Terri:Hettie was complaining to me yesterday that there’s always so much month left at the end of the money.
泰莉:赫蒂昨天跟我抱怨說，錢總是早在一個月結束之前就用完了。
Marlene:She's always moaning like that. She just can't manage her money.
馬琳:她經常這樣抱怨。她就是不懂得理財。
Terri:But she's always dressed like a film-star.
泰莉:但她總是穿得像電影明星一樣。
Marlene:Well, that's just it. She blows all her money on clothes and shoes and wonders why she's always so short of cash at the end of the month.
馬琳:嗯，問題就在這裡。她胡亂花錢買衣服、鞋子，到了月底，就說不知道為甚麼總是沒有錢。
Terri:I suppose she is rather extravagant.
泰莉:看來她很揮霍。
Marlene:She certainly is. She needs to learn how to budget.
馬琳:你說得對。她須學習控制開支。
There’s always so much month left at the end of the money 這說法，你以前聽過沒？在英語國家，這說法頗為常見，語帶戲謔。一般而言，英文會說so much/little money left （剩下的錢很多╱很少）和at the end of the month（月底）。這一句 l把money、month的位置互易，變成「錢用光了，一個月還剩下那麼多天」，例如：If you don't want to have too much month left at the end of your money, your expenditure must not be more than your income（假如你不想未到月底就把錢用光，那麼，你的支出就不可以超過收入）。赫蒂入不敷出，是因為She blows all her money on clothes and shoes。Blow一般解作「吹」，俚語往往以blow指「揮霍」或「花很多錢」，例如：(1) She blew her husband's money in an attempt to keep up with the Joneses （她要和鄰居比闊氣，把丈夫的錢亂花）。(2) I blew $5,000 betting on a horse race（我賭錢賽馬，損失了五千元）。Blow的過去式是blew，和解作「藍色」的blue讀音相同，所以，俚語還以blue指「揮霍」，作動詞，例如：The prodigal son blued all his father's saving in two months（那浪子兩個月之內就把父親的儲蓄揮霍光）。嚴肅的寫作不宜用blow、blue等字說「揮霍」，可改用squander，例如：That prodigal son squandered all his father's savings in two months。至於亂花金錢的人，英文叫spendthrift。Hettie is rather a spendthrift等於Hettie is rather extravagant。
