很久不见的好友Lisa, Karen和Gina一起吃饭。三个人都说，现在手头很紧，彼此交换勤俭持家的经验。Gina说，她们家实行三十天规则，想买什么东西，先要等上三十天，如果三十天过后还觉得需要的话，才能买，Lisa 觉得这个办法不错。
L: What a great rule! My kids keep bugging me to buy a flat screen TV and I really think we can wait until next year when they will be cheaper. I'm going to institute the thirty-day rule and see if they still want it!
K: I find that if I write a very specific shopping list before I go to the mall and stick to it...I'm much less likely to buy unnecessary stuff. The trick is to force yourself to stick to the shopping list! No exceptions!
Lisa说，孩子一直吵着要买个平面电视，bug someone to do something，意思是缠着某人做某事。Karen又说，如果把需要买的东西列在单子上，write a shopping list, shopping list，意思是购物清单，就不会看见什么买什么，结果买了一大堆不需要的东西回来。
她还介绍经验说，The trick is to force yourself to stick to the shopping list! 诀窍是必需严格遵照购物清单，stick to something，是严格遵守的意思。No exceptions，不能有例外。
G: Yep...Sticking to it is the hard part! In any case, this recession is teaching all of us to have better discipline and that's a good thing.
L: Yes, it sure it. We could all learn some self-control!
K: We sure could! The days of free spending are over. No more "putting it on the card."
Gina表示赞同，说sticking to the shopping list is the hard part. Hard part，指难度较大的部分，换句话说，Writing down the things you need to buy is the easy part. Sticking to the shopping list is the hard part. 把需要买的东西列在购物清单上很容易，能完全按照这个单子买东西就没那么容易了。
Karen在上面那段话中还说，the days of free spending are over，花钱不假思索的日子结束了。 No more "putting it on the card." 这里所说的"put it on the card"意思是刷卡。
G: Hey! I've got a great idea! Let's have a three-day "staycation"...it's a vacation at home! You can bring the kids over to my place and we'll all have fun together.
L: That sounds like fun!
K: Super idea! Let's start our "staycation" this Saturday!
G: Great! See you then!
Gina突发奇想，建议大家一起来个三天的"staycation," staycation is spelled s-t-a-y-c-a-t-i-o-n, staycation, 是stay跟vacation连在一起组成的，是这两年出现的新词，指经济不好，在家渡假。大家一致同意，觉得这个主意真不错。