Does anybody (in America) watch the TV show "Till Debt Do Us Part" that comes on right after Suze Orman on Saturday nights?
It's a Canadian (I WISH they would bring it to America!) reality show that features a couple in debt and the shows host comes in and gives them some money saving challenges to complete in a month. If they do well- she rewards them with $5k. If they dont- no money.
I think this is my new favorite reality show. I think the challenges can be a little silly- like walking around a mall in a T Shirt that says "Ask me about my $40k of debt"...but last nights episode had 2 lines that made me pause to think.
The first episode (There are 2 seperate episodes on each Sat night) featured 2 teachers pulling in around $100k a year with a little baby. The wife was in debt control mode and never spent any money even though she felt really deprived. She never allowed herself to buy anything because the husband spent every dollar he earned. He belonged to like- 4 different mens sports teams and regularly went to poker night with friends. And he would often gamble online (and lost $8,000 to online gambling.) His wife was trying to control their rising debt but the husband always had an excuse, like, "Some friends from out of town are visiting- I have to go out" and the wife said she was always wondering what excuse he would offer next to spend money.
Well they got him in a confessional setting and he said "I don't understand why my wife wants to save money. The purpose of money is to spend it. I would rather have a good life than have $30k sitting in some bank account doing nothing." And then! he says "I don't think we need a savings account since we'll always have access to the credit cards and a line of credit."
His whole attitude was ...awful. He was a brick wall. He never understood the point of saving anything. The show host tried everything to get him to understand how precarious their financial situation was. The show host even gave the wife $300 and told the wife to go out every night for a week so the husband could see what it felt like when the wife walked out every night to go spend his money. Because the wife felt like he had gambled away "her" $8000. (I assume it's because she had saved the money and in the course of a few late nights online- he lost it all.) But he never got it. The shows host ended up telling the wife to separate her finances from him.
The 2nd couple featured a man 35 yrs old. He is a student at a University who had accumulated $50k of undergrad loans. Married to a pharmacist who was pregnant with their child. And they lived in his parents basement. Wife made $35,000 a year and husband made $12000 a year. The shows host said to him "What makes you think you can pull this young woman from her home country (the wife was Asian), marry her, get her pregnant- but not be able to put a roof over their head?"
That kind of hit home for the guy and he got a part time job after that. And he decided to give up his plan to go to medical school and instead get a teaching job.
Anyways, I like this show. I hope it comes to America.
Till Debt Do Us Part
May 2nd, 2010 at 09:25 pm
May 2nd, 2010 at 09:44 pm 1272836677
May 2nd, 2010 at 09:53 pm 1272837189
May 2nd, 2010 at 11:47 pm 1272844056
May 3rd, 2010 at 12:00 am 1272844820
And both those 'men' last night wouldn't ever last with me! *gag* *slap,slap*
May 3rd, 2010 at 12:07 am 1272845263
May 3rd, 2010 at 12:25 am 1272846337
These are both reruns, I am waiting for a new season. I still DVR them all, but I have seen them. Keep watching.... there are some really interesting ones.
May 3rd, 2010 at 02:10 am 1272852610
There used to be a show on in America like that. I can't think of the name of it but it was on Saturday mornings. It aired on A & E, I think. The host was this big burly guy with awful taste in shirts, IMNSHHO. Anyone remember that show?
May 3rd, 2010 at 02:56 am 1272855362
May 3rd, 2010 at 11:38 am 1272886705
"Maxed Out" was a really good one too, also Canadian-based. I haven't seen any new ones in a while, but we still have the DVR set to record it so we catch reruns once in a while.
I like "Till Debt" but I missed that one about the people living in their parents' basement! I'll have to see if I can find another showing of it. "Guy" was the worst I'd seen next to the one MoneyTunes referred to. That verbally abusive guy was terrible; he sabotaged every exercise and then, when they didn't get any of the reward money and the wife was really disappointed, said, "I said no good would come of this. I'm never wrong."
I love the ones where both members of the couple are clueless and then they both really "get it." I can relate to those soo much, and it's good to see that other people can change their ways like my family did.
May 3rd, 2010 at 12:09 pm 1272888555
May 3rd, 2010 at 06:24 pm 1272911073
May 4th, 2010 at 12:28 am 1272932924
May 4th, 2010 at 03:23 pm 1272986611
May 5th, 2010 at 12:53 pm 1273064039
I'm with most of you...I'd wanted to slap the first guy who didn't want to save. Before Gail even said it, I told my dh that the marriage won't last.
May 12th, 2010 at 03:31 pm 1273678311
May 14th, 2010 at 08:50 am 1273827039
May 14th, 2010 at 01:11 pm 1273842716
Jerry
May 18th, 2010 at 04:39 am 1274157582
June 24th, 2010 at 01:42 pm 1277386935
The show is about an EX IRS Agent turned from the "dark side" in search of those in trouble with the IRS.
Thanks and I look forward to your feedback!
dc
September 15th, 2010 at 02:10 am 1284516656
I can't get the videos to play on my U.S. computers but there are a few clips from the show on YouTube available.
That's as much as I know for the moment.