評(píng)論
打印
很久不見的好友Lisa, Karen和Gina一起吃飯。三個(gè)人都說，現(xiàn)在手頭很緊，彼此交換勤儉持家的經(jīng)驗(yàn)。
K: We've stopped going to the theater! We used to take the kids every Saturday, but with each ticket costing about 10 bucks, it adds up to a couple of hundred dollars a month! These days we just rent a movie and stay at home.
G: But you know, even though we can't do as many things as we used to, I feel like our family has grown closer since we've been spending more time together.
Karen說，原來每星期六都要帶孩子去看電影，但是電影票一張十塊錢，10 bucks, buck is spelled b-u-c-k, buck 是口語里提到美元時(shí)常用的詞。
一個(gè)月下來，一家人看電影就要兩百塊，上面用到的it adds up to是加在一起的意思，把這筆錢省了，一家人租影碟在家看。Gina說，雖然沒那么多錢玩這玩那了，但是一家人經(jīng)常在一起，our family has grown closer，感情反而更親密了。
L: That's true for us as well. We play board games at night with the kids and when we watch movies we do it as a family.
K: You know the old saying: troubles can be a blessing in disguise.
L: I think it all depends on your attitude. If you stay positive, saving money can be a fun challenge. But being depressed about it doesn't help anything.
Lisa也有同感，因?yàn)榻?jīng)濟(jì)衰退逼得大家不能花錢買娛樂，不得不回去陪孩子玩游戲，一家人一起看電影，反而其樂融融。老話說，troubles can be a blessing in disguise，塞翁失馬，焉知非福。Lisa表示同意，說一切都取決于心態(tài)，如果心態(tài)是positive，積極的話，省錢也能變成一件開心的挑戰(zhàn)，萎靡不振doesn't help anything，于事無補(bǔ)。
G: Another thing that has really helped our family is instituting the thirty-day rule.
K: What's the thirty-day rule?
G: Well, every time we think about buying something we don't really need, we wait thirty days and then ask ourselves if we still want it. A lot of times after thirty days, we can't even remember why we wanted it in the first place!
Gina說，為省錢，她們家還采納了thirty-day rule，三十天原則，就是買一件東西之前，必須等30天，如果30天后還是想買的話，才可以買。Gina說，a lot of times，很多時(shí)候，30天過后，她們?cè)缇陀洸黄饋懋?dāng)初為什么想買了。三個(gè)人省錢還有什么高招嗎？我們下次繼續(xù)聽。
