Carrie Bradshaw, a single and fabulous writer, manages to afford her lavish lifestyle in ‘Sex and the City’ by working only a columnist’s salary. She lives in a large Manhattan apartment, owns numerous Cosmopolitans, has frequent brunches, and purchases the latest Manolo Blahnik shoes. One estimate is that Carrie is worth $50 million, making her comfortably wealthy to splurge on real estate and shoes whenever she pleases.
The original series criticized Carrie’s frivolous spending habits, particularly in the season-four episode “Ring A Ding Ding”, when she was forced to buy back her apartment following a shopping spree. The Frenemeny calculates how expensive Carrie Bradshaw’s NYC life would be, and how she couldn’t afford her West Village apartment and designer wardrobe.
Carrie’s lifestyle was hard to believe 25 years ago, when salaries were more in line with living costs, but now it feels like it is. With a rent-controlled apartment, she probably had about $2000 leftover per month of disposable income. She regularly buys designer clothes, shoes, and accessories, spending around $1500 a month in shopping.
With a love for fashion, controlled rent, and a knack for eating leftover Chinese food, Carrie has additional funds to pay for her fashion purchases. In season five, Carrie gets a book deal, which nets her a $25,000 advance. In the movie, she writes five books and they all are very successful.
Carrie seems to have a healthy income stream from her New York Star column for most of the series, and she famously makes $4 a word at Vogue. However, it is safe to say that most working-class New Yorkers can’t afford her lifestyle.
📹 Financially Auditing Carrie Bradshaw (Sex and the City)
More about this video: We’ve seen the clips and the clothes – Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City loves to live it up with …
📹 Why the ‘Sex and the City’ Lifestyle Isn’t Affordable | Page Six
Even during the show’s initial run from 1998 to 2004, Carrie Bradshaw from “Sex and the City” was living a lifestyle that no writer …
We’re ignoring the fact that Carrie mostly lives off of her friends, connections and relationships. Most of her friends are very wealthy. As we’ve seen with Charlotte not wanting to lend her money, Carrie has come to expect her friends to lend her money because they have probably done so most of the time. She is also the OG influencer, literally writing for vogue, which means she receives constant free invitations to new clubs and restaurants, where at least her first drink/snack is covered due to her status. Not to mention freebees. Most importantly, Carrie is clearly attracted to extremely wealthy men. Mr. Big is actually introduced in the first episode as “The next Donald Trump” (at a time when that was actually a compliment 😆), which means Big is not just rich, he’s mega – rich. Basically, from perusal the show, the (terrible) movies and the sequel, my guess is that Carrie mostly lives off others.
I kinda hated Carrie when I watched sex and the city. She cheated on her partner’s multiple times, is really mean to her friends, and always came off to me as a bit entitled. One thing I always thought was weird too was how no one in the show ever took the subway. For not having any money, Carrie always seemed to be taking cabs left and right
I always thought it was gross how Carrie guilted Charlotte into giving her money. Carrie has always been the worst out of all the girls, literally nothing redeemable about her. Entitled, bratty, whiney, a serial cheater and most probably a narcissist. Never rooted for her. Charlotte and Samantha were my favorites.
In the show Carrie mentioned she was paid $4 a word later was increased to $4.5 a word. If her weekly column was an average of 500 words long, that’s $2000 per week, she also has side gigs, she was probably making low six fingers. Her rent control apartment was $750 a month, which was not totally unrealistic in the early 2000s. I went to New York City in 2006, and crashed on my friend’s living room couch, he was paying $1500 per month for rent. Designer shoes on fifth avenue cost about $500 back then, Carrie also mentioned she often bought things on sale. Instead of criticizing Carrie’s speeding habits, I am more outraged at how everything got so expensive and unattainable for average people in less than 20 years.
Unfortunately, too often there’s the rationalizing that dressing designer will catch the eye of a rich man and that’s your retirement plan, which worked out for fictional Carrie but not even real-life Candace (the latter relied on her own work). In fact, the rich guys are worried about the future, too, and therefore also looking to marry connections and/or money. Better not spend too much on overpriced designer goods for that purpose. It’s also sadly appropriate that a sharp show about sex and relationships got taken over and turned into a paid-for informercial for designer brands and bursting closets, as part of America’s habit of subsuming basic human needs into products to be bought.
