I have more sympathy for Jacqui, the single mom. She wasn't planning to divorce her husband and a $1200 basement seems reasonably thrifty for three people. Perhaps the new vehicles were extravagant, but she purchased that before her second divorce and couldn't save much by selling it to buy an old beater. In the end, her best hope would be a better paying job or moving somewhere with less expenses but a worse university for her daughter.