So I have this lighter
and I have this $100 bill.
And I thought that I would light this on fire.
But then, again, maybe I won't
because I don't have money to burn.
In English, we have a whole bunch of really interesting
and strange phrases that we use when we talk about money.
One of them is to say that you have money to burn,
which means you're really rich,
or that you don't have money to burn,
which means you're more like me.
In this English lesson,
what I'm going to do is I'm going to help you learn
a whole bunch of English phrases we use
when we talk about money.
(upbeat music)
Well, hello, and welcome to this English lesson
where I'm going to help you learn some English phrases
you can use when you're talking about money.
The first three phrases I'm going to teach you are
phrases you would use
when you're talking about someone
who doesn't have very much money.
And they are the phrases, to be flat broke,
to be hard up, and to live paycheque to paycheque.
All of those phrases are used to describe someone
who doesn't have very much money.
Here are some example sentences.
You could say this.
He can't afford to go out to eat because he's flat broke.
Or you could say, she can't afford to buy a new car
because she's hard up for money right now.
And you could say that family is having
a tough time right now
because they're living paycheque to paycheque.
Notice I spelled paycheque the Canadian way.
Maybe I should put the American spelling up there as well,
just so you know.
And just so you know, a paycheck is something
you get from work every two weeks or every week.
So when you live paycheck to paycheck,
it means you're waiting to get paid
so you can buy the things you need.
So those are the three phrases you would use
to describe someone who doesn't have very much money.
We should also talk about English phrases we use
when talking about someone who has lots of money,
when we're talking about someone who's rich.
Two phrases that come to mind are the phrases,
to have deep pockets,
pockets are the thing you have on the front of your pants,
and to have money to burn.
You've already heard the one phrase
at the beginning of this video.
By the way, I put the $100 bill back in the house,
because I didn't want to lose it.
When you say someone has deep pockets,
it means they have a lot of money.
An example sentence would be,
he buys a new car every year because he has deep pockets.
And the second phrase, to have money to burn,
can be used in the same way.
You could say that she goes on a trip every month
because she has money to burn.
So two phrases that you can use to talk about people
who are wealthy.
There's a couple other phrases you can use
to describe the actions of someone who is wealthy.
And they are the phrases, to foot the bill
and to pick up the tab.
When you say
that someone is going to foot the bill for something,
it means they're going to pay for it.
An example sentence would be this.
He's getting a new car, but his dad's gonna foot the bill.
That means, his dad is paying for it.
And the second phrase, to pick up the tab,
is used mostly in a restaurant.
Sometimes when you go out to dinner with people,
someone might say,
"Hey, it's on me. I'll pick up the tab."
That means that they're going to pay for it.
So usually those two phrases are used
when describing the actions of people
who have a lot more money than the rest of us.
There are a couple of other phrases that we use
when talking about wealthy or rich people in English.
And they are the phrases, money talks,
or from rags to riches.
You may have heard these phrases in a movie or in a TV show.
When we say money talks,
it means that sometimes when you want to convince someone
to do something,
if you pay them, it's easier to get them to say yes.
Money talks. Money has power over people.
And the other phrase, from rags to riches,
we use to refer to someone who was poor,
someone who didn't have very much money,
and maybe they started a very successful business
and became rich.
So we say they went from rags to riches,
rags being really old clothes
that probably have lots of holes in them,
and then riches being just having lots of money.
Some people like to spend money,
but other people like to save money.
They don't like to spend money.
And there's a few ways we can describe the person
and their actions in English.
The first phrase that comes to mind is that
I might call a person like that, a penny pincher.
They don't actually pinch pennies,
but I think you get the point.
A penny pincher is someone who likes to save money.
A penny pincher doesn't like spending money.
The other phrase that we would use
in that situation might be the phrase, to squirrel away.
You might know someone who likes to squirrel away money.
By the way, there are no squirrels in this tree.
But this phrase is based on
the fact that the squirrel,
which is a small animal that lives around here,
likes to put nuts away in the summer and fall
so they have something to eat in the winter.
So they squirrel away nuts.
And some people squirrel away money.
They like to save their money instead of spending it.
There are a couple of English sayings
that people who like to save money might say to you
to encourage you to save money as well.
The first English saying is, money doesn't grow on trees.