I’m into handbags, and while I personally don’t own any $4,000 or $6,000 bags, many women went crazy for the purple sequin Fendi baguette that gets stolen from Carrie in one episode. That bag kept selling out and has earned kind of a cult status because of Sex and the City, even though a bag that’s several thousands of dollars is/should be unaffordable to the vast majority of people perusal this show. But the show sold a dream lifestyle that many viewers bought into, both figuratively and literally.
The financial aspect is only one issue I have with the show. It is beyond ridiculous that all 4 of these ‘full time’ professional women can ALWAYS get together for lunch, shopping, working out, going to clubs, and the list goes on and on. You really need to suspend disbelief when you watch this show !
I’m 44. This show began airing in 1998 when I was a freshman in college and it ended a year after I graduated. It influenced young women in ways I cannot count; personal friends and total strangers alike. One of the negative influences it had was exactly this kind of totally unrealistic depiction of living in an expensive city well beyond your actual financial means. It sent a message that “this is the life you should have when you are this age” and yet — as we always said back then: there is no way this woman can live this lifestyle and be a freelance columnist — or even a well-paid staff columnist at an upscale magazine. The irony is that in our current culture it’s only gotten worse — now we have “influencers” (of which you could say Carrie was a prototype) who lead equally silly lives that their followers think is achievable. Perhaps for a handful yes but for most it will never be — many of these folks are living far beyond their means and flaunting a falsified life online full of curated and highly edited photos and a few brand punches. It’s sad not to have everything you want when you want it — but it’s wonderful to have exactly what you want when you need it the most. Indulge a little bit but keep your expectations realistic and stop worrying about how others perceive you. Time-old advice that hasn’t changed in 200 years.
she really spent all her money as she got it, then got lucky she sold books and got married to rich big. i’m a journalist like her and i wish i could spend so much lol grew up perusal her and idealizing things. as for another similar story journalist, becky bloom might be a good character for this! fits very
I honestly have never even seen Sex and the City but I really appreciate this type of content. I moved to NYC as a college student and then stayed after graduating. It was really easy to fall into the trap of comparing myself to influencers who had glamorous lifestyles. I couldn’t afford a nice Pilates gym membership or going out to eat all the time. I couldn’t go to these massive concerts and go luxury shopping in SoHo. My rent is still a huge portion of my income and saving is really difficult. But I had to adjust my expectations and just remind myself that it’s not fair to compare yourself to people who (often) have financial backing, whether through family or brand deals or whatever, to live extravagantly. And, most importantly, you don’t have to live like this to have a really amazing life in NYC! I’ve been here 3 years and have hailed a cab only 3-4 times. Most of my clothes I buy secondhand. My apartment is tiny (this is difficult to live with, I gotta admit). Things can get stressful but it’s still worth it!
I never really got into the sex and the city or friends trend at the time, even though I was studying to go into fashion then. It was very boring to me, and the banality of the elite (or fake elite) all-white, 30-somethings that always had a problem they themselves made, just seemed exhausting to me. Give me Law and Order and some anime so I can think like an actual functioning adult or detach and have fun over that any day! P.S. Would definitely like more character financial audits, particularly ones like kdramas or some of the 90s shows where the “poor” Cinderella character lives in the main city in a $4K+ a month walk-up 🤦🏾♀️.
I can relate shopping as an emotional activity. Last month I was under SOOO much stress and the only thing that made me 100% happy was buying an expensive bag. In my defense I do have more than 6 months of savings for an emergency and I’m about to sign the contract to buy my own apartment this month.
Great article! This would be an awesome series for the semi-regular. And great timing, too, as there’s been a surge of buzz painting the 90s as this time of Glorious Economic Prosperity. I was a tiny little thing at the time, so I checked in with my mom. She reminded me that the 90s had a driving mentality of “A dollar saved is more than a dollar earned (because taxes)”. At least for women in the rural and less densely populated areas. Amy Dacyczyn’s “The Tightwad Gazette” was everywhere and is still really practical ~30 years later.
