenses
no we don't really do anything formal um
i kind of keep up with all the finances you know paying the bills and typically i do most of the spending too as well so uh you know i kind of have a handle on it and
i just sort of know what we can and can't do and
it you know it's worked pretty well i haven't really gotten into any major problems without having something formal
yeah how about how about uh long term do you have anything uh for as far as as far as savings go for long term
well yeah
yeah we have uh you know like a typical credit union account for you know just a a basic savings thing and then uh we've got you know the IRA's and CD's and
various and sundry you know long term kinds of things
uh yeah
how about you
okay that's uh uh we used to budget when the children were small
um
things were and there was only one income so we had to watch what we were doing
um-hum
and our savings weren't that great but now the kids are all grown up and gone in fact the youngest is is uh
finally getting out of college this uh May
uh
so we've we don't budget anymore we run basically the same as you do you kind of know what you're going to spend uh week to week or or you have your monthly bills at a fixed
right
um as far as electricity and telephone
um we do the same thing we budget not budget but um i have a long term savings goal
um-hum
for retirement you know
right
they take out for CODA and then uh um
the IRA's
and then uh i also take out for
um a savings account but it's it's uh
um it's not really savings it's savings if we don't spend it
well i know yeah
it's like a floating you know if something if something comes up
yeah or if you want to take a trip or something that you you plan it but that's where you get the money is
yes
right yeah
yeah that's that's the way we work it
it it
it doesn't come out um
it doesn't come out of long term savings like we were we were um saving savings bonds too for oh years and years and years and now i'm getting up towards retirement age so
we stopped stopped the the savings bonds and we're going maxed out on CODA and then
you know other things like you know CD's
uh-huh
uh-huh
um
but this other it's in the credit union and they and they take it out and it goes in there and at the end of the month but if we want to go on a trip or if something looks good or if we want to go away for a weekend
yeah
that's what we hit
yeah
or if we go out for dinner say to a nice restaurant
um that'll come out of that
uh-huh
rather than put it on a credit card
oh that's sort of the way we you know do it or at least certainly for some of those bigger things or maybe one of the appliances breaks down you know and we have to go get something new then we've got that little cushion in there that
right
you know will either cover it or partially so you know depending on what it is
yeah so it you don't have to really dig into long term or or you know well you can't cash in a CD that's kind of ridiculous um
yeah no i never go like to go into those things that are
like you say long term that have penalties and all sorts of other things they
yeah
uh i i sort of feel like if you leave it there and you don't use it and you sort of don't see it then it's it's safe in a sense
right the only time you know about it is when it comes due and they'll say you know well you've got to reinvest it back in this or that or whatever
yeah
but yeah it's it's it's kind of forced on you
because you suffer a penalty
yeah
so that's yeah that's one of the that's one of the ways that we do it you you also have uh CODA
yes
so
definitely i mean that's a good deal
that's yeah where else can you get that kind of interest to start with
i don't know
i mean that's fantastic
yeah
you know they match it um
my wife used to they matched hers only hers was a little bit better than ours um she hasn't been working for a couple of years her father took sick so she's been taking care of him
uh-huh
but that added up too i mean when when she left and the pay out came in you know if we just rolled that over and it just sits there and gathers
yeah
steam or momentum and you don't realize it you know it just
piles up
yeah that's a good deal well when you did keep a a budget all the time how strictly did you do that i mean was it real precise or
um yeah we we took out actually my wife
she's the one that ran the budget you know i just brought it home and she had to stretch it out wherever it was going to go but she would allocate so much at at at that time when the kids were growing up so much went for groceries
um-hum
so much went for the mortgage because we knew you know that was kind of fixed and electricity you could come pretty close and telephone you could come pretty close uh the oil
yeah
we heated with oil
uh-huh
we they put us on a budget they would run like uh they could really tell how much oil you were going to use
uh-huh
so they budgeted it at year round
so in the summer time
which you didn't use very little oil
you were still paying the same thing as in the winter time when you're using a lot but they kind of spread the payments out
yeah
and
we stuck to that pretty much so uh groceries fluctuated um we didn't go out to eat that often
but as times went on the children got older you know and naturally salaries increased um we kind of fell away from it
yeah
it it became a chore
well it is to a certain extent to have to try to keep up with all that
yeah i talked to to uh
other people and they used to have envelopes they used to stuff so much in you know so much for this so much for that so much for we never really we never really did that
yeah
we just allocated so much and it went into a checking account
yeah
and at the end of the month hopefully everything came out pretty close
so we just kept certain things out for like i said for groceries
um but even at that point you know she'd say oh you know we we need this or the budget's not doing this or that uh
course me i didn't run it like she ran it like you run it now
well
and it's pretty much the same she still does the same thing everything's fixed
yeah
you know like CODA comes out of your out of your pay and the credit union comes out of your pay
so we don't have to do anything there and the rest of it
as far as my salary goes i just have it automatically deposited in into our bank
yeah i do that too
so we don't really see anything if if i need something i'll go and you know use the teller machine or if she needs something she'll go and she'll use the teller machine
so we don't really um have a lot of cash anymore
yeah
yeah i i walk around sometimes and i've got if i've got five dollars in my pocket that's that's a lot it's
yeah i used to take money out for gas and groceries and things like that and i don't even do that anymore i mean i just don't have that much cash on me
yeah for your automobile
um-hum right
you mean gas yeah and now i don't know about down there but up here they got the pumps you just put your because i always put my gas on a credit card and i pay it at the end of the month
yeah
so you just stick your credit card in there and then it pumps whatever it pumps and it adds it all up and it gives you a ticket and off you go
yeah
so you don't even have to go in to see the teller anymore
works pretty good then
yeah yeah it's not bad so you don't need you don't need money for gasoline you don't need money you know incidentals
uh
for coffee when i come into work in the morning and things like that but other than that
um it looks like we're probably going towards a cashless society
yeah to some extent i guess so
because if you're doing that
you know and i'm sure it must be prevalent in your area down in Dallas
um and we're doing it most most of the people up here that work have already have their their checks uh electronically sent to their banks or the credit union if they belong to the credit union
yeah
so they don't deal much in cash anymore either
well
if we
so it looks like we're both running about the same
yeah
um
maybe younger people are different i'm not sure
yeah they probably don't have enough to that's right
uh
they don't have spendable income right yeah the poor poor things i know like you know
i look at mine and he's getting out of school and i'm saying geez you know i'm glad i'm not starting out now because
things are kind of tough up here for as far as uh employment goes
yeah we we're having some problems here too
still because you guys ran into it a while back
yeah they're still laying off like over in Fort Worth and a lot of other companies too just here and there
uh
oh yeah it's not just yeah it's not just TI they they're doing the same thing up here and not just uh in yesterday's newspaper they said um IBM's going through they're going to lay off like fourteen thousand world wide
well yeah that really is scary
So it's still there unfortunately um
