第一， 迷你对话

A: Dear, how about doing shopping this afternoon?

亲爱的，今天下午上街怎么样？

B: What are you going to buy?

你准备去买什么呢？

A: A new hat and a new dress.

一顶新帽子和一件新衣服。

B: If we want to buy a house we should hold onto the purse strings.

如果我们要买新房子，我们就要控制花销。

第二， 地道表达

hold onto the purse strings

1. 解词释义

Hold onto the purse strings的原意是“拿着权钱包的绳子”，引申为“控制金钱的使用”之意。

2. 拓展范例

e.g. Jane cannot hold onto the purse strings so her boyfriend wants to leave her.

Jane不能控制开销，所以她男友想离开她了。

第三， 咬文嚼字

do shopping：购物

e.g. If you want to do any shopping in London, I can always put you up, you know.

你如果要在伦敦买什么东西，你知道我总是能为你推荐的。

e.g. Mother went to town to do some shopping yesterday.

昨天母亲到市区去买东西。

how about：……如何？
e.g. How about cleaning up a bit around here?

你是不是考虑把自己的屋子收拾一下。

e.g. How about meeting each other half-way with the price gap?

我们折衷一下如何？