Series 1, episode 5
Episode – Fred & Orla
In this episode we meet Fred & Orla from Dublin who are expecting their second child. They had many years of a double income no kids existence, before starting a family. Adjusting to one income has been difficult and they would like to take control of the family finances before baby number two arrives.
Fred & Orla are self-confessed unconscious spenders and Kathriona and Sinead challenge them to curb their credit card use and go back to cash in order to keep track of where their money in going.
This week, together with the My Money & Me consumer panel, Dr. Pete Lunn shows us that more choice isn’t always a good thing when it comes to making purchases and choices.
Overview:
6 x 25mins RTE One
Do we ever stand back and ask where does our money go? Are we all just sleepwalking spenders, buying things we don’t really need and spending too much on the essentials? Are we handing over our hard earned money, without giving it a second thought?
In this new RTE One series My Money & Me, Kathriona Devereux will be joined by Personal Finance Expert Sinead Ryan to help people across Ireland take control of their cash.
In each episode, we meet a household struggling to see where their money is going each month. By combing through their finances, Sinead and Kathriona will identify key areas where savings can be made without massive changes to their lifestyle. Setting challenges based on their findings, our participants shopping and spending habits will be challenged in order to find them some much-needed cash. With simple lifestyle changes, switching bills and simply putting their new found savings aside, we reveal just how much they can save over a year, with surprising results.
Are our basic human instincts costing us at the checkout? Dr. Pete Lunn, Behavioral Economist, will carry out experiments with a sample of Irish consumers to examine the behavioural and psychological aspects of our shopping habits – we reveal if we really are as in control of our decision-making as we think.
On top of all of that, each week we have an industry expert giving us their top tips on how to save money on those big purchases; from saving money on your wedding, to how to get the best deal on a car, our Insider Tips will stop us from unnecessarily overspending.
Presenters:
Kathriona Devereux has been a broadcaster on RTE for more than 10 years. She can be found working in front of the camera presenting series such as 10 Things to Know, The Science Squad and The Consumer Show or behind the camera producing documentaries such as A Parting Gift, From Here to Maternity and What’s Ireland Eating. A self-confessed nerd, Kathriona has a first class Masters degree in Science Communications from Dublin City University. In her latest role as presenter of My Money & Me she has used her geeky skills to prudently pore over banks statements, bills and receipts to help people eliminate unconscious spending and save money.
Sinead Ryan worked in financial services for 15 years after qualifying as a financial adviser, but has since become one of Irelands most respected print and broadcast journalists writing on consumer, personal finance and property matters. She has weekly columns in the Irish Independent and Herald newspapers. In 2009 she set up a not-for-profit organization teaching teenagers about budgeting and personal finance and is widely in demand on radio and television as a consumer and personal finance expert. Her book, co-written with Frank Conway, ‘Cents and Sensibility’, was published in 2010.Sinead was appointed to the Pensions Council by Tanaiste Joan Burton TD in January 2015.
Dr. Pete Lunn is a behavioural economist and author. He runs a laboratory at the ESRI that uses experiments to study how consumers make decisions. Prior to this Pete was a journalist specialising in science and economics, mainly with Newsnight at the BBC in London. He moved to Dublin in 2002, where he was the founding Editor of NewsTalk. Each week on My Money & Me Dr Pete Lunn will be recreating behavioural experiments which will shed light on why we make the decisions we do when it comes to shopping.