I published an article about Monica from "FRIENDS" not being able to afford her New York apartment the other week, and some commentators pointed out how Carrie Bradshaw from the iconic “Sex and the City” show probably couldn’t pay her bills either. I believe that “Sex and the City” look even less realistic compared to “FRIENDS.”
I know it’s all fiction, but wouldn’t you want to know how much Carrie would need to pay for her bills? I would. This is why I sat down, whipped out a blank spreadsheet, and calculated how much a columnist in the Big Apple would require to make to afford not only the basic needs but also all the luxuries mentioned in the show. Unsurprisingly, it ended up being more than I expected.
Strap yourselves in! Let’s see how much a woman like Carried would have to earn to pay for all the bills.
Part One: Carrie’s Salary
How much did Carrie Bradshaw make working as a columnist in NYC? The plot took place in the late 90s and early 2000s. According to New York Times, a good publicist made $65,000 per year. But do we consider Carrie a publicist or an editor since she technically edited a column in a magazine? NYT indicates senior editors started at $55,000 and could go all the way to $90,000. But how senior was Carrie in the first few seasons? I would place her salary at $70,000 with a possibility of her making a bit more.
Taxes are a pain, aren’t they? I used a tax calculator to determine Carrie’s net pay after tax deductions. It appears that, based on a $70,000 yearly salary, she would bring in $2,012 semi-monthly or $4,024 monthly:
Okay, folks! We have a budget now: $4,024 per month. We won’t be including possible bonuses because those don’t come in regularly. Carrie also became a freelance writer at some point and most likely started earning more money. Having that said, it didn’t happen right away. So, I’ll stick to the $4,024-per-month assumption.
Part Two: Carrie’s Expenses
It’s time to estimate how much Bradshaw spent while living in New York City. Could she actually afford it?
The Rent
Ah, the biggest expense! Carrie Bradshaw lived on the Upper East side. According to a New York Times article from 2000, the average rent for a 1-bedroom apartment was $2,897. It looks like nearly 75% of Carrie’s paycheque would have to go towards her rent already. But it wasn’t just rent. In fact, the main character of SATC had a lot of other expenses, and all of them were very pricey.
Prices in 2000 vs 2021
Now, it would be difficult to determine the exact cost of a cocktail or a pair of shoes back in 2000, which is why I’ll be using the current prices and the consumer price index to calculate how much Carrie Bradshaw paid for her purchases in the early 00s for the most part. The formula is as follows:
CPI = (Cost of Market Basket in Given Year)/(Cost of Market Basket in Base Year) x 100
Am I boring you with math and economics? Don’t worry! There’s a very handy calculator to figure out these numbers. Thanks to this calculator, we know that $6.16 has the same buying power in 2000 that $10.01 has in 2021.
It means the CPI is 1.51, which means the prices rose by 51% since 2000.
Since we determined Carrie’s salary to be $70,000 in 2000, the calculator dictates that it had the same purchasing powers as $113,754.15 has today, in 2021.
Let’s be honest: $113k is a decent income. Surely, it wouldn’t allow us to live a frivolous life of luxury in Manhattan, NYC, since it’s utterly and ridiculously expensive. But it’s an excellent salary to make in 2021. I don’t make even nearly as much.
List of Carrie’s Expenses
Let’s list all the things Carrie spent her money on in the series. Here’s what, in my opinion, was reasonable to assume the columnist spent her money on, according to the tv show:
- Frequent shoe purchases: let’s assume it was one pair per month. This article claims a pair of Manolo Blahnik’s cost $525 when the series was filmed, so we’ll assume that to be the cost.
- Being $40,000 in debt due to shoe shopping.
- Cigarettes: 1 pack every two days.
- Cosmos with the girls: 2 nights out a week, 4 cocktails each time. We’ll use The View’s cocktail menu as a starting point, at $20 per Cosmo currently.