And the second saying is, a penny saved is a penny earned.
The first phrase or saying, I think, is fairly obvious.
If money grew on trees, everyone would have lots of money.
In order to have money, you need to work hard.
So the phrase, money doesn't grow on trees,
is used to remind people to value their money
and not spend it too quickly.
The second phrase, a penny saved is a penny earned,
has kind of the same meaning.
It's encouraging people to think about spending.
When you spend money, that money is gone.
But if you don't spend it, you still have it.
So those two phrases, money doesn't grow on trees
and a penny saved is a penny earned,
might be something, oh, someone like me,
a parent might say to a child
who's just learning how to manage their money.
Let's talk about three English phrases
that English speakers might use
when talking about earning money or making money.
The first phrase is, easy money.
The second phrase is, to make big bucks.
And the third phrase is, to make a quick buck
or to make a fast buck.
The first phrase refers to any job
where the job is quite easy to do
and you get paid for it.
Sometimes when I see people doing certain jobs,
I don't wanna mention any particular job,
I think, "Wow, that must be easy money."
The second phrase, to make big bucks,
refers to someone who gets paid a lot for the work they do.
Sometimes people think teachers make big bucks,
but in Canada, at least, we don't.
We get paid well, but we don't make big bucks.
And the third phrase, to make a quick buck
or to make a fast buck,
refers to doing a job quickly for an hour or a day
and getting paid for it.
Sometimes when you have extra time,
you might be looking for a little bit of work on a Saturday
and maybe you can go work on a farm and make a quick buck.
That would be a good example of that phrase.
So those are three phrases English speakers might use
when they're talking about earning money or making money.
Let's talk a little bit about spending money
and phrases we use in English
when we talk about spending money.
The first one I can think of is actually the term,
spending money.
Spending money is money
usually that parents give to their children
when they go somewhere so they have some money to spend.
Last week, our kids went on a field trip.
So we gave them some spending money.
We gave them each $10 so they could buy some food
or some candy while they were on their trip.
The other phrase that we use sometimes in English is
the phrase, dirt cheap.
When we say something is dirt cheap,
when you're buying something that's dirt cheap,
we mean that it doesn't cost a lot of money.
We buy a lot of rice and beans
because rice and beans are dirt cheap here in Canada.
It's a very cheap food to buy
when we're feeding our children.
Have you ever known someone
that really wanted to buy something
and they had the money to buy it.
And instead of doing a lot of research,
they're eager to buy it right away.
We would describe that person by saying,
the money was burning a hole in their pocket.
When you say someone has money
and it's burning a hole in their pocket,
it means they're really, really eager to go and spend it.
I have a few friends who sometimes,
when they want to buy a new car,
it's like the money is burning a hole in their pocket.
A couple of other phrases I can think of are,
to get a lot of bang for your buck.
When you buy something,
you want to get a lot of bang for your buck.
That means you wanna get a lot of what you're buying
for every dollar you spend.
When I go to the grocery store,
if I use rice as another example,
you get a lot of bang for your buck when you buy rice.
You can buy a gigantic bag of rice for very little money.
You really get a lot of bang for your buck.
Sometimes when we're selling flowers at market,
people complain about the price,
but sometimes people don't
and they're willing to pay top dollar.
When you're willing to pay top dollar for something,
it means you will pay a good amount of money for it.
Our bouquets aren't expensive, but they aren't cheap.
But sometimes Jen will make a really fancy bouquet,
because someone who wants to spend top dollar might want
to buy something that's more expensive.
And lastly, sometimes you go out with your friends
and you all buy dinner
and everyone will then chip in.
In English, when we use the phrase, to chip in,
we're referring to everyone contributing money
to buy something,
like a meal or something else.
I know some people, when they're younger,
they can't afford to buy a car.
So maybe their brother and sister will chip in
and the three of them will buy a car together.
So the phrase, to chip in, means
that everyone is giving some money
towards purchasing something.
Well, hey, thank you so much
for watching this English lesson
where I hope you learned some more English phrases you can use
when you're talking about money.
Remember, if this is your first time here,
don't forget to click that red Subscribe button.
For all of you, give me a thumbs up
if this video helped you learn a bit more English.
And of course, if you have a little bit of time,
I think you know what to do.
Why don't you stick around and watch another English lesson?
(bright music)