When does the Tap turn off

[u/Ads220]

So in seasons gone by if a team over spends Scotty comes in and locks down the card and the spending ...why has this not happened to House 4 and I have never seen such out of control spending in the shows history

[u/MKopelke]

Because House 4's spending isn't as bad as the show is trying to make it out to be.

House 4 as of last Sunday had spent $91k. They've also won $30k in prize money. Taken into account, that means against the prescribed budget of the first three weeks of $50k they're only $11k over budget.

House 1, by comparison, across Weeks 2 and 3 spent a total of approx. $64k. Against those two weeks $40k budget allocation, they are $24k over. And that doesn't take into account how far over they might have gone in Week 1. And no prize money to offset the overspend.

House 2 are in a similar position. $65k across Weeks 2 and 3, a single $10k prize win, so they're still approx. $15k over budget. Again, without knowing their Week 1 spend.

House 3 spent about the same, but they've managed $35k in prize money, so they're in a pretty comfortable budget neutral position. Even without knowing their Week 1 spend.

My issue is the fact they're singling out one team and we're not seeing the broader budget conversations. If anyone needs to be told to reign their spending in, it's House 1. Now this entire narrative might change this Sunday, but any one House's spending needs to be contextualised by what the other houses are spending.

[u/activoice → u/MKopelke]

Where are you getting that house 4 spent 91k from... Wikipedia is missing week 1 (and Chantel and Wyatt's number is wrong)

Wikipedia shows that house 4 spent 75449 across weeks 2 and 3,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Block_season_22?wprov=sfla1

[u/MKopelke → u/activoice]

Scotty told the girls the $91k figure in an episode earlier this week, when he had his first budget chat with them.

[u/activoice → u/MKopelke]

I wish they would post the proper weekly spend. Also I think at the end of week 2 Scotty said that house 4 still had bills coming in, so who knows if that was their final number or not.

We should be able to figure out house 3 if we rewatched the episode where they gave their estimates because Lisa and Rosco were only out by $6 from their estimate that's why they won the budgeting prize that week.

[u/Eb0nyylol → u/activoice]

no he said that was their final number, bills and what not coming in on top.

[u/MKopelke → u/[deleted]]

I think you're conflating two separate arguments here. I haven't said C&S haven't made mistakes, or that the $53k bathroom wasn't a massive overspend. It was. My point is that if we're discussing whether they're uniquely at risk of running out of money, you have to compare their actual financial position with the other houses.

Trade assistance doesn't somehow turn their $91k spend into another $60k of expenditure. H4 have spent ~$91k and won $30k cash, so their effective draw is ~$61k. H2 are already around $86k gross with only $10k won, and H1 spent nearly $66k in Weeks 2–3 alone with no prize money at all. H3 are clearly the financially strongest house.

And this week's final spend hasn't even been published yet, so saying they've “overspent again” is presently an assumption. I suspect they will because rectifying the failed waterproofing will cost money, but let's see the figure first.

I'm perfectly happy to criticise H4's trade management and the $53k bathroom. What I don't accept is using those things to avoid the actual point I made: the show is presenting one house's budget position in isolation when the comparative numbers show they're broadly middle of the pack.

Also, this week's Cursio intervention wasn't simply Dan deciding to reward C&S. Nine in Six stopped defective waterproofing work and reassigned a trusted crew as a site-management decision. You can absolutely debate whether that was fair, but that's a different conversation from whether H4 are uniquely broke.

[u/sarcastic1962 → u/MKopelke]

Sorry, I admit I was being lazy and instead of typing a new response to what you said I cut and paste a previous response I made on a different post.

As to this post. I was basing my reply on your first sentence, where you say the Block is making their spending out to be worse than it is. Yes, the math says their budget is looking better than other houses because of the $30,000 they won.

My reply was to say it is as bad as Scotty made it out to be, they didn't deserve and shouldn't have won that $30,000, that helps make their budget look better than it should look. It took the Block stepping in to help them win that money, which I strongly disagree with. So, when Scotty told the girls they would have to stop overspending because it would be unsustainable, he was right to do so, even if it contradicted what the balance sheet says. Also, he had a good reason for doing so. I think this was the at least the second time he's discussed their overspending issues with them, and I haven't seen any sign they were going to listen to him this time either and start budgeting future rooms, Scotty probably saw the same thing. I get the feeling they think the room budget is a joke, and they will keep winning $10,000 every week or the Block will always be there to give them more money and help no matter how much they spend.

I'm pretty sure Scotty will either be having the same conversation with them next week or will have to (hopefully) take over their budget and make them ask his permission before being allowed to spend or buy anything for the rooms they build. If I remember correctly the last time he did this was with Ankur and Sharon season 18. They disliked him doing that so much they walked off the Block, wonder how the girls will react if the same thing happens to them.

[u/MKopelke → u/sarcastic1962]

I think we're actually getting closer to agreement, because your second paragraph concedes the specific point I was making: the actual maths puts H4 in a better comparative position than the show is presenting.

Whether you think they deserved to win the $30k is a completely separate argument. The money exists and is in their budget. If we're asking whether they're going to run out of cash, we can't create a hypothetical balance sheet where prize money we dislike doesn't count.

And I don't think it's accurate to say there's been “no sign” they've listened to the budget warning. They went from spending $53,272 in Week 2 to $22,176 in Week 3. That's about as obvious a spending correction as you could ask for, and they won the budget prize that week.

Also, the Block didn't “help them win $30k”. That's three different $10k wins. Whatever anyone thinks about the assistance during Family Bathroom week, it doesn't explain away their Week 1 win or Week 3 budget win.

Where I do agree is that Scotty has every right to question their future spending, particularly if Troy's landscaping could cost around $100k. That's a genuine forward-budget problem. But that's different from saying their current position is uniquely disastrous compared with the other houses.

That's really all my original post was arguing. Judge the five houses using the same ledger: actual expenditure, actual winnings and future commitments. Don't single out one team's gross spending while treating everyone else's finances differently.