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Describe an item on which you spent more than expected: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What it is
  • How much did you spend on it
  • Why you bought it
  • And explain why you think you spent more than expected.
Show all 38 answers

Cue 1:What it is

  • Begin by clearly stating the item you purchased, including its name and type.
  • Provide a brief description of the item, highlighting its features or significance.

Example

The item I want to talk about is a high-end smartphone that I bought last year. It has a sleek design, an excellent camera, and a lot of advanced features that caught my attention.

Cue 2:How much did you spend on it

  • Mention the actual price you paid for the item, and compare it to your initial budget.
  • Explain any additional costs that may have contributed to the total amount spent.

Example

I spent around 70,000 rupees on this smartphone, which was significantly more than I had planned. Initially, I intended to spend only about 50,000 rupees, but I ended up getting a model with extra features that drove the price up.

Cue 3:Why you bought it

  • Discuss the reasons that motivated you to purchase this item.
  • Include any specific needs or desires that influenced your decision.

Example

I bought this smartphone because my old one was very slow and had a poor camera. I needed a reliable device for both personal and professional use, especially for taking high-quality photos and staying connected.

Cue 4:And explain why you think you spent more than expected

  • Reflect on the factors that led to overspending, such as emotional decisions or marketing influences.
  • Consider how the features or brand reputation played a role in your choice.

Example

I think I spent more than expected because I was really drawn to the brand's reputation and the impressive features of the phone. The advertisements and reviews made me feel that this was the best choice, and I let my excitement override my budget.

Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, while I did spend more than I had initially planned on my smartphone, I believe it was a worthwhile investment. It has served me well and has enhanced my daily life significantly.

    Following this structure will ensure you cover all the essential points while providing a clear and engaging response to the cue card topic.

    Tips to answer this Cue Card

    1: Vague Descriptions

    Using vague language can make your answer unclear. Avoid general statements that don't provide specific details about the item or your experience.

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    Tip

    Be specific about the item, including its features and why it stood out to you.

    2: Ignoring the Price

    Failing to mention the exact amount spent can weaken your response. It's important to provide a clear figure to illustrate your point.

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    Tip

    State the exact amount you spent and compare it to your initial budget to show the difference.

    Lack of Personal Reflection

    Not explaining your feelings or thoughts about the purchase can make your answer less engaging. Personal insights add depth to your response.

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    Tip

    Share your emotions about the purchase and why it was worth the extra cost to you.

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    IELTS Cue Cards asked last week

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    I like to taste different types of cuisine. Here I would like to talk about my favorite dish at my traditional festival of Onam which is Sadya. Sadya is popular in my city. We are experimenting these cuisines on Onam festival day. Onam is a famous festival in my city. All family members get together in my home and we make a delicious Sadya. There are many ingredients includes that Sadya. Moreover, we make a big feast that day as well as we create a lot of memories together and we wear that day the traditional dress called Sari and men wear the Dhotis. That festival is really important to us because the whole day we are conducting different kinds of games at our homes and all the family members came together. It's a memorable day in my life. This is the festival. We are making the Sambar and Aviyal. These all the kinds of foods are making with the vegetables.
    Talk about a toy you liked in your childhood
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    Anonymous student Band 8

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    The toy which I liked in my childhood was a panda doll, which makes me pleasant and makes me more blush. The pandas are the most beautiful creatures of the world, which looks gigantic and has pooshy cheeks and they are like stars in the clouds and they dream in me. Furthermore, these have been given by my father. My father is a very very beautiful artistic person, who makes me think of that. Every day you will face every difficulties and make you suffer and move forward. Pandas are always seen in Japanese countries. It is my lifelong dream to visit a Japanese country and click a photo with the original pandas, which makes sounds better.
    Describe a time you were in a place where you didn't know the local language
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    Anonymous student Band 6.5

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    As India is a very large country full of diversity, so there are many places which have their own language and speak their native language. The place which I visited and I didn't know about their language was Leladakh, which is about 300 km away from my hometown and it is a very good place as it consists of different kind of trees, animals and have many scenic views and I visited over there last year in summers as it was the best time to visit because it has many, it was cold over there and we had summers in our area so it was the best time to visit over there and I went over there with my whole family.
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    When I was a kid, I had a little pencil box which had these four buttons which gave the pencil box an operative use. When you press the button, the box would open up. When you press the second button, a little part of it would slide out. Basically it was just a little electronical and a fun thing to have and I owned it when I was in 6th. One day after break, I was standing and talking there with one of my friends and another friend of mine was running through the hallway and accidentally she pushed my shoulder and my pencil box hit the ground and it broke into multiple pieces to the point that it was not functional anymore.
    Describe a book you recently read
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    Anonymous student Band 7.5