This was more an ad for the company sponsoring the article. The audit wasn’t even finished properly, ie the punchline: in an average month/year, Carrie earns circa X and spends circa Y, having factored in every kind of expenditure. Therefore she somehow lives with an ongoing shortfall of Z per month. But somehow you managed to get in all relevant details regarding the sponsor.
Definitely would love to see one about Lorelai and Rory from Gilmore girls! Especially Lorelei since we know Rory wasn’t afraid to take money from her grandparents, but Lorelei would have never been able to afford a house in Connecticut as an innkeeper 😂🤦🏼♀️ when I worked at ESPN in CT i only made $17 an hour and that was with a college degree & all i could afford was a one bedroom apartment lol. Salaries in CT are so low and their housing is some of the most expensive.
The only thing I would defend carrie about is how she’s not actually a shopper but a collector. The scene where she berates aiden because his dog ate a limited item shoe is really eye opening. She knows every item in her closet, takes really good care of them etc. I would say she’s a fashion collector and not just a shopper.
Carrie Bradshaw was morally bankrupt on all levels: responsibility, friendship, integrity, honesty, sexual relations, and of course finances. My aunt was a psychologist, and she would watch the show from time to time to see how the characters evolved. She always said Carrie Bradshaw was a leech—-a woman who could suck the air out of a room, the life out of every party, and money out of every man who was stupid enough to have a relationship with her.
I loved this show during my 20’s . I loved clothes and shoes 👠 BUT I was a saver too. 401k, saving bonds ( didn’t understand the stock market snd my mom said she saved this way ) and saving accounts. When I found out that single, no kids, and not property owner, I paid lots in taxes, I moved home and saved all my income $$$, quit buying clothes/shoes, and commuted 100 miles daily for 18 months to buy my 1st apartment building with my parents!!!😂😂😂😂❤❤❤❤
I sold shoes to put myself through college, and the things that used to make shoes expensive back in the 1970s were high-quality elements such as French stitching and very good Italian leather. In the 1980s, we started seeing all kinds of clothing become expensive simply because of its designer name. The shoes, for example, didn’t really look that much different from less expensive shoes. Designer brands did and still do use semi-slave labor, so the quality wasn’t great, either. People bought them for the name, as in Sex and the City, but if you really look at the shoe designs on that show, they were pretty boring, unlike a designer dress, coat, or cape would be.
She was literally the first “socialite” and it’s a great example that they were broke! Yes Carrie loved fashion and had the best closet, but she wasn’t really “gifted” those things… she spent outside her means, and hence her apartment, and unpaid bills were a reflection of that! When Aden was on the show, she had so many repairs that needed to take priority over clothes! I love this!
Of course, she couldn’t afford her lifestyle. It’s fiction. For example, in the show “Friends” many of them supposedly had no $ but are living an upper-middle class lifestyle ?? Many of these shows are so stupid & shallow. They send the wrong message where 30 years young acts like a 20 year old. I could not stand “Sex & The City”. So, “Carrie” goes & blows all her $ & then marries a rich man. It sends the wrong message & pushes the Women’s Movement back like forever. Lots of tv is re to a bunch of Limousine Liberals reenforcing the corporate system of Consumerism. Great article.
Yes would love to see similar content – I appreciate that you kept this light hearted but informative. I feel like a lot of commentators take SATC far too seriously when its just escapist tv. It was interesting you also mentioned the emotional side to Carrie’s financial situation and she could improve. Great stuff 👍
Carries character luxury spending is unrealistic, but 60k was a pretty good salary for one person in the early 2000s. Plus, before publishing/journalism went bust, it was considered a pretty glamorous industry with a lot of free perks (free meals/trips/products much like how you see influencer pr in this day and age). What is crazy though is despite more than 20 years has gone by since the show, medium salaries haven’t changed that much but housing, food, clothing prices have increased significantly especially in nyc.
