0/5

Money for Jam

Bugger me. If your workmates all make lunch for the boys instead of buying take away you'll save enough money in a year to fly to Disneyland.

m4j2Things I learned from Money for Jam:

– If your workmates all make lunch for the boys instead of buying take away you’ll save enough money in a year to fly to Disneyland.

– If you fill out online surveys you can get paid quick cash on the side.

– Scott Cam has to appear in just about every show that Shelley Craft is in.

– The National Australia Bank has stitched up a nice little branding deal with the Nine Network.

– Anything’s got to be better than another week of Australia’s Perfect Couple.

Ok, I might have learned a few helpful bits along the way too, but I’m not sure they were particularly insightful or any more informed than a quick segment on any current affairs show. Still that hasn’t stopped Better Homes and Gardens from booming week after week either.

Money for Jam is Nine’s latest infotainment show designed to give viewers recession-busting tips and uncover some unique small business ideas that have separated themselves from the pack. It’s headed up by former Money host Paul Clitheroe, Deputy Editor of PBL’s ‘Money’ magazine Effie Zahos, and Nine resident personalities Shelley Craft and Shane Crawford.

The format of the show moves swiftly through several stories of varying length, with one of the four presenters on hand to brighten up our gloomy world in crisis. Segments also vary in terms of their financial benefit from saving a few bucks in your week to creating home business ideas.

Former AFL champ Shane Crawford tells us he has ‘bounced back’ plenty of times, which presumably is the extent of his financial knowhow given he didn’t allude to anything else (would he therefore have fallen flat on his face a few times too?). Thankfully his story on a guy who has created a range of clothing with inbuilt stubby holders and bottle openers had an original idea -even if it was rather flippantly packaged. Again this is something we’d see in 4 minutes on current affairs footnoted with a clever pub crawling pun by the host.

It was at least more inspiring than the ridiculous “lunchbox challenge” proposed by Shelley Craft who took a bunch of tradies -one of whom just happened to be Scott Cam- and got them to each make lunch for their mates one day a week instead of all buying take away. Well bugger me. After several supposedly comic minutes of twisties on a bun and salad sandwiches the gang realised they had apparently saved a few bucks. A pity the segment producer hadn’t realised if you’re going to make the guys look like they’ve lived through a week try not to film them wearing the same dusty shirt with the same dusty marks?

Effie Zahos’ segment on a booming cupcake business was better. The stories of real people building something from imagination and determination is where this show works best. Lightweight hints enacted by presenters with slight financial cred are a bit of a worry….

Clitheroe also doesn’t do enough in the premiere episode. He doles out a few tips on tax and savings but it just doesn’t feel like much meat and bones when he clearly has the ability to carry it off. This is the Getaway of financial advice, with sexy music and bite size hints supered on the bottom of the screen.

Ironically this show goes to air in the same climate that sees Nine pushing to meet its debt payments, but Clitheroe didn’t seem to have any hot tips for David Gyngell this week. Probably a lot more jam required than selling a few cupcakes there….

The National Australia Bank is also heavily embedded into this show, with an advertiser offer to viewers to switch banks and get a low credit rate that expires at midnight on the night of the show, and a NAB expert online after the show for viewer advice.

In the closing credits it says, “Thanks to NAB for their services provided under commercial arrangement.”

It also said, “This programme is produced as an information service. It contains general information and has been produced without taking account of any person’s objectives, financial situation or needs. This program should not be relied upon as a substitute for specific financial advice.”

Especially when it involves Scott Cam making twisties on a roll?

3_starsMoney for Jam premieres 8pm Wednesday on Nine.

39 Responses

  1. really disappointed that you are following the trend and showing how ‘easy’ it is to win competitions and yet again Sherry will be on the screen. We are sick of it. We are sick of Sherry, Andrew and Craig. How about doing some research and finding out how hard and frustrating comping can be and interview some regular compers instead of the ones conning people into spending money to buy their books and pay to join their website? All you are doing is giving them free advertising and presenting marketing disguished as a story. Look up some Free comping sites and speak to real people on there. Yes our members have some big wins, and a lot have little wins but it’s nowhere near as easy as all these stories try to portray. Its damn hard work!

  2. Hi,
    Totally agree with most of the comments. I was really looking forward to this show and have been bitterly disappointed. Not one good idea to be found. Channel nine would have been much better off producing a show that had a team of experts helping individual people, couples, families with their financial problems. Giving real people real solutions. We all could have learnt something from such a show. I’m sure Money for Jam will not last long.

  3. I still can’t get past the story they had on episode 2. You drive around your neighbourhood picking up furniture from the naturestrip that is just sitting there for free. And this furniture is in mint condition – ready for sale with no faults. You then load it into your tray van (that you hired for the occasion) and take it to a second hand furniture shop where the guy comes out to have a look …. greets you like you are old friends … then proceeds to offer you $60 for this, $200 for that, $150 for the other and you get $1,000 before you know it.

    This must be some sort of alternative reality universe.

  4. Thank you for the opportunity Shane Crawford to show my son Toby on TV, doing exercises with Jeremy Samson. Toby’s running and co-ordination is better and he has more zest for life! How do I keep him interested in running and moving; big problem.!!
    The money for jam program has given me quite some good (saving) ideas. Great!

  5. Mike, love this show, great ideas. would it be possible to get the address or email address of the company runing the scooters towing the advertisements behind them. I have a full motorbike licence, for many years now, and ride a kawasaki 1000cc.,

    regards Mike.

  6. Re Jed’s comment – ‘Scott Cam, Shane Crawford, Shelley Craft. Nuff said’. I concur wholeheartedly.

    More middle of the road, middle Australia, Anglo Saxon mediocrity from Nine.

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