Courtney Harrell (Host)
speaker
376 appearances
10 recordings
3 series
first heard Apr 2025
last heard May 2025
Courtney Harrell (Host)’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Jay's total spending for the week was $1,034. What we spend is an Odyssey original podcast. It's written and hosted by me, Courtney Harrell. Our producers are Margo Gray and Kristen Torres. Our editor is Jonathan Menjivar. Our executive producers are Maddy Sprung-Kaiser and Leah Reese Dennis. Theme song and original music by Matt McGinley. Additional music from APM Music. Mixing by Pedro Alvira.
Special thanks to Melissa Akiko Slaughter, Joel Lovell, Jenna Weiss-Berman, J.D. Crowley, Maura Curran, Josephina Francis, Kurt Courtney, Hilary Sheff, Sean Cherry, Laura Berman, and Hilary Van Ornam. If you want to be on What We Spend, we'd love to hear from you. Write us at whatwespendpodcast at gmail.com and tell us about yourself.
You know how you always want to know about everyone else's money? You do, right? Like, you'll see someone buying something you want or taking some amazing vacation, and you think, how can they afford that? Or you meet your friend's new girlfriend, and she has some very impressive job, and you think, how much money does she make?
I think when it comes to money, even if you don't want to admit it, we're all a little nosy. But I don't know, I actually think that's good. I think we should be talking about money more. And all the ways, big and small, that it impacts our lives. On this show, we are actually going to do that. We are going to go somewhere that we almost never get to go.
Deep into the heart of someone else's finances. Here's how this is going to work. Each week, I'm going to introduce you to a new person from somewhere across the country. And they are going to tell us everything about their finances. How much they make, how much they want to make, what they worry about, or if they don't worry at all.
And then for one week, we'll follow them through their daily routine. Every day, they'll record an audio diary with all the nitty gritty details of how they're spending their money. I mean, the coffees, the groceries, the rent that's due, the car accident that suddenly upends everything. And after that, we'll talk about what the week brought up for them, what it's made them feel.
Because whatever you're buying or not buying or saving or spending, at the end of the day, money is always about more than your balance. I'm Courtney Harrell, and this is What We Spend.
I turn 32 in one week and I live in Salt Lake City. Kelly is one of the 42.8 million Americans who has student loan debt. And also, like a lot of her generation, she wants to buy a home and have a baby, and she's trying to figure out if it's possible to make all that work.
Kelly married her husband about a year ago, and eight months ago, the two of them moved from Tennessee to Salt Lake City, Utah. Ben is an engineer for a software company, Kelly's a director of client experience at a medical spa, and she's also an online mental wellness coach.
Kelly is paid hourly, but she makes about $50K a year. And Ben makes about $78K. That's before taxes and health insurance. Together, that puts them just under the average income for married couple families in Salt Lake City. How would you describe your relationship with money?
What do you do on a weekly basis to manage your expenses?
OK, yeah. So walk me through your spreadsheet. So I would love to hear what all of your regular expenses are and like what you kind of typically pay in each category.
Two gym memberships, $108. Car insurance, $254.
phone payment $75, pet insurance $76, and physical therapy for $250. It helps with Kelly's chronic back pain and osteoarthritis.
They have a Costco membership, but they pay that yearly fee with the cash back they get from their credit card.
We mooch off of our families. Some of the subscriptions are on them, though. Dropbox for $12, SoundCloud for $6, Spotify for $10. Hair.
What does that make your expenses altogether, your regular expenses?
Kelly's degree cost about $40,000 a year. And after undergrad, Kelly went on to grad school at the same university. She has a master's in mental health counseling. But as Kelly sees it now, the math doesn't make much sense. I want to ask you something about that, and I mean no judgment with this. Okay. How did you think you were going to pay off that amount of tuition?
Or were you at the time like, I know I can't pay this off. How did you think about it then?
So that's Kelly. And this week, instead of just tracking it in her spreadsheet, she's going to tell us about every dollar she spends and every feeling that comes with it. How are you feeling about tracking your finances for a week?
Showing 341–360 of 376 · page 18 of 19
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