Plot

Single mother Claire Lee leaves her terraced home in Wolverhampton to live in a 5-bedroom home belonging to cardiologist and paediatrician Mahrous and Rana Alsoud.

The Alsoud family swap homes and budgets with the Lee family. Both families live in Wolverhampton less than half an hour apart, but there's a huge gap between their financial circumstances. Mahrous and Rana Alsoud are among the wealthiest 10% of people in Britain, they grew up in Syria before moving to the UK in 2000. They have four children: Yasmin (19), Angela (16), Zain (15) and Farah (12). They live in a five-bedroomed house, three bathrooms, three receptions and a large garden. Mahrous is a cardiologist and Rana is a paediatrician. After their mortgage, their weekly budget is just under £3,000. The Lees are among the UK's poorest 10%. Single parent Claire lives with her four children: Jordan (23), Nathan (17), Rose (10) and Kiye (9) in a three-bedroom terraced house. Claire sleeps in a bed downstairs in the living room and works as financial clerk in a local school; her weekly budget after bills is £171. The Alsoud children enjoy horse riding, swimming, tennis, piano lessons and learning Arabic. Mahrous works away in Durham, while Rana's job is full time, meaning the family doesn't spend much time together. The Lee family spends lots of time together, and find different ways to have fun without spending money: they have board game evenings and movie nights at home as they can't afford to go to the cinema. After growing up without many resources, Rana is hoping the swap will give her children a taste of her own background. How will the families react to such huge changes not only in their budget, but also in the amount of time they spend together?