- Weekly brunch with her girlfriends. Google Maps led me to this brunch place in Greenwich Village, which shows that a $19 salad + a $34 chicken + two cocktails at $18 each, plus an 8.875% tax, plus a 15% tip adds up to $114 for brunch in 2021. As someone who just spent $15 on pancakes and coffee today in Toronto, I’m flabbergasted.
- Two take-out meals per day since Carrie never cooked. Numbeo puts a cost of a meal in an inexpensive restaurant to be $20, while a 3-course meal would cost $50 per person at a high-end place. I would suspect that a decent meal would cost Carrie $25 in today’s money, as she probably didn't order $1-slice pizza, but she probably opted out of pricey items. Therefore, she probably spent $50 a day.
- Snacks on top of take-out food, which probably constituted a modest grocery budget. Numbeo indicates that 2 pounds of fruits cost about $5 in today’s dollars, so I would guess Carrie spent that much per day. To be fair, we spend more money on snacks one day and less some other day.
- Daily cab rides. Dailycampus calculated a round-trip cab ride to be $19 in 2000, so we’ll take that figure at face value.
- Other regular expenses: phone bill, electricity bill, etc. Numbeo is helping us out once again: in 2021, the utility bills average at $165 per month, and the Internet is $65. The average phone bill is set at $114.
- Clothes shopping: the show focused on shoes, but not on clothes, but we should assume Carrie shopped for clothes once in a while. How much can a woman who spends $525 on shoes spend on clothes each month? Let’s assume her clothes shopping habits are pretty conservative, and she would only fork out $500 monthly.
Not included: health insurance (assuming her job almost fully covered it), travel expenses, and other unidentified costs.
Once I added all the expenses above, the final monthly budget looks like this:
Yes, you’re not mistaken: Carrie Bradshaw spent $6,484 monthly outside of her rent and other miscellaneous expenses. But don’t forget to add the $2,897 rent cost — it adds up to $9,381 in living expenses. Considering Carrie’s take-home pay is barely over $4k per month, her monthly costs are more than double that.
The Debt
One of the most shocking moments in the series was when Carrie admitted to owing $40,000 in “shoe loans.” As a banker, it horrified me; as someone who still owes student debt, it made me feel slightly better.
Using the same CPI calculator, we discover that $40,000 in 2000’s credit card debt is $65,002 in today’s money.
The historical interest rate graph shows the average credit card interest rate was 15% in 2000. I’m doubtful Carrie got such a good rate, considering her financial choices, but let’s stick to the average figures after all. Bankrate.com calculates Carrie’s monthly payment to be $1,200, and it would take her 24 years to get rid of that debt:
Credit card debt is tough, guys! Owing $40k in shoes isn’t the best situation to end up in.
The Summary
So, once we add up all the costs, what does Carrie’s monthly budget look like? Here are the figures I came up with using my research:
- Rent: $2,897
- Monthly expenses: $6,484
- Credit card repayment: $1,200
- Other miscellaneous expenses: $1,000
By “miscellaneous expenses,” I mean health insurance (unknown cost), unexpended costs, emergency expenses, rare travel endeavors, and others. It’s not set in stone, but I believe that $1,000 is a fair amount for a city where rent costs almost $3,000 and a brunch adds up to $75 in 00s money is not an excessive amount.
Once we add all the costs up, we end up with a figure of $11,581.
Conclusion: Income vs Expenses
So, ladies and gentlemen, the verdict is in! Carries Bradshaw earned $4,024 per month, yet she spent $11,581. It means that not only are her expenses almost triple her salary but there’s no way she could have afforded to live in Greenwich Village, order take-out twice a day, take endless cabs and sip on cosmos all week long.
Look, some of us want the glamorous life the tv portrays. But we shouldn’t forget it’s fictional: it’s a pretty fairy tale the producers sell us for entertainment purposes. And it looks nice and flashy on tv, but don’t forget that real life is different.
While I appreciate the “Sex and the City” show, we shouldn’t forget there’s no way Carrie Bradshaw could have allowed herself such a fancy lifestyle. If she wanted to live in New York, she would have to budget like a pro.
*This article was originally published on Medium
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