Estudando a palavra budget

Outro dia eu parei pra dar uma olhada num programa de TV americano que mostra os prepartivos da festa de 16 anos de alguma garota rica e bem mimada por sinal. Enquanto discutiam as atrações e o lugar da festa, essa garota faz questão de avisar para a organizadora de eventos: we don't have a budget. O que ela quer dizer com isso?

Se uma garola milionária assume que não tem um "budget", já podemos imaginar que essa palavra está mais relacionada com as pessoas duma renda mais baixa. E isso é verdade em partes. Budget significa orçamento e, caso você dispense um na hora de fazer as compras ou organizar algum evento, isso significa que você não tem um limite específico para gastar.

Budget também pode ser um verbo e um adjetivo. Tendo isso em mente, confira só algumas expressões que usam essa palavra:

budget something for someone or something

to set aside a certain amount of money for someone or something. Did you budget some money for the holiday party? I budgeted a few hundred a month for Andrew's college expenses.

budget

mod. [of something] of low quality or cheap. Don’t you dare bring back any of that budget pizza!

budget dust

n. a minor amount of money considering the size of the entire budget; money left over at the end of the budget year. The amount is just budget dust, chump change! What’s the big deal?

budget squeeze and budget crunch

n. a situation where there is not enough money in the budget. Facing another budget squeeze, the legislators were forced to put off their pay increase. If it wasn’t for the budget crunch, I’d get a good raise this year.

budget for

v. To set aside some amount of money for something or someone: For the party, we budgeted $1,000 for musicians and food.

champagne taste on a beer budget

Expensive or extravagant tastes or preferences that are beyond one's economic means. I only earn minimum wage, but I can't stop buying designer clothes and eating at the best restaurants—I guess I've got champagne taste on a beer budget!

Agora confira todos os collocations da palavra budget. Se você não sabe o que é um collocation, basicamente são palavras que combinam com outras. Neste caso, veremos adjetivos, verbos e substantivos que são geralmente associados com a palavra budget com naturalidade. Confira só:

ADJ.

fixed, limited, low, shoestring, small, tight | generous, large | annual, monthly, weekly, yearly | family, personal | federal, government, municipal, national, state | defence, education, health, housing, military, social security, (social) welfare | advertising, marketing, training | draft

VERB + BUDGET

get, have

The organization has a large annual budget.

| allocate, draw up, plan, set

The council has to draw up its budget for next year.

| present, propose, submit | approve | balance

The school has a struggle to balance its budget.

| adhere to, keep to, stick to

Work out a weekly budget and stick to it.

| exceed, go over, overspend | cut, reduce, slash | increase

BUDGET + NOUN

expenditure | deficit, surplus | constraint, limit | cuts | plans, proposals | allocation | Budget Day

(= when the government announces its budget)