FOOL'S EYE VIEW
Living By The Book

By Jane Mack (TMFJane)
September 28, 2001

Do you remember a TV series broadcast earlier this year on Channel 4 called 'Living by the Book'? It was a type of 'reality TV' that filmed the successes and failures of people trying to follow the advice given in those ubiquitous self-help books. The programme attempted to discover over the course of a few months if any of the suggestions actually worked.

For example, I recall seeing one that tracked couples who had read John Gray's (in)famous Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus and were having a go at putting the author's advice into practice. You know the sort of thing – men acquire favourable scores with their partners by 'opening up' to them about how they feel, while women score good points with their men by letting them go into their 'caves' when they need to. (Seems like a contradiction in terms, if you ask me, but such is life!)

There was another fascinating programme in the series about how to deal with troublesome children who were completely disrupting the family. And I particularly remember a hugely entertaining episode involving single girls trying (and failing) to 'get their man' by following a book called 'The Rules'. (Mainly because one or two of them couldn't bring themselves to truly 'Live by the Book'!)

Some of the guinea pigs in the series did rather well although others failed miserably. But almost all of them admitted that actively trying to follow the advice had concentrated the mind wonderfully and had made them give some serious thought to how they were behaving. (Although, admittedly, this may have been because the TV cameras were watching them!)

Anyway – shall I get to the point?

One of the suggestions that often crops up on our Dealing with Debt discussion board when Fools are struggling to make ends meet, is to keep a diary of what you spend your money on – just for a month. Very few people manage it because it's an absolute pain having to write down every single penny you spend on a day-to-day basis – it may seem a bit pointless when it's only 35p on a newspaper. But that's the whole point of the exercise! Those who've tried it have found that it really helps them to reign in their spending in a big way. Somehow, it seems to bring home the true value of money when you've got a piece of paper in front of you telling you where your entire salary for the month went.

We wanted to try something similar to 'Living by the Book' by persuading a Fool to have a go at a TMF version of it - just to see how effective it was at convincing her to take full control of her finances. Our Fool, let's call her Katherine, has been keeping her spending diary since the 1st of September. (The 1st of the month is Katherine's payday and it's always best to start doing this sort of thing on payday so you can keep a note of where it goes right from the very start).

We've been tracking her spending – and we're going to be publishing all the gory details of it, along with her comments, on a week by week basis throughout October so you can see how she did. At the end of it we'll see what she's learned and help her to plan her future. (All decisions are hers, of course - we'll just put the options in front of her).   

It's the 1st of the month on Monday. Payday for many of us. So, if you feel like having a go at 'Living by the Book' yourself throughout October, while simultaneously keeping an eye on another person who's been doing the same thing, then start your own diary on the first day of next week.

And look out for next Friday's Fool's Eye View column where you'll find out more about Katherine's own financial circumstances and see how they compare to yours. You'll also be able to take at look at what she spent her money on in her first week and see if you did any better!