This sentence is from a conversation in which a person is asking for advice from a councellor because he can't pay bills, etc, so is asking for advice on how to make the family budget. The councellor says to the man this:
"Looking at your expenditure, you are over-committed to the extent of $250 a month and you will have to make some changes in your spending habits.
I could not understand the sentence properly, especially the part ".....over-committed to the extent of $250 a month".
I would say "Every month, you seem to spend 250 dollars more than your budget allows".
But I am not sure if the original sentence exactly means this.
So I want to ask:
1- Why is there a word "extent", which is obscure here. Does it mean amount? or a degree of a problem or a seriousness level of an issue?
2- If it means amount, why should someone commit themselves to spending more where he is in hardship. "to commit is something you want to do". So why should I force myself to spend more. That does not make sense does it?
3- Does the sentence mean; you promised someone(eg a bank) to pay more than ($250) you would be able to pay in a month and this TOO MUCH amount is nearly $250 a month.
4-Can we replace "to the extent of $250" with "an amount that might go up to $250?
Regards,