Hi this is Tutor Nick and this is Idioms 210. The idiom today is "bang for
one's buck." Okay. Let's look at the note here. The phrase could also be reworded
as bang for your buck or bang for the buck. You get more bang for the buck or
you get more bang for your buck. All right. Let's continue. If someone gets more or a
bigger bang for the buck, we also we often hear it that way it means you get
a lot of value for little cost. So you're getting a lot more for your money.
Basically that's the idea. Let's continue. The origin of this idiom comes from the
time when Dwight D Eisenhower was president.
Yeah. Surprisingly he was a Republican and previously a general. He wanted to
increase the military power but decrease the budget. So that's not an easy thing
to do. You increase the military power probably, it often usually increases the
budget. You have to spend a lot more money. So he was trying to figure out a
way to do this. To increase the military power but lower the budget. The solution
they came up with was a policy of using nuclear weapons in any conflict bigger
than what they called a brushfire war. Okay.
By doing this, they could greatly lower the number of servicemen and replace
them with cheaper inexpensive bombs . And it doesn't sound really quite nice but but
on the other hand. Maybe he was saving more American lives this way. Thus they
were able to get more bang for the buck. And remember. Of course everyone knows
buck is a slang for a dollar. So you get more bang. You get, get more energy or
more power or really just simply you get more value for the dollar, for the buck.
Okay. So let's look at a couple of examples
here. Example number one. I prefer to travel to a third world country because
after the exchange rate, I can get more bang for my buck.
Everything is comparatively cheaper. So in comparison to going to more
industrialized countries it's more expensive. You can get a lot more. Maybe
to stay at nicer hotels or buy nicer things or or spend more time there on
vacation. You get more bang for your buck. You get more value for every dollar that
you spend. All right. Number two. She tries to pick up her Christmas presents
throughout the year when stores offer clearance sales. In this way she can get
more bang for her buck. So maybe she get better presents and not spend as much
money. So she can get more bang for her buck. Okay.
Anyway , I hope it's clear. I hope you got it. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye