Preparing a Budget

Welcome Mr and Mrs Carnwell, please take a seat.

欢迎卡恩韦尔先生和太太，请坐。

Thank you.

谢谢。

So I understand that your family spending has sky rocketed and you want to start budgeting.

我了解到您家的开支 skyrocketed 了，你们想开始做预算。

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.

对，没错。坦白说，我们家收入比较高，以前从没遇到过钱的问题，但我觉得这正是开支失控的主要原因。

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.

我们有两个孩子，要给他们零花钱，帮他们还信用卡，还有我们自己的卡，更别提房贷和车贷了。最近经济不景气，我丈夫的生意受了影响，现在我们急需一些建议，怎么制订家庭预算。

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.

明白了。你们找对地方了。首先，我们要确定你们的现金流。知道每月进账多少，能帮我们把开支分配到不同类别，比如房贷、教育、食品杂货等等。

Yes that makes sense.

有道理。

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 can’t do much about that, but we can usually trim your variable costs such as entertainment or clothing.

其次，我需要你们把最近两三个月的所有收据都带过来。这样我们就能算出平均支出，看看哪项花得最多。通常固定开支比较高，这个我们没法大动，但可变开支比如娱乐和服装，一般可以削减。

Great! We will do that then! Now how about we treat you to a nice dinner?

太好了！我们这就去办！不如我们请您吃顿好的？

That’s another thing. If you really want to stop spending so much money, throw away at least half of your credit cards!

这是另一回事。如果真想减少花销，至少扔掉一半信用卡！