Hi, Julie’s mom, Denise, here…

It was a very desperate step that Julie’s brother, Chad, and I took when we wrote to the casting director of the show. We were very surprised when we heard that Bank of Mom & Dad was interested in featuring our family for one of the episodes. Both Chad and I discussed the situation with Julie to see if she was willing to participate before we made the final decision. I was very concerned about the possibility of embarassment for Julie, and had assured her that if she would rather not go through with it we were certainly fine with that decision. When Julie agreed to go forward with the program, I was hopeful that this desperate effort to help her with her financial situation would be fruitful. Up until that point Chad and I had had months of discussions with Julie about her careless spending habits, to no avail. We both felt very frustrated with her inability to manage her money and had previously staged our own “financial intervention” back in May. Still, she continued to overdraft her checking account and ignore her accumulating bills.

When we started taping, I was very apprehensive about how things would turn out, and how Julie would handle the situation. The first three days of the taping were especially stressful. Julie was frustrated because she seemed to think that there would be an instant solution to her problems. Chad was understandably a bit stressed having his sister and mother living with him in his one bedroom apartment. On top of all of that, I had received a phone call on the second day of the taping regarding the death of a family member. So, all of this compounded our feelings of being “out of our comfort zones.”

Anyway, thankfully, after Farnoosh discussed a budget for Julie, and Julie’s experience with the cheerleading coach interview turned out very positive, things started to turn around. I think the whole experience helped Julie to face up to her situation and to get real with how she was mismanaging her money. Julie’s instant rapport, admiration, and respect for Farnoosh had a large impact on this change in Julie. I think it helped Julie a lot to hear from an impartial party some of the same things that Chad and I had been saying over the past year.

Julie’s agreement to sell the car was huge! Unfortunately, we are having a difficult time figuring out how this will benefit her, considering the balance of the loan that has to be settled. At this point, after discussions with the credit union where Julie took out the loan and discussions with the finance representative at the dealership, we haven’t found a satisfactory way to resolve this situation. I decided it was not a good idea for me to co-sign a new car loan for her, so of course, this decision has not helped to resolve things.

I am proud of the way Julie has been trying to improve her handling of her finances. She is making a very sincere effort to more carefully monitor her spending and her bills. The Bank of Mom & Dad (”Chad”) gave her the self confidence to confront the creditors who have been constantly contacting her, and the confidence to work out payment plans to get some of her outstanding debts under control. She has also applied for two part time jobs. We have been having more positive mother-daughter conversations, and I feel that we have crossed a hurdle and things will only improve (I hope!)

Recent Entries

• I Had Become the Person Who I Had Always Tried So Hard Not to Be
• I Feel That We Have Crossed a Hurdle
• I Was Desperate For a Change
• Credit Cards Are NOT the Answer!
• I Almost Had a Coronary
• We Didn’t Realize the Extent of the Overspending
• Now I Have to Prove to Every Viewer Out There That I Can Do It!
• I Will Not Allow Any More Mooching
• I Am Accountable Now
• The Show Has Awakened Me

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 11:31 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.