Lois vs. Evil and the family's mysterious lack of money

yardgames

Retired Administrator
I just watched Lois vs. Evil...it's a great first season ep, really enjoyed it, of course. But what struck me as odd was the financial deficit the family was suddenly thrust into after Lois lost her job. Now, she was a store clerk who worked, as she stated, just 38 hours per week--legally part time. Hal, on the other hand, we assume works full-time, at least 40 hours per week, at a dedicated office job (which we find out he hates in Hal Quits). Wouldn't Hal be making much more money than Lois in the first place anyway?

Granted, the family is "poor" to begin with, and taking Lois' check out of the income might hurt a bit, but would it really be as drastic as it is portrayed?

I was thinking about that when comparing it to the Reese Joins the Army series when Hal and Lois were fired. You know, Lois has sure been fired from the same position a lot, hasn't she?
 

NeCoHo

Retired Mod
I have a bit of personal experence in this. My mom works part time as the subsitute school nurse, so she gets the summer off. last year my father was fired from his previous job, so we lived off his unemployment over the summer. It was a bit less then his other paycheak, but it wasn't the same feel, ya know? So we wern't able "to get that fancy toilet paper"(either from the Simpsons or MITM) We survived, just as Malcolm's family did. Without that extra my mom put in it is different, my dad has a new job that pays more, so were building a basement with that extra. it will be completely finished around the same time he was fired. We went from 'streaching it' to 'extra room' in 1 year.
 

Wemboy

New member
I think the point about Lois losing her job is that to survive they have to "squeeze every penny" (that's from the Simpsons, does anyone know what the character was called?) so once they lose any of the family income, even if it's just a small part then they get into trouble. I agree that in Lois vs Evil the writers do go a bit over the top but then they have to take a bit of artistic license i suppose. I think it's just that although Hal works full time he doesn't earn enough to support the family alone, therefore Lois needs to work twice as hard supplementing the family income, and looking after the kids aswell, which is why she's so stressed.
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
That does make sense. It is a brilliantly written ep, as most from season 1 are. That just struck me as a tad odd.
 

arach

New member
I think that since Lois is in charge for the families finances, she makes immediate shortenings if they're making less money. It's just her tendency to be extreme in such matters that is shown in that episode. They got leftovers for dinner and not enough food for school because she wants to tell everyone in the family that hard times are coming. They're not poor immediately and of course they could make a bank credit or something, but that's not the Lois-way. If there's less money, there's less food, and that's simply it.
 

Squeaky Yugi

New member
In "Hal's Birthday," they faced economical problems too. I was kind of disappointed that they used tv magic to make it all better.


They also lose their vactaion fund in "Surgery" and Lois also announces they have no money for vacations in "Casino"
 

Garbage Kills Megan

parties with your mom
You never know. Maybe Lois' income covers all their food costs. Since Lois has been working there for a while, I'm sure she makes more than minimum wage. So, she might make more than $300 a week. That's quite a bit of money to suddenly not have anymore.
 
if they were so poor, or are so poor, where does the dough for military school come from? Given that the kids at home live with no frills at all, wouldn't pulling Francis from the Academy free up some dough? I guess tuition was already paid and non-refundable. Those schools are not cheap, even ones with maniacal hook-handed, eye-patched commandants. How come they didn't live a little larger after Francis quit military school?
 

admin

Retired Administrator
psychoformalcolm said:
if they were so poor, or are so poor, where does the dough for military school come from? Given that the kids at home live with no frills at all, wouldn't pulling Francis from the Academy free up some dough? I guess tuition was already paid and non-refundable. Those schools are not cheap, even ones with maniacal hook-handed, eye-patched commandants. How come they didn't live a little larger after Francis quit military school?
An excellent point, and welcome to the forums. You are indeed right, as Francis has left military school should they not have a good $20,000 free a year? Perhaps Hal's family pay for the fees or something...
 
hal's family is rich, but i sense that he is on the outside looking in on all that. The family reunion episode where everyone treats them like pariah's, especially lois. Thanks for the welcome. Started this because i was looking for the Malcolm last name. Has it ever been mentioned in an episode? i found it on a posted copy of an episode script.
 
As Lois works in a 'convenience store' and I looked on google for average Wal Mart pay for 1 hour, it's around $10 (£6), say that's her pay, she'd be getting not much money at all plus Hal is unemployed too, also the Wilkersons give money regularly to their son Francis this explains why they're fairly poor.
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
$10? Good to know. If she works full-time, that's considered forty hours a week. $10 x 40 hours is $400 per week, plus any additional shifts like graveyard or anything, minus occasionally leaving early or getting there late, and it averages out to around $400 per week. $400 x 52 weeks per year equals $20,800. That's not a bady living for one person, but pretty hard to support a family on. Nonetheless, if Hal makes $20 or $30 grand a year, there's up around $40 or $50 thousand and I would think you could live fairly luxuriously on that.

Some things to think about: The house is small, yes, but Hal was between jobs when they bought it. It is furnished nicely. Literally, all the walls are covered wtih art and stuff.

So we could assume that the family had paid a nonrefundable sum to Marlin Academy before Francis was emancipated, and that happened in season 3. Which means that for season 3, they would have still been living as if Francis had been in military school. They would have had several months, maybe, between the two situations, but by the time the extra money actually begins to add up, Ida sues and Jamie's born, and some of the more modern problems are born.
 

Emrysgirl

New member
Is Lois' job at Lucky Aide full time? I thought they mentioned in one ep that she was just under the minimum and so didn't get paid as much or get the benefits. Or am I thinking about a different show?

$40-50 thousand a year is not very much to support a family of 6 (Not counting Francis). And these are pretty expensive children what with fees for lawyers, credit card debt, many many fines etc.
 
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