Could you audit F.R.I E N.D S ? Specifically seansons 1 – 3, as even rent controlled and basically illegally subletting from her grandmother, I don’t believe, even combined with Rachel’s barista wages, only being employed as a fast casual line cook, Monica could afford that apartment as, not accounting for tips and savings, she’s only be earning marginally more than state’s minimum wage for the service industry, only being freshly out of culinary school.
Never seen the show but I remember when it was popular. Very cool concept for a article. The clips of the show reminded me that it was not my cup of tea but once you came back the article was good again. Admittedly I’m a millennial. I think it’s a great concept because some social norms are perpetuated via shows like this so challenging the idea that these protagonists are making good decisions is a good reminder that money is not infinite. Because of the fictional nature, they are immune to any material repercussions of poor decision making. Highlighting when something is clearly impossible is something that some people would need to see. However, I think the generation that watched this is already dealing with the ramifications of living beyond their means. Perhaps a newer show that is using current dollar values would hit a sweet spot. Years ago I saw someone do this with The Simpsons. Would be cool to see you do that.
I’m very glad to say I’m not emotionally attached to status and material things 😅 I’ve been a student for years so I can’t afford to be. Btw, Carrie had a serious smoking habit and drank a lot of cocktails. I know Australia taxes both of those things extremely heavily but they still wouldn’t be cheap in the US.
Also, this article is a reminder of the money that is spent marketing to the audience. I remember seeing the new Chevrolet Camaro in transformers and other new or trends being subliminally marketed in other movies. When you look at the credits of shows and movies. You can see which companies were providing the wardrobes. This is not an accident either. Surprise surprise we’re being marketed to again
Carrie lived paycheck to paycheck in an industry that was on the cusp of internet-triggered collapse. Her spending habits on her ample “sex columnist” salary was truly the last hurrah of the golden age of newspapers and magazines. Her spending only became realistic if her published book became a huge bestseller. (Did that book become a bestseller? The success of Carrie’s book is so peripheral to the show’s plot I honestly forgot.)
I did the Sex and the city tour in 2009. 40 girls and 3 gay man in the bus. The lady who was the guide put a lot of emphasis on the fact that Carrie Bradshaw wouldn’t live where she live, buy all the clothes she buy, and the big party girl lifestyle she had, on the income she got ( and never get the credit to pay for all that) Clearly, the lady needed to break the fantasy life of the girl in the bus. Probably the best electroshock for them.
This isn’t about your article in particular (which is good!) but I’m so tired of the “Carrie is awful” discourse in every clip of the show on youtube and on social media. A lot of people seem to want art to depict virtuous people who perfectly align with their own morals. Carrie Bradshaw as a character was innovating: an imperfect woman, very very flawed, who made a lot of mistakes and struggled to learn from them. I think the ending of the show diluted its original premise, but I have never hated Carrie. She was a fascinating character that broke a lot of molds for what women were supposed to be, how they were supposed to be portrayed.
People in luxury brand stores are haughty on purpose. They turn up their noses to motivate people like Carrie to “prove” they deserve to be there and can afford to buy all the stuff. She fell right into their trap. I’m pretty sure if that was a real life situation, the sales people would have remembered her as the woman who fell flat on her face AND bought the entire store to cover her embarassment. That’s twice as demeaning.
Her spending is, amongst other things, due to her feelings down, demotivated, lonely, etc. She shops because that’s how she deals with her emotions. So the first advice should be to see a psychologist. To learn to sit with her feelings. A financial goal won’t have a chance to see the light of the day if next time she feels sad she buys shoes or eats out when her account can’t handle such expenses. Deal with the root of the problem, not only with what’s visible
I watched the first season of SATC but stopped when I realized my friends and I were living that same life, not in NYC, but our lives weren’t as fun or messy, thank goodness, but very expensive. We are all now in out 50’s and still trying to disentangle ourselves from buying based on logos and labels. SATC kicked off a arms race of luxury goods in a generation of women. The silver lining is I still wear my Manolo’s, J.Cho’s and Louboutins etc. But I also got a good financial advisor so I’m not “Fendi” homeless or in debt.
