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Well, my way of saving money is to do things myself. Actually, it’s been a while since the last time I did it, but I’m gonna share it with you anyway.

The thing is, my ex boyfriend used to study in America, and I would visit him during summer vacations. 

Back then, we were students, we didn’t have that much money, you know. Besides, we basically spent most of the money on the flight tickets, so it was like, every day we were on a budget. 

So you see, we just had to be frugal and cut down on all those unnecessary costs. Our trick was to do everything by ourselves.

Like, we would assemble the furniture on our own from IKEA ‘cause it’s a lot cheaper that way. 

We would do the laundry ourselves and bear the loud noise the clothes dryer made, instead of going to the dry cleaner’s. 

And we would cook our own meals, ‘cause we couldn’t afford to eat out every day.

The funniest part was that he used to get me to cut his hair, ‘cause according to him, each time I gave him a haircut, we would save, like 20 dollars, so that’s about 120 RMB, which was quite an amount of money. 

We’d rather spend the money on food or entertainment than in a barbershop. 

At first, I would just trim the bangs, and later I got bolder, and started to try new hairstyles. Sometimes it looked hilarious, but after I got the hang of it, it got much better.

So you see, that was how I, I mean, we, saved money, and it really worked.

语言点解析：

1. anyway

Anyway除了有“把扯远的话题扯回来”的功能之外，还有despite，even so的意思。例如：I'm afraid we can't come, but thanks for the invitation anyway.

2. The thing is, …

‘The thing is’ is used to introduce an important fact, reason or explanation.例如：I'm sorry my assignment isn't finished. The thing is, I've had a lot of other work this week. 有的时候我们还会看到thing前面有各种形容词，常用的有funny，amazing，awful等。

3. cut down on

It means to reduce the size, amount or number of something. 例如：The doctor told him to cut down on his drinking.

4. trick

A way of doing something that works well or a good method. 例如：The trick is to pick the animal up by the back of its neck.

5. dry cleaner’s

A shop or store where clothes, curtains, etc. are cleaned, especially with chemicals. 就是“干洗店”。例如：Can you pick up my suit from the cleaner's?

6. eat out

To have a meal in a restaurant, etc. rather than at home. 例如：Do you feel like eating out tonight?

7. trim

To make something neater, smaller, better by cutting parts from it. 通常跟hair搭配使用，表示“修剪一下”，trim the bangs就是修一下刘海。同时，trim还有名词的词性，例如：a wash and trim.

8. get the hang of something

To learn how to do or to use something or to understand something. 例如：It's not difficult once you get the hang of it.