Vaz-Oxlade part money adviser, part standup comic

To watch Gail Vaz-Oxlade on her Til Debt Do Us Part or Princess TV shows, in which she dishes out practical financial advice to struggling families and young prima donnas, you’d get the impression she’s a no-nonsense task master who pulls no punches.

And that would be an accurate assessment. What you, and I, wouldn’t have known is that she’s got quite the potty mouth.

At Sunday’s packed-house presentation hosted by The Daily News in the Kamloops Convention Centre, Vaz-Oxlade sprinkled her talk on the 10 biggest mistakes we make with our money with liberal use of the f-word, the s-word, and even the p- and c-words.

Some in the audience of 450 were clearly surprised by it. When you feel you’ve gotten to know a person in one venue, and find out a different side to her personality in another, it takes getting used to.

But, after the initial re-set, they loved it. The course language was used often, but not to the point of distraction. In fact, Vaz-Oxlade’s timing, and her rejoinders with the crowd, were hilarious.

No dry lecture on money management, this. Instead, the crowd got an hour and a half of clear, basic advice and entertainment. Vaz-Oxlade is part financial adviser, part life coach and part standup comic.

The time flew by and nobody left the room without a smile and some good ideas on how to do a better job — and make life better, too — with their money.

KDN publisher Tim Shoults, in thanking Vaz-Oxlade for her talk, jokingly asked her if she uses swear jars, a reference to her “Debt” TV show in which she has often ordered her subject family to divide their income into cash and keep it in jars for specific spending needs.

Vaz-Oxlade replied that one of her daughters once made her start a five-cent jar for the s-word and a 25-cent jar for each time she used the f-word, but it became such a hassle finding enough change that she just stuffed 20-dollar bills in each jar and used the credit.

Some sample pieces of Vaz-Oxlade wisdom from the show:

“Life is full of yuck. You get to choose the yuck of discipline or the yuck of regret.”

“I call HGTV décor porn.”

“Don’t marry a money moron.”

“Shit happens.”

“Listen, I make good money. I’m a big frickin’ TV star. And I keep track of every penny.”