Background:
The episode focused on Wayne, a 50 year old CPA. While he helps others take control of their money, he's unable to do the same for himself. He owes over $80,000 on his credit cards, and over $150,000 in home improvement loans. His house is full of stuff and he continues to make renovations. His girlfriend, Nathalie, is fed up and says she will leave him if he doesn't fix his spending problem, which will soon cause him to lose is business and his home. He's even bounched paychecks to his employees.
Income: $6,650
Expenses: $13,913
Deficit: -$7,263
Deficit: -$7,263
When Larry tells him that he is overspending, Wayne says that it's not overspending but investing. Wayne's total fixed expenses are a little over $6,000, which is already almost all of his income.
Contract:
Here is what Larry asked Wayne to do:
- Stick to budget
- Keep daily journal
- Cash only
- No shopping without a chaperone
- Cut up credit cards
Budget:
Here is a partial list of his new budget:
- Home Improvement: $1500 --> $0
- Overdrafts: $500--> $0
- Music CD's: $220 --> $0
- Wholesale Clubs: $1100 --> $0
Update:
After a few weeks, Larry checked up on Wayne. Here is how he is doing:
- Wayne held a yard sale to sell some of his stuff.
- He met with both a small business consultant and an office organizer.
- He also met with an appraiser. Wayne thinks his house is worth about $1.5 million, but the appraiser says it's worth about $800k. He says that it needs approximately another $175k worth of improvements to make it marketable.
- Wayne decreased his overdraft fees, but still has about $60 for the month.
- He spent $700 on half interest in a timeshare in the Cayman Islands.
- He kept a spending journal for the first few days, but now doesn't know where it is.
- Wayne used his business CC's to pay for more renovations.
- Nathalie is going to move out for the time being.
6 comments:
I watched this episode! I couldn't believe what an idiot this guy was! He was a really disaster area! I couldn't imagine letting someone this irresponsible do my taxes!
We watched this one too - it made us laugh to see the guy protesting about how he was "misunderstood" the whole time.
I posted on my blog about this guy. I was screaming at the tv. I just couldn't imagine how many clients he was about to lose because of his ignorance on international television. These shows are filmed in Canada, I believe. I watched it from the comfort of my snowy home in Upstate New York.
I think I saw this one too...imagine an idiot messing with other people's money.
Oh I wish I had seen this one. I have cable on demand, but they aren't showing Big Spender.
By the way - remember me for the Larry gook give-a-way! I'd love to read it.
I saw that too. These people should be using pre-paid cards rather than credit cards so they can better manage their money. I got a great one through Obopay.com and they also let you send and receive money through your cell phone. And you can track your spending which is a huge help for those of us who can't resist temptation every once in a while.
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