Category: The Carrie Finances

The Carrie Finances: The True Cost of Spending

“Money is not just money, it is a representation of time, of opportunity.”
—Cara Nicole

While I was finishing up my recent rewatch of “Sex and the City” and finally embarking on my first watch of the reboot “And Just Like That,” the algorithm plucked the perfect video out of the abyss and presented it to me: “Financially Auditing Carrie Bradshaw” by Cara Nicole on YouTube.

Much like my first Carrie Finances post back in 2021, Cara’s analysis was spurred by the episode in which Carrie goes to the bank and is denied a loan for being an “unattractive candidate.” After spending $40,000 on shoes alone, she only has $700 in her checking account and $957 in her savings account! (About $1,250 and $1,720, respectively, indexed to inflation from 2001 to 2024.)

In Cara’s video, she notes that Carrie’s shopping addiction laid the groundwork for today’s influencers who have normalized overconsumption. The root of that is having an emotional relationship with money. When Carrie slips and falls in a Dior store in Paris in season six and returns to her Russian boyfriend with multiple bags of merchandise, she says it’s because she was too embarrassed not to. If I slipped in a fancy store, I would simply remove myself from the entire block and never show my face again—and definitely not spend thousands of dollars because I felt bad! (One cookie could probably solve that problem, let’s be honest.)

I’m so glad Carrie is fictional so we can drag her. As Cara notes, “judging fictional characters? That seems like fair game.” In one scene, Carrie says, “When I first moved to New York and I was totally broke, sometimes I would buy Vogue instead of dinner. I just felt it fed me more.” Of course, Carrie is romanticizing her past, but let’s not sugarcoat poverty here. What she’s really nostalgic for is the beginning of her independence when there weren’t complicated relationships and a whole messy life to think about. Scarcity made her decisions simple: food or fashion?

It reminds me of the White Stripes’ song “Little Room”: “Well, you’re in your little room / And you’re working on something good / But if it’s really good / You’re gonna need a bigger room. / And when you’re in the bigger room / You might not know what to do / You might have to think of how you got started / Sitting in your little room.”

The White Stripes was a band that limited themselves to the point of liberation. By setting restrictions on the art they could make as a two-piece band, they created something entirely new. As Jack White’s solo career took off, he had more and more resources available to him, including an entire record label to manage. Without limitations, the music wasn’t grabbing fans as much anymore, and many of my friends eschewed his solo career altogether. I don’t think he’s ever been able to get back into that little room.

Cara also pushes the importance of having an emergency savings fund of three to six months of living expenses, which Carrie clearly doesn’t have. The closest she gets to investing is in the first episode of season six. She is invited to ring the bell for the start of trading at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on the first day that the New York Star newspaper, in which her column is published, begins publicly trading on the exchange.

Afterward, Carrie says to her friends, “It was so exciting, it almost made me want to invest in something!” Miranda chimes in, saying that she doesn’t invest anymore because it’s “too volatile” (even though she’s a lawyer?) and Carrie spits back, “Exactly, I like my money right where I can see it: hanging in my closet.”

I cringed watching this scene of four educated women deny that they needed to invest simply because it’s something men do. Yes, this was the early 2000s, but even Lois Frankel’s book “Nice Girls Don’t Get Rich” from 2005 had better lessons than don’t save and “just invest in clothes.”

Though this is fiction, we consume it—that’s the operative word. We consume this art and expect our lives to mirror it. This also goes for what we see on social media, what we overconsume because we see people constantly buying things that we believe are improving their lives. There’s more value in what you do with your life than what you have. The true cost of spending is what you’re not saving it for, what you won’t have in the future because you want to build up your life now. It’s a trade-off, but do you want to start strong, or end strong? I’m going to try for a balance of both!

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The Carrie Finances: Honey, I Shrunk the Budget

Now that I’m in my 30s and my health app has officially launched me into the 30–39 age group, I thought it was time I rewatched my beloved “Sex and the City” again.

In the first episode of season one, Carrie Bradshaw rekindles things with an ex (who has been resurrected a few times) and her best friend Stanford Blatch says, “Are you out of your mind? What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Carrie replies, “Oh, calm down. It’s research,” after making a “date” for 3:00 p.m. to inspire her next column.

My own research boils down to what mistakes the characters are making with money, and how I can avoid them at all costs. By the time your 30s roll around, you are expected to have certain things figured out. But I’ve learned that this timeline can be restrictive—and, at times, misogynistic. Women have different reasons to spend money. As much as I would love to have a 3-in-1 shampoo instead of mixing three different ones to get my desired results, the majority of products marketed toward women are meant to only serve one purpose. This means we must buy more and more things to stay socially acceptable as we age. (I resent this fact, but the older I get the more I see it happening.)

