After breezing through The Block, winning more room reveals than any other team, Mitch and Mark make an unpleasant discovery this week: they’ve run out of money! Are they even going to be able to finish the competition?
Mark makes the discovery while Mitch is out on a shopping trip. A couple of bills arrive that total $16,000 more than they were expecting.
With two weeks still to go, the Sydney couple are now in the red and don’t have enough to pay their tradespeople.
Mitch, 56, tells TV WEEK he thought they might not be able to finish their house in time for auction day.
“We thought we were going to be close, and two weeks out, we may not finish,” he says. “We did feel there was that chance, which was pretty devastating.”
WATCH: The Block’s Mitch and Mark accuse Jesse and Mel of cheating. Story continues below…
El’ise wasn’t shocked to hear Mitch and Mark had blown their budget.
“We were very surprised that didn’t happen sooner, to tell you the truth,” she says. “They had many, many trades on site non-stop. Matt’s a chippie and we had one person on site with him the whole time. We could never make sense of it.”
El’ise, 33, feels the Sydney couple displayed “a lot of cockiness”.
“They came into the competition confident, but that didn’t necessarily mean they were going to leave confident,” she says.
Jesse, 29, meanwhile, says Mitch and Mark had “so much experience”, but it counted for nothing.
“They couldn’t budget,” he declares.
Things are looking so desperate for the granddads this week that Jesse, a tiler by trade, shows Mitch how to cut tiles. This is despite the run-ins they’ve had in previous weeks.
“I’m genuinely a good person and always see the best in people and want to give them a second chance,” he says.
With their sudden money woes, are Mitch and Mark going to make it?
The Block airs Monday to Wednesday, 7.30pm, and Sunday, 7pm, on Nine Network.