Do the cast of Friends, only one episode touched on it but half of them were basically unemployed or working minimum wage and still able to afford everything. Particularly keeping up financially with a paleontologist lol. Love this concept, great idea, great article ☺️. For the record, I’m a recovered shopaholic with a now hefty savings account. So no judgment coming from me 😂.
Totally agree with your analysis, but disagree in the concept. You cannot accept Carrie at face value. She’s spending that money so she can have career with her column — she’s also spending that money with the expectation that a man will deliver her wealth. She is so unserious with dating any man who doesn’t have it.
Flat fee, lol. Go bargain shop lawyers while you’re at it, smh. You get what you pay for, but you have to manage your service providers. If they don’t perform, fire them and withhold proportionate pay for failure to perform. If negligent, file sanctions against their license to practice. You want advice on how to get rich, talk to self-made people. Nobody else.
The disconnect between the lifestyles shown on US media, and the actual economic position of the majority of American citizens always ticks me off. Again and again, we’re shown single parents in 4-bedroom houses, equipped with top of the range products, and the fact that it’d be completely beyond their means is always just ignored.
I probably would have enjoyed SatC more (and been able to watch it past the first couple of seasons) if Carrie hadn’t been the narrator. She’s SO entertaining in small doses, but it irks me to no end that she’s as old as she is and still living in fairyland. Imagine if the show had been narrated by Samantha or Miranda! (Granted, I don’t think 1990s America was ready for either of those shows.) I had a similar problem with Girls — Hannah, the main character (also played by the showrunner), is a really interesting character but immature to the point of being insufferable. Her friends are equally flawed but far less annoying/more compelling, and would have made better focal points in my opinion. (Jessa, Shoshanna, and Adam especially.)
Carry was all about herself. She would have to rely on a rich to pay off her credit cards. She bought all those designer clothes and shoes to attract a rich husband. Maranda buys in Brooklyn for the well being of her family and Charlotte kept the apprt her family could be comfortable in. If Carrie didnt marry she would be out in the street. Samantha will be okay with money but will die alone because she will age out of dating younger men. Carrie also should have cooked her own food to save money spent less on shoes and bought her own place.
I really like SJP as a performer, she’s an excellent actress. But on this show she played one of the most horrible and entitled characters I’ve ever seen on TV, so it’s terrible that she was the female empowerment icon for a while. I was appalled by the episodes where she takes stock of her housing situation, suddenly realizing out of the blue that she’s broke with a lot of shoes. This is even more absurd to me because two of her besties are financially savvy women who gained their wealth through their own hard work (could she not take example here??). Carrie’s search for capital prompts her to bully a dear friend into parting with her jewelry to get the funds. In real life I think that would have caused a rift. CB doesn’t sell the useless merchandise she hoards, she doesn’t downsize or make lifestyle changes in any way, but Charlotte must sell her ring. That scenario was absolutely ridiculous, and made me dislike her character even more.
If you behaved like Carry in real life, you’d probably end up broke. My wife made me watch it; she spends a lot on pointless, trendy things and earns less than she spends. Eventually, she’d likely have to file for bankruptcy. 😂 Carry is the typical modern woman, cheating on her partners and living with zero accountability for her actions.
Surprisingly, with all the relationships she had with different men, she had mentioned money never really mattered when it came to a choice of partner, HOWEVER, among all the men she had had relationships with, she’d picked the RICHEST and most powerful man of all. I assume it did not work out with Aiden because she would not be able to afford her extravagant and luxurious lifestyle even though he was very financially stable yet not even close to Mr. Big
one thing that makes it harder to be financially responsible is that these big conglomerates spend billions of dollars to create the shiniest images of sometimes very well-made product and we want that. and then, even if you’re someone who abhors the effects of sex and the city in our society, like i do, you stop to try and be more educated, and the option that is presented to you is to look like what’s left after the hippie fair ends. (which is also a form of white privilege, but that’s for another day). i’m sorry to be blunt, negative and, most of all, misogynistic. i don’t want to have imaginary money in an imaginary place, and i don’t want to think “good morning, i might have an accident today that will incapacitate me for six months, so better skip that coffee!” i have received good advice from you, and also i can’t stop myself from thinking that you’re just someone incapable of understanding other people’s priorities, who’s just here to judge and get sponsors on our views. we have a saying around here: “if advice was good, people wouldn’t give it, but sell it”.