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    It Ends With Us is a book I read recently. It's by the author Colleen Hoare. It's mainly a story about two teenagers, Atlas and Lily, and how they just handle their life going through high school, adolescence, and just domestic violence at home. Both of them come from very, very different families. However, they have one common determining factor between them, which is domestic violence. The abuse that they've seen their moms go through is just insane, and they connect through that on a different level. They're actually in the same high school, but they never speak to each other until Atlas actually crashes into an empty house next to Lily's villa. When Atlas is homeless and he doesn't have anywhere to go, he just comes and breaks into the house next to Lily's, and Lily helps him with all the daily necessities like clothes and food, medicines and stuff. Furthermore, their friendship blossoms into love, but it doesn't really fructify as Atlas has to leave. This book really gave me a lot of knowledge about domestic abuse and how to deal with it.

    All Answers

    Here are all the answers by real-users practicing speaking for IELTS Cue Cards on our IELTS Prep App.

    Band 7

    I bought a camera 5 years back, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. I got it for $3000 which at that time I didn't find much. It was ineffable of an experience. I was really happy. As I'm a photographer, a photojournalist to be precise, I wanted something that had a kind of versatility and was really good at switching both photos and video modes. So, I gave it a try. But in a couple of years, I realized that it was the time of mirrorless cameras and I had already gotten a DSLR one. And I thought it wasn't worth the money I put in at that time. The camera 5D Mark IV is really a good one but there are better options available in the market and pretty cheaper ones than the camera itself which I have.

    Band 6-7

    I'm a tech person. I usually love to spend money on the tech stuff. But today I'm going to talk about the thing I spent more than I expected. That was a iPhone 17 Pro Max. I usually got my rest iPhone in previous year with a 256GB. However, this time I was decided to buy a 1TB storage iPhone because usually my phone got filled up with the memory and other stuff. Then I talked with my brother like you don't need to pay extra for the more storage you can buy a memory card or SSD to deal with your memory problem rather than spending $200 more on the stuff. However, after that I felt sad because I spent $300 more than what I planned to spend on that phone. But at the end of the day, I feel so sad like I spent my saving on that phone but it's not very useful because I already having a iPhone 16 Pro Max which is so similar to the 17 Pro Max. Lastly, I suggest my brother I can send you my phone you can deal and we can spend more time doing Photoshop on it.

    Band 6-7

    I think one item which I often overspend on is a laptop. I think the utility of a laptop is a very huge deal for me because I spent around three to four hours every day doing my research work, doing my homework, attending classes on YouTube and I think I can do all of that with the help of my laptop. When I was initially thinking of buying a laptop I was very skeptical because I thought why spend such a large amount because I think as a school-going child I don't have a lot of utility, I don't have a lot of designing stuff to do and I don't have to do any coding which requires a heavy software. So that's why I was a little bit skeptical at first but I think some of the areas which interest me could only be done with some advanced laptops because I was very keen on building algorithms which would speed up my process of trading. So I think that's one step why I chose to buy an expensive laptop. So this belonged to the company of Microsoft and I spent around 1.15 lakh. I won't say that it is completely justified because of course my parents bought it for me but I still think it was worth buying because I have used it tremendously. I use it every day, it's a part of my, it's an integral part of my everyday life. I think I cannot survive without it. It's the one object which I can open and just watch anything. I can watch Netflix on it, I can do my homework on it and I can pretty much do anything with the help of this laptop. I think laptop as an object should be an expensive one because whichever product matches your utility level and which helps you in the sense that it helps you to achieve your goals, your target, I think it's worth spending upon. So I think my price of buying this laptop would be a little bit justified for me because I think my personal application outweighed the cost and I think I've used it significantly so as to cover the cost which I incurred. I think the cost-benefit analysis is positive.

    Band 6-7

    Recently I bought a primer. It is used in your face before applying the makeup. It gives a flowy look to your makeup. This cost me around 5000 to 6000. So I had the urge to buy this product once when my sister told me that when we use the primer, it will prevent us from getting any acne or any other rashes to your skin by the makeup product that we use because we all know we use different kind of products which can cause skin irritation or skin acne. So when we use this primer, it just blocks your skin texture from any other, from getting any other infection or any contamination to your skin. So this was why I thought of getting my first primer. It was the first time I bought this primer. So I was expecting it to be around 6000 and it cost, expecting to be around 2000 and it cost me around 6000 which was a high price. So once I bought it, I did not regret it but it was more expensive and that time I couldn't afford that big of a product, that expensive product. I still use it. It is there in my bag and you just have to apply to your skin and just dab it on your skin. It will get absorbed to your skin and then apply the rest of your makeup products like the foundation, concealer and the rest of it.