When I started tracking my spending at the end of March, I was trying to figure out how I could be budgeting and still overspending. A lot of money went to my short-term goals, but there was still not enough room in my budget for what was needed. I got some new cleansers for my skin, trying to figure out my latest flare up. I was going more places and doing more things, which was good for my mental health but not my bank account. I still struggled to find balance and maintain my no-buy strategy for the year.

Later in season one, Carrie exclaims, “My new shoes shouldn’t be punished just because I can’t budget!” Once I saw the damage of March, I knew April could not be a repeat if I wanted to stay on track with my savings. When I broke my spending down by category (transportation, groceries, restaurants/coffee shops, clothing and pay later payments), I was able to see where the problems were. I managed to reduce the amount I spent on transportation by more than half in April. So far in May, I have been avoiding spending any money on transportation since I know that I have some activities planned for later in the month.

For my May 2024 budget, I am allotted $233 per week. My utilities have been steady with a mild start to spring, and I’m almost done with my monthly loan payments (as of publishing this, only three more to go!). So far, I have come in under budget, but I want to make sure I can keep this momentum going.

When I reflect on how hard it has been to both live my life and not buy things I don’t absolutely need, I think about how I used to spend all day at the mall when I was 12 years old and only spend around $20. Of course, this was the early 2000s, so everything was cheaper back then. The economy was good and even in my naive state I had some semblance of a community. The park, the public library and other places where you can be part of a community and not necessarily spend all your money are considered “third places” outside of home and work. The mall, a café, a bookstore and the gym are also on this list but have become places geared more toward spending money than interacting with others.

You could argue that tipping your barista gives back to the community, especially if you’re a regular at your coffee shop. But this still relies on spending money in order to build a community, instead of using the resources we already have to make connections with people.

Social media could also be considered a third place, but I’m not seeing much community there lately. If anything, social media has gone so far as to replace community with buying things in the way our outside world has monetized every interaction we have with others. In the same way, this transactional way of thinking can hinder us from getting together with others when there is no monetary incentive. Think of a friend charging you for having a home-cooked meal at their house even when they invited you over or sending you an invoice after hanging out in one of those public third places. Yikes!

Grace Nevitt, who gave me the idea for the no-buy year strategy, recently posted a YouTube video about how to discuss it with your loved ones. I never really ran into this issue since I announced it on the blog for everyone to see! But she cites the level of American consumerism and how ingrained it is in our society as part of why she thinks a no-buy year is important. If we can train ourselves to not feel the need to buy something just because it’s new, or because we feel like the world is doomed, maybe we can connect with each other in more meaningful ways than capitalism currently allows.

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The Carrie Finances: Should I Stop Reinvesting My Dividends?

Back when I was uncovering my hereditary financial habits, I learned that my dad’s mom was an avid dividend investor. When my dad was 15, his mom bought him stock in IBM Corp. (IBM) to get him interested in investing. She also put him to work and had him oversee her dividends. My dad would have to maintain a manual bookkeeping spreadsheet to verify which amounts were going into her account and match the dividend depending on the company and the month. All of this was done on paper, adding another level of difficulty.

These days, the process is much more automated, to the point where you might not even know when you receive dividend income unless you regularly check your brokerage account. After years of reading about reinvesting dividends in articles for AAII Dividend Investing, I couldn’t help but wonder: Should I stop reinvesting my dividends for a little extra income in these hard times?

A dividend is a payment that companies make to their investors using excess profits, usually on a quarterly basis. Much like an annual cost of living adjustment in salary, companies are expected to increase their dividend annually to keep up appearances and keep their investors around.

My portfolio is invested in five environmental, social and governance (ESG) exchange-traded funds (ETFs). I don’t require any dividends as part of my investing strategy, but when I started investing, I chose to reinvest the dividends that each of my ETFs pays. The most common way investors reinvest their dividends is through an automated process called a dividend reinvestment plan (DRIP). These plans require that you hold at least one share of the dividend-paying security in a brokerage account.

The main advantage to reinvesting your dividends is the magic of compounding: An investment that reinvests in itself will make more money in the long run. When a dividend is reinvested, it means that you are buying more shares of the security with that dividend. I can tell which of my investments have dividends in my brokerage account by looking at the number of shares I own under “Quantity”:

Most of my share counts are not whole numbers, even though I initially bought whole shares of each ETF. Some investments don’t allow you to buy fractional shares, so this is another advantage of reinvesting dividends. There are also no fees involved in the dividend reinvestment process, which used to be more of a flex before most brokers made investing commission-free.

