I just started watching this! I love it! A few things I noticed:
1) I really wish we saw more of what the couples actually DID to live spending money out of their jars. I mean, to go from eating out 16 times per months and spending $450 a week to suddenly living off of $50 a week for food is a steep learning curve but she never showed how the family adapts!
Yeah, her thing is to make it seem so easy and obvious, like it’s no big deal not to spend and that anyone could do it easily. She’s not necessarily wrong, but it would be nice to see some actual details beyond “we spent so much less this month!”
2) As a USAmerican it is amazing to me to see "medical/dental" money just out into the "incidental" jar. And so far I haven't heard of "high medical bills" being a reason anyone has gone into debt.
Well, these are mostly young people. Our basic health insurance is covered by our much higher taxes, so unless they have an expensive monthly medication or a very extensive dental treatment, then they aren’t likely to go into debt for anything medical.
3) I guess you can only do so much in a month, and just facing up to your debt is a big accomplishment. As for changing spending patterns -- it's easy to "just buy nothing" for a month. All these people spending $800 a month on clothing or "Amazon shopping" though- I can't believe they are all able to reduce their clothing and gifts shopping to $40 a month for more than a couple months.
Ageed, I usually kind of feel like they’re being set up for failure to a degree.
She gives them a kick start, but I’ve often felt like the way it’s presented is a recipe for disaster. “If you keep spending this way, then by 65 you will have a million dollars!” Except the budget has very little room, so where is accounting for major house repairs, emergencies, vacations, major car repairs? I’m sure she covers this with them, but the way it’s presented, it’s not obvious. And not planning for major and reasonable expenses is a great way to feel like a failure and like a plan won’t work.
I’m sure a lot of people benefit from a kick in the ass, and I have little doubt that her advice is far better than what’s portrayed on the show, but the way it’s packaged and edited sure looks like it wouldn’t end well for most people.
In the end though, I love her.
I started watching when I was in school and drowning in debt. I couldn’t wait to start paying it off and watching her common sense advice and her tough-love-but-heavy-on-the-love approach really encouraged me to be smart about my money once I started making it.
I keep hoping I’ll get a chance to meet her.
Just a few observations (I love love this show, her blog, and books, and was sad when she retired!)
1) They do show some of these things in some of the shows - due to time constraints, each show has different pieces, but I have definitely seen where their 'challenge' is to grocery shop on a budget, meal plan, and learn more about home cooking for example - or plan as a family a month worth of entertainment for little or no money. As you watch all the shows you got a taste of how they go about doing all of these things, they just don't have time to show it for every family every time.
2) Sorry, but I have pick some nits here. We don't have 'basic' health insurance covered, we have universal health insurance - really only medications or dental wouldn't be covered, and many provinces have some sort of limit on medications or assistance available for those things. Not saying a disastrous illness couldn't happen that would make them unable to work, but then there is EI and disability insurance too. We also don't have 'much higher taxes'; depending on the state and province, the comparisons can be pretty darn close actually. Keep in mind, the U.S. spends more per capita of tax dollars on their healthcare system than we do in Canada.
3) Actually, Gail has them immediately putting money into an emergency fund. It is actually one of the first things she does in the budget. If you have hair-on-fire debt, you have no business going on vacations, but she always does tell them that as their debt is paid off they can increase their spending etc. I didn't really think she left these things out most of the time, but I suppose for editing purposes it could be left on the cutting room floor occasionally :)
I guess everybody gets a slightly different thing from her shows, but it's great that everyone gets some takeaway! I hope you get to meet her (I don't know if she does public events anymore? Hopefully she does!) Good luck!