Lawrence.com

Austin Skiles and Carrie Butler, part-time international rock idols with Eagle Seagull, full-time married couple

lawrence.com: How do you save money?

Austin: "I save it by making my wife do the saving."

Carrie: "We don't have cable, we don't have internet:"

Austin: "We have a TV that basically only gets the CW and Fox."

Carrie: "My parents pay half our rent."

Austin: "We live close to downtown, so we can walk."

Carrie: "We only have one car."

Ausin: "So far as budgeting, it's all the wife."

Carrie: "I just yell at Austin whenever he buys anything."

Austin: "I save money by basically being browbeaten into not buying things. When we're on the road, we save money by bringing food with us. We'll try to buy booze before we go into the bars and then sneak in flasks."

Carrie: "In Europe we never bought any food because we always ate for free at the venue."

Austin: "Traveling here, we'll occasionally get discounts on drinks. And then also, shitty, shitty motel rooms-like the Jayhawk Motel here in Lawrence."

Carrie: "That place was hilarious."

Austin: "We're a six-piece and we'll often stay in the same room, so you just roll the dice to see who gets the bed. Another way of saving money is, 'Who do we know that we can crash with?'"

What do you splurge on?

Austin: "We blow it mostly on booze-no, really. I would say that 50% of what we spend is on alcohol."

Carrie: "On tour, more than that. I would buy lots of handbags-I don't really care about shoes that much. Purses and jeans, though:"

Austin: "I spend a lot of money on fancy guitar fandangles."

Carrie: (rolling eyes) "He's always buying those things."

Austin: "Guitar stuff and booze, with the occasional splurge on drugs."

Carrie: "I have no idea what he's talking about. When we're in Europe, however, we'll splurge on exotic prostitutes-but that goes without saying."