According to Investopedia, one of the times you should consider not reinvesting your dividends is when you are in or nearing retirement and need the extra income. Likewise, if an investment is not performing well, it’s not a good idea to reinvest more money in that holding.

Now for the moment of truth: How much dividend income is my portfolio receiving? In 2022, I got a whopping $4.03 in dividend payments. So far in 2023, I’ve received $20.08 in dividends, which was a direct result of adding more money to my investments. My Charles Schwab brokerage account estimates that I will receive a total of $48.53 in dividends this year.

Unfortunately, I don’t think $50 would make that big of a difference if I chose to stop reinvesting my dividends. (It certainly wouldn’t buy Carrie Bradshaw a new pair of shoes, but it might cover her drive-thru order below!) Regardless, the money would still be sitting in my brokerage account cash balance waiting to be invested, so I don’t see much of an advantage to interrupting the compounding process.

For now, I’m going to continue reinvesting my dividends and keep an eye on how that income increases as time goes on. If one of my ETFs performs so poorly that I don’t want to invest more money in it, it would be a candidate for deletion before I would consider stopping the dividend reinvestment process.

The Carrie Finances: Using a Mini-Budget to Get Back on Track

This week’s blog post is dedicated to my coworker and friend, Derek Hageman. Derek passed away over the weekend after battling cancer. He was a big supporter of this blog and having him in my corner was the greatest honor. Derek was the most positive, humble and reliable person I have ever worked with. May his memory be a blessing.

The malaise and overspending of the holidays have passed, the days are getting longer (albeit wetter) and it’s time to update my budget again!

Whenever I come back to my budget, it forces me to confront every aspect of my financial standing: How much am I spending? How much am I saving? What’s the discrepancy between those numbers and the budget I have in place?


February was an expensive month. I have a lot of Pisces friends, so birthday gifts (and attending fabulous parties) were my top expense. In addition, grocery shopping has become unbearable! Not only are prices creeping up every time I go, but my favorite things can’t seem to stay in stock. Whole Foods, if you’re reading this, my fatigued body relies on your lemonade Vitamin Water dupe to survive at this point 😂.

As a result, I wasn’t able to save the right amount last month, and it made me consider lowering the percentage of my income I’m putting into savings. However, I recently found this article by Allison Baggerly on her site Inspired Budget. One of my favorite takeaways is #8, the “mini-budget.” Whenever unexpected expenses come up, or you feel like you don’t have enough money to make it to your next paycheck, Baggerly suggests writing a mini-budget to keep you on track. Going more in depth about the mini-budget, she says, “Budgeting is less about the math and more about your flexibility and willingness to stick with it even when you overspend.” Couldn’t have said it better myself!

Since we’re nearing the end of March, I already set up my full monthly budget for April 2023:


My total fixed expenses are still under 50%, and with a bit more monthly income my savings amount increased to $580. When I considered lowering the savings percentage from 20% to 15% of my income, the amount I would be saving (about $440) felt significantly less substantial. The thought of having an easier amount to save made me feel worse, like I had failed to even consider my goal. Worse still, it reminded me of something Carrie Bradshaw would do—making excuses for herself instead of taking control of her life. (Of course, Carrie wasn’t living through a period of skyrocketing inflation, so we have some leeway here.)

With Baggerly’s advice, I know it’s better to try to reach my goal every month rather than give it up or change it. Still, I thought it would be a good exercise to create a mini-budget for myself to account for the time until my next paycheck.


Baggerly says to start with my checking account balance and determine how many days until the next paycheck hits. Next, I subtracted the expenses I knew would be taken from my checking account before April 7: my monthly payment at the dentist, my rent and my internet bill.

Little did I know, I had already been running these short-term mini-budgets in my head around this time of the month. Once my last paycheck of the month hits, I break out my phone calculator app, subtract all the many things we pay for to live on this earth from my checking account balance and ask myself: Can I put the right amount in savings this month?

As of right now, I’m $95 short on my leftover amount, but the good news is that I will be able to put at least $580 in savings once I get paid again on April 7. Since I’m behind, I might transfer even more to my savings account this time in an effort to catch up. By sticking with my budget, I’m able to hold myself accountable and not give up on my savings goals—even when I’m not able to meet them!

The Carrie Finances: Dragging My Savings Habits

Last time I reviewed my budget, my rent had just gone up and summer was in full swing. I had started contributing to my retirement account and was already looking forward to fall—and the fall in price of my energy bill!

