Winning English - Mastering Idioms, Slang, and References
Black Friday • In the black/red • Drowning in red ink • Disposable income • Money to burn
You might already know that the United States (where I live) will soon celebrate two major holidays. One is Thanksgiving, and the other is Christmas (which, of course, is celebrated in many places).
You might not know about a day that is almost like a holiday here - Black Friday. Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving, and it’s considered the beginning of the Christmas gift-buying season. Many stores are hoping they’ll make lots of money!
“Black Friday” might sound bad, but for retailers, it’s good, because they will soon be “in the black”.
To be “in the black” means that you are making enough money to be profitable. The opposite is to be “in the red”. In other words, you are losing money. Many retailers are “in the red” for most of the year and only become profitable around Christmas.
Both of these phrases come from the way business accounts are printed. When numbers are positive, they are printed in black ink. When they are negative, they are printed in red ink.
There’s another, closely related idiom here. When a business is losing a lot of money, it is said to be “drowning in red ink”. For example, due to covid-19 restrictions, many restaurants are “drowning in red ink”. Hopefully a vaccine will help soon.
I hope your personal finances are in good shape. With any luck, you still have some disposable income. Anything you spend will help keep retailers and other businesses alive during these difficult times. Even so, like most of us, it’s unlikely that you have money to burn!
“Disposable income” is what we call the money that you feel you can spend freely. In other words, it’s the income that remains after you’ve paid all of your bills and saved enough for emergencies and retirement.
When we say someone has “money to burn”, it means that person is earning so much money that she or he could choose to set it on fire and still be okay. Of course, if you start “burning through your money”, it’s likely you soon won’t have any left!
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