    Band 6-7

    Well, I am a type of a person who don't want to spend more money on an accessory items. However, today I would like to talk about an item on which I spend more than expected. It happened when I passed matriculation and for my higher study I needed a laptop because I needed a laptop for presentation that was a part of my study. So at that time I had only one friend who had a laptop and we all friends used his laptop. So I needed a laptop urgently at that time. So my budget was only 25,000 and the laptops I preferred that was about 29,000 and when I reached in a shop there was a laptop of Acer company that was i3 model and I attracted towards that laptop very much but I did not have much budget. So I came home back and told my father that I needed that laptop. So my father helped me a lot because he fulfilled all my wishes since my childhood. So he helped me a lot and I purchased the laptop of Acer company and I was over the moon at that time because I got that laptop that I needed that I loved one and I shared the things with my friends and they also congratulate me with for that for the laptop and at that time that laptop helped me a lot and still I had that laptop and I still used it for my work. So all in all that was item that was more than my pocket money and I spend it more.

    Band 6-7

    you the most valuable information. I would like to spend most of my amount in purchasing books. The reason why I want to spend most of my earnings in books is because books is considered as the powerhouse of knowledge and wisdom. Also somebody has said that books are your best friends. The more you study, the more you gain knowledge and the more you gain the power. Another reason for spending most of my income on books is that I want to donate those books to the underprivileged who are not able to afford costlier options. So usually after studying and making notes of it, I make sure that I am donating these books to the underprivileged ones. Recently I purchased a book based on this.

    Band 6-7

    Well, I would like to talk about my recent purchase, which was iPhone 17 Pro Max. I do feel that I overspent on it. However, I did ask my cousin to get it for me from US. So I currently live in India and while she was traveling from US to India, she bought it for me. So I did not buy it specifically for, you know, the price in which we get it in India. So I saved a couple of bucks there. But again, I do feel that I shouldn't have spent so much over a phone. Now the reason why I bought it was because I was upgrading my phone after five years. So the previous model that I have was 13 Pro Max and it was a good upgrade. I did have very good features that, you know, I make a good use of now. So I feel that the reason, another reason why I also bought it is because I love electronics and it makes me feel good about myself. I love spending time on my phone. I'm always on my phone most of the time and I like to, you know, work on an operating system that's very swift, that works fast. And I also wanted some more storage. So it's a very good upgrade and I do have a good amount of storage right now so that I can, you know, click more pictures and videos. And yes, so I feel that this spend was worth it and I would by any doubt do it all over again.

    Band 6-7

    I recently bought a Casio Edifice watch which is from their private collection it is a very beautiful steel watch with sky blue dial and which also displays a date and a day on it so I bought it for 15,000 Indian rupees I usually had a budget of 5,000 rupees but I bought it because I wanted to have a very nice watch since a very long time ever since my childhood I always dreamt of having a watch but I could not buy it due to unforeseen circumstances but since I was earning now I thought why not spend on a watch as it was my dream since childhood I convinced myself to spend this amount on a watch and to satisfy the inner child in me and to see how I react to this small accomplishments and also the main reason I believe why I bought this watch would be motivation I would I believe I will be motivated enough to hustle more work hard and make even more money so that I can buy even expensive watches and be happy

    Band 6-7

    Here I would like to describe about the item on which I spend more than expected and that is my smartphone. I spend around 1 lakh on my new mobile phone that is iPhone 16 Pro Max but my budget is only 70,000 but when I visit to Apple store I saw the new iPhone is launched in the market that is new series of iPhone 16 that is iPhone 16 Pro Max so I extremely get attracted to that piece of mobile phone because it is very attractive and of my favorite color that is grey so I think that I should buy this phone because due to its new features and advanced technology I bought iPhone 16 Pro Max from the Apple store situated in my city. I bought this phone because due to its numerous features such as it has latest applications more over it has latest AI based technological apps such as chat GPT and many more so the other reason I should bought it because of my peer pressure as in my gang all my friends have iPhone so due to that thought I bought this.

    Band 6-7

    As the income grows, people tend to spend a lot of money on purchasing certain items. On top of it, shopping these days have become a trend then a necessity. But if I talk about myself, I am passionate about riding motorcycles. Thus, I tend to spend a lot of money on purchasing motorcycle parts and riding gears. Recently I have purchased a riding gear which is a motorcycle riding jacket. I loved that jacket a lot and I was pursuing to purchase it from a long long time. But recently it got on a discount, it was on a sale and I thought that I would be purchasing it for sure. So I spent about Rs. 12,000 whereas in the original cost was about Rs. 25,000 of that particular jacket. I purchased it because it is very necessary for a motorcyclist to wear proper riding gear. Primarily for the safety perspective. And also it tends to look really good when you wear a jacket. You look really fantastic when you are riding a motorcycle wearing those jackets along with the helmet and everything. Also, I have purchased it by saving a lot of money from a long time.
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