I totally agree with your financial take on the series, but we have to take into account the generational gap that will make our current reading a little biased. What the show meant to the 90’s was that women were perfectly capable of living the dream and spending their big girl bucks in the city. Yes, it was totally fantasy based, like other sitcoms (The Nanny, for example), but my point is that the message was centered in the freedom of action (even when it included recklessness), not in the financial part of that agency.
I think this is s great idea, that will help a lot of people become more realistic about their finances. So much of what we see portrayed in movies and television is way beyond the means of the majority of Americans. Whether it incentivizes people to study harder for more lucrative career paths, or tones down the appetite for consumption of luxury goods is another question. But some people become very unrealistic because of what they see in entertainment media.
If you had in account PR promotions for her as a journalist somehow, and how it just works the same for influencers now, that have nothing close to talent, fashion appreciation nor the grace Carrie had well.. Why even searching for these explanations. It was a well constructed, cool and fundamentally well financed series. It doesn’t need to be logical, nor moral. Even like that Carrie wasn’t close to spending as much most do now in fast fashion trends spinning every 5 seconds.
The other thing about this kind of behavior that baffles me is that most people that some person (especially heterosexual women) are trying to attract are going to find one attractive or not in expensive clothes or a thrifty outfits that fit. Clothes and fashion don’t go very far to make one look good unless one doesn’t know anything about picking the right look for their body and face whether all the piece combined cost $50 or $5,000.
I was living in NYC, in my 20s, when sex and the city aired, and it was fun to watch their fictionalized escapades. Sometimes they’d tape near my street, and it was super cool to walk by their trailers. I never felt duped or influenced from the show, it was fun entertainment! The guy that Miranda thought she was flirting with in her window, he lived in my building! Living in nyc in the late 90s was awesome, and getting together with friends to watch sex and the city was inexplicably special. If you know, you know.
You forgot something her moving to Paris which I don’t know how I’m pretty sure it’s more expensive to live in Paris then New York how was she able to afford it also she just bought her apartment from Aiden and then she pay back her friend and how was she able to move to Paris she quit her job and how she was able to come back and get her job back
I never thought about this, but Carrie must have always planned on marrying rich given that her credit card debt must have been massive even after the book deals. She only ever had a partner for more than one episode that made a great deal of money. I do give Charlotte a pass as she came from money, but seemed to actually love Trey after their meet cute and I think she would have married someone that didn’t make much based on her character. Carrie never gave me that feeling.
I love that you mention the financial advisor bit. I inherited some money and wanted to make sure that I was handling the money responsibly. My advisor convinced me to have her manage my stocks, in which she then took percentages. I recently set a boundary with her to where she can help me with my taxes and meeting, but I will only be paying a flat rate. Felt good to do that
as someone with a shopping addiction it worries me the way people use carrie as inspo like yes her style was great but she was spending money she didn’t have and expected others to help her with her problems i hated how she never really had to feel the repercussions of not being responsible because in real life it would catch up to you fast!
Expensive fashion never got under my skin. We were a working class, always fed (maybe too much) and despite my mother secured me better clothes than many of my peers had, I never fell into this rabbit hole of mindless spending above my budget. I was always rather money wise and a bargain hunter. Buying clothes in supermarkets or charity shops don’t bother me. I will only spend more money for shoes that are rather functional, not fashionable. The most I have ever spent for a handbag was £42 for a tote white bag I used maybe 2x over the past 10 or so years since I got it. Swiss cross rucksack I use for work commuting instead of a handbag… well, it saw me finish the university over 7 years ago, still good to go. Every day. It starts looking sorry for itself, so I might replace it.