What Does a Princess Do When the Bank of Dad Is Closed?

Fans of Til Debt Do Us Part will be happy on two counts. The show, hosted by Canadian money guru Gail Vaz-Oxlade, has returned for its 9th season on Slice TV this fall and Slice has booked Vaz-Oxlade to host a second personal finance makeover show called Princess that debuts Tuesday, Sept. 7 at 9 a.m. ET.

Princess will deliver even more of Vaz-Oxlade's salt-of-the-earth financial advice. Til Debt Do Us Part has only half an hour per episode to show the financial makeover from all the hours that were shot, while Princess is an hour-long show based on six weeks worth of filming.

Interventions

In each episode, Vaz-Oxlade is asked to stage an intervention to help a "Princess" mend her selfish, spending ways and stop racking up thousands of dollars in credit card debt that she expects her family, husband, or fiancé to pay for. Princesses who succeed at turning over a new leaf during Vaz-Oxlade's financial boot camp get $5,000 to help pay down debt.

Vaz-Oxlade isn't just smart and to the point, she can explain every nuance of debt, spending and saving, in a way that's often funny and loving despite (or perhaps because of) a bluntness that makes her a bit of a loose cannon.

"Are you a moron?" she exclaims in Tuesday's debut episode, when she asks "Princess" Ashley how much she makes and Ashley sheepishly replies: "I don't know."

Doesn't Matter How Much You Earn

"But it doesn't matter how much you earn, it matters how much you spend," Vax-Oxlade told WalletPop during an interview this week.

That's the crux of both her shows. We are blessed with both because Princess was originally developed to replace Til Debt Do Us Part, which was expected to end after Season 8 was completed. But after planning was well underway for Princess, Slice found that there was a continued appetite for the solutions outlined in Til Debt Do Us Part, and was able to convince Vaz-Oxlade to host both shows.

"Who expects a money show to go nine seasons?" Vaz-Oxlade asked. "We had a lot of girls on Til Debt that fit the profile of a Princess perfectly," she said, clearly relishing the opportunity to dive deeper into the reasons why some people spend mindlessly to the tune of thousands of dollars.

In fact, Ashley was originally an applicant for a Til Debt makeover.

The Princess Way

Princess Ashley, a social worker whose income didn't finance even a third of her lifestyle, used all her wiles to manipulate her fiancé into paying off her credit card bills. But with a wedding approaching and the prospect of getting turned down for a mortgage because taking on Ashley's debt load was impacting his credit rating, her fiancé had second thoughts about what life would be like living with his wife-to-be. Vax-Oxlade bluntly tells Ashley that if she wants this wedding to happen, she has six weeks to demonstrate to her fiancé that she has learned how to manage money and stick to a budget.

Each Princess has to keep a diary of their thoughts about the process, what they're learning and how it feels to take charge of their own finances. The diary helps keep the Princesses honest so they can't just play to the camera and audience to win the $5,000, said Vaz-Oxlade, who gets to read the diaries to determine if the transformation is likely to stick.

I asked Vaz-Oxlade where these Princesses find the people that enable them to lead such careless lives.

Every Princess Has a Doormat

"Every single Princess has a patsy, sometimes its a daddy, a mum, a room-mate or a boyfriend," Vaz-Oxlade said. People who enable Princesses think they're helping them, when they're not. In part, these princesses wield a lot of power over the people in their lives and that in itself is a phenomenon -- that people lie down and be doormats."

But few people are wealthy enough to support a Princess for a lifetime. Eventually they grow to resent what they have to do to keep a Princess in makeup, clothes and irresponsible spending.

Princess Krista, the subject of another episode, had a husband who had folded more than $60,000 of Krista's credit card debt into the mortgage for their house. Yet she was still spending every cent she made on herself, and none of her income as a beauty consultant was going toward her and her husband's household expenses or debt. Krista was spending her entire income on makeup, clothes, shoes and being a big-shot by picking up the drink tab for her friends while her husband struggled to keep a roof over their heads.

Setting Goals

"A lot of these people are totally divorced from reality, their perception of work, money and bills is totally different," said Vaz-Oxlade. "I help them to decide what is important to them in a whole goal-setting process that is unique to Princess."

Vaz-Oxlade admits the process is hard. "But if what you're doing is not working for you and you're risking your marriage or lying awake at night with a hollow feeling about your future, I can help you figure out what's wrong and what's right.

"These girls were very brave to go through this with me."

Fret not if you miss the debut episode of Princess Tuesday Sept. 7 at 12 p.m. ET (noon); it will air again the same day at 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Saturday Sept. 11 at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. and on Sunday Sept. 12 at 4 a.m. You can check air times for upcoming episodes and for Pacific time slots on the Slice website.

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