Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles Hi this is Tutor Nick and this is Idioms 210. The idiom today is \"bang for one's buck.\" Okay. Let's look at the note here. The phrase could also be reworded as bang for your buck or bang for the buck. You get more bang for the buck or you get more bang for your buck. All right. Let's continue. If someone gets more or a bigger bang for the buck, we also we often hear it that way it means you get a lot of value for little cost. So you're getting a lot more for your money. Basically that's the idea. Let's continue. The origin of this idiom comes from the time when Dwight D Eisenhower was president. Yeah. Surprisingly he was a Republican and previously a general. He wanted to increase the military power but decrease the budget. So that's not an easy thing to do. You increase the military power probably, it often usually increases the budget. You have to spend a lot more money. So he was trying to figure out a way to do this. To increase the military power but lower the budget. The solution they came up with was a policy of using nuclear weapons in any conflict bigger than what they called a brushfire war. Okay. By doing this, they could greatly lower the number of servicemen and replace them with cheaper inexpensive bombs . And it doesn't sound really quite nice but but on the other hand. Maybe he was saving more American lives this way. Thus they were able to get more bang for the buck. And remember. Of course everyone knows buck is a slang for a dollar. So you get more bang. You get, get more energy or more power or really just simply you get more value for the dollar, for the buck. Okay. So let's look at a couple of examples here. Example number one. I prefer to travel to a third world country because after the exchange rate, I can get more bang for my buck. Everything is comparatively cheaper. So in comparison to going to more industrialized countries it's more expensive. You can get a lot more. Maybe to stay at nicer hotels or buy nicer things or or spend more time there on vacation. You get more bang for your buck. You get more value for every dollar that you spend. All right. Number two. She tries to pick up her Christmas presents throughout the year when stores offer clearance sales. In this way she can get more bang for her buck. So maybe she get better presents and not spend as much money. So she can get more bang for her buck. Okay. Anyway , I hope it's clear. I hope you got it. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye
B1 US buck budget military spend dollar power English Tutor Nick P Idioms (210) Bang for One's Buck 14 0 anitawu12 posted on 2019/05/22 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary