hi everyone. I am Princess Weeks with the Financial Diet team, and I am discussing six of my most favorite delusional money moments in Gilmore Girls. This is a lovely video supplement to our amazing Coffee and Old Money podcast available for premium members. You can sign up on Patreon or click the button down below in the description to join up and hear more of our amazing takes because, as you know, we are usually right. I am Princess Weeks. I am a professional pop culture yapper, and I have worked with the Financial Diet before on videos about Sex in the City. I have talked about Gilmore Girls in the past, which is why I was lucky enough to be tapped to do this special segment, and I'm really excited to do it because I love Gilmore Girls, and I love even more to complain about it lovingly. It's fall; I had a pumpkin spice latte today. It's time to get to Lulu with the Gilmore Girls. All right, so my number one moment and this

is one of the things that when I was watching this series for the first time, it stood out to me. And it's when Rory goes to Yale, and she pays $20 to sit underneath her study tree. Now, she goes to Yale. We know it's an exclusive school, very luxurious, multiple libraries, but she can't work in any of those. No, she needs this one particular tree. And $20 in 2034 was damn good money. Okay, you were going to get a couple of lunches out of that. Um, and it's just one of those moments where Rory is just being so silly. Yeah, it just has always stuck out to me, especially 'cause I really hate her haircut in this season. So, the bad haircut and the bad money decisions of giving away $20 for a tree, hand in hand. Although someone has turned it into an ambient study playlist, and I think if there's any good use of that moment, it would be that. Number two is everything Logan with his season 7 finances. I'm a Logan girl. I love my butt face, Miss

Grant, but it is very interesting how all of his financial stuff happens in that season. He's very much at the beginning of this era of the.com Boom. He loses a million dollars in Vegas and then has to apologize to Lorelai about it. You just lost millions of dollars. I know, I know I did, believe me. Wild. And there's so much stuff in season 7 about Logan and Rory dealing with the realities of their own privileges as, you know, trust fund kids. Logan moreo. And my favorite episode is definitely introducing Lorelai's Planetarium, where Rory goes to a party where all of Logan's like investor and colleague friends are there. And she writes this very scathing article where she says, Let Them drink Cosmos, and kind of laments the fact that, you know, these places are for people to get access to and to meet people. And Logan defends himself in these actions and brings up that like Rory isn't exactly paying rent either. And she makes a comment about his million-dollar trust fund, which

completely ignores that canonically at this point. Rory has a trust fund of her own, so it's just a very interesting way in which the show uses Logan to discuss with a little bit finer nuance than the Gilmores themselves the reality of what it means to be sort of a privileged waspy person. Throughout the season, we see Logan try his best to get out from under his father's thumb to go on in his own way, something that Lorelai should be able to appreciate. But she says that this is not a silver spoon family, that they were a spork family. This was not a silver spoon household; this was Spork City all the way. Now, I don't know about you, but I've never seen Lorelai use a spork in any of those episodes, so citation needed. But it is a very interesting way how Logan, just by being who he is, brings out the duality in the Gilmore Girls. I've been corrected that it's a $5 million trust fund, which I got to say, wow, you

should have married him, Rory. It would have been a much better way for you to handle things than Huntsburger. Huntsburger money. The next moment is Christopher fumbling with the small town living stuff. One of the things about Season 7, as someone who did enjoy the Christopher and Lorelai lore dynamic, is how Season 7, which is when Amy Sherman-Paladino is no longer being the showrunner, how they're trying to bring together all these plot elements from the previous season, which includes Christopher and Lorelai not just sleeping together but then eventually going to Paris, eloping, and getting married. It's all very weird. And Christopher decides to come live with Lorelai and tries to assimilate himself to small town living. And one of the things that happens is they have this big giant knit-a-thon where they're knitting to raise money. And Christopher decides to write a check, giving all the money to the community, which he thinks is a good thing. But the point of the activity

is the journey that we've gone on together. So, everyone's kind of upset about this, and it kind of makes him look like a douchebag in the universe. I personally am like, if the point is to raise the money and we raise the money, we can still knit. But I think it shows this way in which a lot of the activities that we see in Gilmore Girls that are for fundraising, that we never really see what those funds actually do unless it's like a personal store thing. It highlights the way in which a lot of these things are just for the quirks. It's not so much about what does it mean that we have someone who can help bring this economy into our town or help flood it with money. It's about like, does money make you ridiculous? And um, while I don't agree with the final thesis, I do think it's this moment of showing how Laura Li especially has turned Stars Hollow into sort of her own illusion of what middle-class living is like. It's her little escape from the

Privileges of her family society, but because it's a wish fulfillment show, it also doesn't really talk about the way that we actually do need people to like fund these things and take care of the roads, take care of all these little bits of infrastructure. Like, Taylor can't be doing all of it himself, and everyone here is working, and we know from what we did in the podcast that these people are not making outrageous amounts of money. So, it is weird to have a moment where someone does actually fund something in the town for them to be like, But we wanted to just do labor. When it comes to this idea of Lorelai stating that she did not raise Rory with a silver spoon in her mouth, that they were Spork City, I think that's interesting because I think there's no doubt that Lorelai made a lot of sacrifices being a Teen Mom and did have to make a lot of hard decisions in raising Rory. However, I think once the show picks up in earnest, one of the things that kind of happens and that we

discuss a lot on the podcast is how the way that the women live their lives does not reflect the financial reality of someone who was a teen mother who worked a very, you know, a minimum wage working-class job and now living in a very expensive middle-class environment, upper middle class, some might say. And even though the place where Styles Hollow is based off of has more of a middle-class vibe to it, the inability of Lorelai to do basic household tasks like cooking is an indicator that there is a disconnect between the realities of what sacrifices come with that bracket versus how Lorelai sees herself. And so, Lorelai often sees herself as a Perpetual Underdog, which to a degree she certainly has Underdog Tendencies, but narratively I think the show wants so much to give us this triple-tier story of mother and daughter that it forgets that there is a real tangible reality to being poor, that you'll see on shows like Roseanne or Shameless that really highlight the sacrifices that women make. So yeah, it's

disappointing that it's not discussed more in earnest, but I do. I have made peace with why it's not. The fourth thing that's really ridiculous about Gilmore Girls is the way in which Lorelai expects her financial help but with little to no strings attached. And this will often happen with her parents, like the Friday night dinners being treated as this albatross over her neck that she needs to pay them back for, which don't do that. Like, you know, like just take the money, don't pay them back, invest in your business, in your small business that you want to have with Suki so bad, 'cause Suki has 10,000 children, so you need to do that. The way that she does accept Emily and Richard's connections when it comes to helping her achieve business deals or access to certain levels of capital, but at the same time doesn't want to deal with that means having a pretty working relationship with said family. You see a lot of this also in the way that Luke is brought into her life and the ways

and this is actually a redcon. This is one of my actually my nitpicks in season one and a little bit of season two of Gilmore Girls. Emily is a lot nicer to Luke than she is later on. Like, she does to a certain degree respect Luke's role in the story, and as it becomes a more serious relationship, you get this feeling that they're trying to mold Luke into this image of what they think Lorelai deserves. And Lorelai pushes back against that but still will not just cut them off, you know? It's like because cutting them off also means cutting off the money, and so there's a certain degree in which Lorelai's relationship with her parents, especially after Rory goes to college, is contrived but always around money, around the access to capital, but also access to Rory. So at a certain point, it really is about them getting Rory through Yale. One thing that's really interesting about Lorelai's relationship to her mother and those strings and how they come together is how she has no problem stepping on

Emily's toes in ways that could be financially negligent or harmful. One example that we talked about in the podcast is when she does the seating chart at their vow renewal and has a whole fun time like putting together people who have had affairs and done this and done that and get someone fired. And while she is doing the seating chart, she is complaining about the way that children of privilege will play with each other's lives and spend a lot of money on things while not really understanding the importance of money. And it's like here she is at an event that's very important to people that people are getting paid to manage, and she's just having fun with it because it'll be funny for her to see The Fallout of it. Whether she means to or not, she is a privileged kid who does enjoy doing these kind of things of playing with people's lives. And I think that it's seen as endearing and Charming because she's Scrappy laurelai, but it still speaks to a larger issue of the

way Laura's own privileges and ability to get access to capital throughout the series empowers her to feel like she can do that and get away with, especially since her actions end up getting the wedding planner fired, and Laurelai does not confess that she did this. She's just kind of like, Mom, but who's going to run the wedding now? It's like Emily will run it herself, as she is wont to do. Number five is Luke being loaded. He is such... let me take that, let me take my Luke hater hat off for a second, put it to the side. Luke is set up in a very interesting way of being the man that Laura like can rely on the most. Thank you, I just like to see you happy, Luke. Very often will go above and beyond for Laurelai with very few expectations, which I can see why she'd be into that. She does like to not have many strings, but Luke is also then very financially well off. He's able to give her a... let me check my notes... a

$330,000 loan to Laura like when she needs it for construction, which doesn't seem like enough to me and others considering how much work needs to be done. But okay, my man, my man. And then he's also in a position to buy the twickum house, resend his offer, and then start renovating Laura's house. And then when they break up, it's not a big deal that he spent all this money to renovate a house for them together. Like, that is ridiculous, and it makes Luke seem as if he either has an endless amount of money or just no really big financial concerns. And I think that if you're running a diner, especially in small-town Americana with regulars, and you're already getting fresh ingredients, working with people, and you also own the building, like, I get cutting expenses, but having that much money to just throw around is just not only unrealistic to a certain degree but also kind of irresponsible. And then also, like, paying for the wedding, working towards paying

the wedding and everything leading up to it. I just season 6 is very weird, and I feel like it's a big disservice to Luke and Lorelai's relationship that they meld in their finances so early on in terms of these things, and we get no payoff for it. But that also kind of happens with Christopher when they have, I guess, the world's most amicable divorce, and no one cares that he moved his entire life pretty much to Star Hollow and just like, I'll just leave the next day. But uh, that's the magic of screenwriting, everyone. And I was just reminded that Lorelai and Max are also going to pay for the wedding out of pocket. How much money does a teacher at Chon make? And I'm just thinking of like his parents offered to pay in like small installments, and Lorelai is like, Lorelai, just ask your dad. Like, I'm team get the money from your rich parents, especially if you hate them. Take their money. But that's just me.

and then number six, my biggest one. This was the moment B before the tree. Before there was the tree, there was the three Monon backpacking through Europe moment. We both need to cut weight from our packs. I am doing my part here now to paint a picture when this happens about an episode before, if not two most. Laura Li gets the letter from Yale, which says that they will not be receiving financial aid because laurelai got some money from her father based on an investment he made when she was born and gave her the money. That influx of money put her into a bracket where now Rory does not qualify for any financial assistance. Now pause one fact that Laura like thought that Rory would ever qualify for that is quite frankly ridiculous because she went to Chilton not on a scholarship. She just went to Chilton and her parents are very rich legacies, so she was always going to pay that money. That's number one. Number two, even if you thought she was going to get a scholarship, wouldn't this be something that you're saving for?

like we know that she's saving to buy the dragonfly inn, but was her plan always for Rory to get a scholarship to either Yale or Harvard? Because that feels like a very, very, uh, not very smart idea, and none of those schools give, uh, merit-based scholarships; they are need-based. So her need is very high, but, uh, not high enough. Like, there's nothing about Rory's background that would entitle her towards that kind of financial assistance. And right after this big thing happens where Lorelai has to once again deal with her parents, and mind you, she paid the money back to them, which again could have saved that money to put Rory into Yale. So right after this happens, and she has to eat crow with dealing with taking care of that again, next episode, they're like, We're preparing for our backpack trip to Europe. What even, even charitably, if they're going to the cheapest hostels three months away with no income, no real savings, because mind you, Lorelai has been saving for the dragonfly inn, and she

