It's been 20 years since Sex and the City first aired on June 6, 1998 on HBO and yet the articles and posts on how Carrie Bradshaw was able to afford her lifestyle never ever seem to stop. I wrote something about it a couple of years ago, in my post Sex and the City, Still Worth Watching!.
I sometimes wonder if all the writers putting together these articles and posts truly paid attention to the series because they did show that Carrie had some financial issues. In the episode "The Power of Female Sex" (season 1 episode 5), Carrie was shopping for shoes and when she went to pay, the sales person was instructed to cut up her credit card because it was maxed out. That's truly an embarrassing situation and she was saved from further embarrassment by her friend Amalita showing up at the register offering to pay for Carrie's shoes.
In the episode "Just Say Yes" (season 4 episode 12), Carrie found out that her apartment building was going co-op which meant she either had to buy her apartment or move. Her then boyfriend Aidan Shaw, asked her why doesn't she just buy her apartment and she counters with I just charged tomatoes. Carrie has absolutely no savings because by the episode "Ring a Ding Ding" (season 4 episode 16), her engagement to Aidan had ended but since he had bought her apartment (and the one next to it) that now left Carrie back where she started needing to either buy her apartment from Aidan or move.
This was the episode where she had the shocking realization that she has spent $40,000 if not more on shoes. This was a wake-up call for sure because she had a closet full of clothes and shoes but no money to buy her apartment. In that same episode Carrie got offered help from two different people, first was her ex-boyfriend Mr. Big (a.k.a. John James Preston) who gave her a check (as a loan) for the down payment but after hearing what her good friends Miranda Hobbes (who was against it) and Samantha Jones (who was for it) had to say about the money, she decided not to use it. The second to help, was her good friend Charlotte York, who after a little bit of soul searching (in regards to money) offered to help Carrie by loaning her the money (via her engagement ring).
Although she made a living as a writer for the newspaper, The New York Star, she was living beyond her means through the use of credit cards. On rare occasions she received help from her friends (Amalita, Charlotte, Aidan and Big) but mostly she was coasting by on a wave of credit card debt. It wasn't until Carrie started freelance writing for Vogue magazine in season 4 episode 17 "A "Vogue" Idea" and later on in season 5 where she published her book were she truly able to afford the lifestyle she had been living.
It goes to show you that Carrie was not actually able to afford her fabulous lifestyle and if those writers had paid attention to the series there would be no need to continue with all these articles and post about how she was able to afford her lifestyle.
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