Molly Wants A Budget

Originally Aired: April 18, 1939

Fibber McGee & Molly #201, "Molly Wants A Budget," Molly returns home from a trip only to discover the household finances have spiraled completely out of control during her absence. The milk bill is astronomical, the electric bill rivals the TVA, and the telephone charges suggest McGee has been consulting with all of Europe. To make matters worse, Fibber has spent 45 cents a week on an absurd insurance policy that covers everything from Chinese bandits to Mediterranean fruit flies but nothing practical. When a mysterious telephone operator named Mert calls for Fibber, Molly's suspicions are raised, though McGee insists he's never even met the woman.

Determined to restore fiscal sanity to 79 Wistful Vista, Molly announces they need to establish a household budget immediately. Despite Fibber's suggestions for extreme cost-cutting measures like carrier pigeons instead of telephones and buying a cow to lower the milk bill, Molly sends him downtown on the streetcar to purchase proper bookkeeping ledgers. The question remains whether the spendthrift McGee can ever truly stick to a budget, or if Molly's financial planning is doomed from the start.