wasn't saving for to go to college apparently, so I'm guessing it either all went there or all for this trip. Either way, that is three months where she's not working, not working on her brand new Inn that is going to be her main source of income. And Rory's not working, so who's preparing her for college? All this stuff ridiculous. And again, even with the cheapest way to backpack to Europe, traveling through Europe is expensive. And honestly, as to young women, like you might want to pay for higher quality hotels, especially depending on what's going on seasonally where you're going, where in Europe. It is such a weird moment because it just shows how little they prepare for the financial reality of what they actually want. There is nothing I know saving is unglamorous. No one wants to talk about it. It's not fun to watch on a show, but I think it does a disservice to the narrative that you're trying to tell when you have in one episode them really worried about Rory.

being able to go to school because you don't have the money, and then you're using that same money to go on a massive trip. And this is not a poor people shouldn't get to enjoy things argument, because to our knowledge, Lura is not poor. It is poor financial planning to not have money aside for your daughter to go to college, but somehow have magic money to go on a three-month tour of Europe where you have no ability to make income for that time, unless for some reason she's getting passive income for the dragonfly, which I don't see why she would. It's not even open yet, so it's a very, very messy, frustrating storyline. And it's probably the moment where I realized that this was completely financially unhinged and that I just can't take it seriously anymore. And I'm okay with that. It's just very annoying. Just let them pay for it. Just let your parents pay for the stuff. If we're going to pretend that you just merely have money anyway, just

be a child of wealth, but we like to keep it positive, so we are going to end on a high note, and that is going to be the amazing Mrs. Kim. When Elane goes to her mother and tells her that the band is breaking up and they're not going to be a success, and Mrs. Kim goes, You are not the daughter I raised. Kims don't give up. I was like, Let's go, mama! Like, I think this part where Mrs. Kim essentially goes in and books them an entire tour using all of her church connections is such a wholesome, sweet moment. But it's also the kind of storytelling that I feel like they want to do for Lorelai and Emily, and it does happen from time to time, but it's even more perfect in Mrs. Kim and Lane's relationship for the intersections of race and religion that play such a huge role in their relationship. But it is this way that both Lane and Mrs. Kim deeply love and respect each other and are able to compromise with each other with that.

love and respect that Mrs. Kim learns to be a more conscious mother that Lane needs and help her with her tour but does it in her own way. They're going to churches, they're going to church stadiums, but they're going on their Rock Band tour. Lane will never be the traditional girl that her mother wants her to be, but she still is comfortable going to her mother for help and willing to make acquiesces to make it easier for her, like she when she goes to her mom and says like, I know if I go back, it's your house and your rules. It's a sad moment, but I think it also shows that regardless of all the drama between them, Lane does see her mom as a safe space for her to go and get her bearings together, and I think that's beautiful. I think in a show where the mother-daughter relationships are so tense with the generational divide, is so tense so often, that Lane and Mrs. Kim are that one story where you see true work being done to create a

bridge between them, and it's crossed. It just sucks that Lane's story never really gets better than that, but that's CU of racism and not because of Lane. We love you, Lane. Thank you guys so much for watching. Don't forget to subscribe and to click on the Patreon link down below to listen to the rest of the podcast I did with Holly. And thank you guys so much for listening. I'm Princess Weeks. I'm a YouTuber on this platform. You can find me under Princess Weeks. I do videos about pop culture. I have a video out about Bridgerton. I have a video out about, well, not Fire and Blood yet, but about Redemption arcs, and it's pretty good. I recommend it. So yeah, thanks so much for watching, and remember, remember that sometimes those 78 pairs of Jimmy Choos are just not worth it. Bye.

The 6 Most Delusional Money Moments In Gilmore Girls

The Financial Diet helps you rethink your relationship with money, culture, and class.

Education & commentary on the systems we interact with every day, from influencer culture, to economic systems, to financial privilege.

Talk to us at hello@thefinancialdiet.com