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Welcome to our Daily English Listening Practice with this week’s series:
Shopping Vocabulary
This is the 2nd part of a 5-part series on Shopping Vocabulary with advanced English listening exercises. Learn some new shopping vocab all in naturally spoken English.
Please listen to the audio files for explanations.
Transcripts unavailable.
Notes from the Audio Files
Tight Budget / Careful With Money
- Good with money: you are good at saving money
- Sticking to a budget: following a plan to save money or only spend a certain amount of money
- Stay on target: doing exactly what you need to do to follow the plan
- Staying on budget: you’re spending and saving well
- Phases: periods of time where you do something
- In and out: you budget then you stop budgeting
How to use it:
“All our money’s going into planning our wedding, so we’ve been on a really tight budget.”
“I’m usually on a tight budget, however around the holidays, my budget tends to go right out the window.”
Go into debt / Blow Your Budget
- Take that back: That’s not true / That’s incorrect
- Living abroad: Living overseas
- Charged up my credit card: used my credit card to pay for things
- Pay off that credit card: Pay back the balance owed on a credit card
- To Break Even: to not make but not lose any money; to be at zero
How to use it:
“As soon as some students receive their first student loans, they completely blow their budget in two weeks and have to borrow more cash to survive the rest of the semester.”
“Thank goodness I’ve only gone into debt temporarily, I got myself out of it within a month or two.”
Treating Yourself / Splurging / Retail Therapy
- Depending upon the week: depending on how the week went
- Impulsive / spontaneous: unplanned or random
- Save up: save money to buy something specific
- Retail therapy: using shopping to destress or unwind
How to use it:
“You’ve been working so hard recently! You need to treat yourself!”
“That moment when you’re splurging during retail therapy and you realize you need actual therapy.”
Run Up / Max Out Your Credit Card
- A number of months: several months
- Overdraft: unplanned or emergency balance available in your bank account
- Pay off: to pay back a debt, credit card bill or overdraft
- Credit Limit: Maximum amount of money you can spend on your credit card
- Declined: Not accepted
- Moral of the story: What we’ve learned from the story
How to use it:
“We really went overboard on our honeymoon, I think we both maxed out our credit cards, but it was such a special trip we didn’t care.”
“I was doing some shopping online, and when I finally checked my cart, I realized I’d run up a huge bill, and I had to delete almost everything.”
Loyalty Card / Discount Card / Getting Points
- Signed up for: Registered for
- Discount: a percentage saved from the normal price: ex. 10% off
- Reduction: a lower amount
- Membership card: similar to loyalty card
- Shoulda gotten: Should have gotten
How to use it:
“Hey, I actually have enough loyalty points to get something! A free sandwich? Score!”
“I’m always looking for opportunities to get points that I can redeem for airline miles.”
We hope you listened to all five! Still have questions? Don’t worry, just write a comment below and we’ll come running!
Kat and Mark
