Money & Finance — Part 3
The Celpip Plus team
Written and reviewed against the official CELPIP scoring criteria
What you'll learn: the phrasal verbs native English speakers reach for when discussing money in everyday conversation — save up, cut back on, run out of — so your CELPIP Speaking answers sound conversational rather than textbook-formal.
Why phrasal verbs matter for money topics
Formal single-word verbs like "economize" or "accumulate" are correct but rarely how people actually talk about money day to day. CELPIP Speaking rewards natural, idiomatic English, and phrasal verbs are one of the clearest signals of that naturalness. Learning a compact set of money-related phrasal verbs lets you describe financial habits the way a fluent speaker actually would.
Core collocations
| Collocation | Meaning | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|
| save up (for) | gradually collect money for a specific goal | We're saving up for a down payment on a condo. |
| put aside | set money apart for future use | I try to put aside a little from every paycheque. |
| cut back on | reduce spending in a particular area | We had to cut back on eating out this year. |
| run out of | have no money left | By the third week of the trip, we'd nearly run out of cash. |
| live off | use a particular source of money to survive | He's currently living off his savings while job hunting. |
| splash out on | spend generously on something, often as a treat | We splashed out on a fancy dinner for our anniversary. |
| get by on | manage to survive with a limited amount of money | It's tough to get by on minimum wage in a big city. |
| pay back | return money that was borrowed | I still need to pay back the money my sister lent me. |
| budget for | plan financially to cover a specific cost | Make sure you budget for unexpected repairs. |
| dip into | use part of savings that were meant to stay untouched | We had to dip into our emergency fund after the car broke down. |
| stock up on | buy a large quantity of something in advance | We stocked up on groceries before the long weekend. |
| squeeze by | manage with barely enough money | Some months we just squeeze by until the next paycheque. |
Worked example — CELPIP Speaking Task 2 (personal experience)
Prompt: Describe a time you had to change your spending habits.
A few years ago, right after I moved to a new city, I basically had to cut back on everything for the first few months. Rent alone took most of my paycheque, so I couldn't splash out on anything extra — no dinners out, no new clothes. I remember having to dip into the small emergency fund I'd managed to put aside before the move, just to cover a deposit. It was stressful having to get by on so little, but it taught me to budget for irregular costs like transit passes and winter clothing that I hadn't planned for. These days I'm back to saving up for bigger goals, but I never forgot how quickly you can run out of money if you don't plan ahead.
Common mistakes
- Dropping the preposition: saying "save for a house" is fine, but "save up a house" is wrong — it needs for.
- Confusing "run out of money" with "out of money run" — word order matters, and the preposition "of" is required.
- Using "pay back" and "pay off" as if identical — you pay back a person or lender, but you pay off a debt or loan in full.
- Writing "dip in the savings" instead of the correct dip into the savings.
- Overusing "spend" when a more natural phrasal verb like splash out on or stock up on fits the context better.
Recap
These twelve phrasal verbs — save up, put aside, cut back on, run out of, live off, splash out on, get by on, pay back, budget for, dip into, stock up on, squeeze by — turn stiff, formal money talk into the kind of natural English CELPIP Speaking raters are listening for.