Though I’ve been using the percentage budget for most of this year, I certainly haven’t been following it as closely as I would like. I haven’t been saving enough, so right before sitting down to write this I forced myself to transfer 20% of my monthly income, $560, from my checking account to my regular savings account.

I promise I haven’t been spending exorbitant amounts of money on fancy shoes in the traditional Carrie Bradshaw fashion. My main struggle with saving has been waiting until the end of the month to make the transfer, and after my rent went up it got even harder to pull the trigger. Unlike Carrie, I’m calling myself out on my bullshit because no one else will! (Feel free to bully me into saving better, every bit of encouragement helps!)

I’m hoping that transferring my savings at the beginning of the month (right after the first paycheck hits) will hold me more accountable to stick to the budget outlined below:

Another way I’m tricking my brain into wanting to save more is by setting more aggressive goals for my high-yield savings accounts. I’m more motivated to save and meet those goals now that I put them in writing. In order to meet my goal of investing another $2,000 in the new year, I have to stick to saving no less than $560 every month and make more regular transfers to my high-yield savings accounts when my emergency savings are in excess of $10,000.

Most of my recent behavioral block from saving can also be attributed to my general misunderstanding of numbers (the letters of math!) and a fear of not having enough money. But I know that with the budget I’ve created, it’s possible for my money to do all of the things I want it to. I just have to face that reality and allow the numbers to mean little else than their value. As AAII has taught me, having these rules in place means that there’s no room for my emotions in these decisions.

My goal is to get to the point with my budget where I don’t have to think about it. Since I only started budgeting at the beginning of this year, I’ve given myself some wiggle room to start. But now we’re getting serious 😎 so stay tuned to see if I can stay true to my word!

The Carrie Finances: A Budget to Battle Inflation

I’ll be honest, me and my budget have not been friends recently. We’ve been struggling to communicate, and when we do it always ends in confusion and despair! Some months I save the right amount according to my budget, and other months I fear I will never save a penny again.

Inflation is affecting everything I touch recently, including my apartment. My rent is going up in September, and over the summer I spend about double on electricity with the luxury of air conditioning, so it’s time to revisit my budget.

Last time we talked budgeting, I was using the percentage budget outlined in Erin Lowry’s “Broke Millennial.” I’m going to stick with it for now so that I can make sense of how much I really have to spend after these changes take effect. The percentage budget allocates 50% of monthly income to fixed expenses, 20% to savings or financial goals and 30% to wants and flexible spending. My rent went up from $1,085 to $1,200 (yes, I tried to negotiate with my landlord, but he said they were already eating part of the cost with that increase—oof!), and with double the electricity my utilities are $110.


I’m relieved that my total fixed expenses are still under 50%, though just barely! I decided to break down my leftover money (after savings are accounted for) on a weekly basis to see how much I can really spend per week. This encompasses groceries, going out to dinner with friends, etc. Though I probably won’t track everything down to the cent, I will keep in mind what I can actually spend instead of just guessing and hoping I’ll have enough along the way.

Now that I’m contributing to my retirement account, just a reminder that the monthly savings percentage doesn’t include retirement savings. This is because the percentage budget should be performed using your aftertax income and retirement contributions will come from pretax income—unless you’re fancy and have a Roth 401(k) or similar account.

We’ll see how this budget works out, and I’ll check in with you all when the leaves start falling and everything starts dying around us—my favorite time of year!.

The Carrie Finances: Building a Budget That Doesn’t Leave You Broke

OK Anine, it’s been six days. Are you going to keep thinking about that guy who called you corazón and then said he didn’t want to date anyone? No, you’re going to build yourself a budget because he wants to “get his life together” and you already have!

In Sex and the City, Carrie Bradshaw was notorious for relying on the men in her life for money and housing, to the point that it made me a bit sick to watch. She goes to Big when she needs money and she lets her ex-fiancé Aidan buy her apartment (which, unsurprisingly, doesn’t turn out well). When things backfire and she’s nearly homeless, she has no backup funds to bail herself out.

Ever since I was told at age 15 that to be a writer in any capacity I’d have to “get myself a rich boyfriend,” I’ve loathed the idea of relying on a man (or anyone) for anything. It also helped that I listened to Deap Vally’s song “Gonna Make My Own Money” hundreds of times!

Like investing, in dating past performance is not indicative of future returns. For now, I’ve given up on a future reduction in rent were I to move in with someone. (As Whoopi Goldberg said, “I don’t want somebody in my house!”) Instead, I’ve made a life for myself on my own terms.

This also means that I’m a one-income-stream household, and that me, myself and I have to cover the entire rent payment, utilities and other monthly expenses. I live in a one-bedroom apartment in Chicago, and I pay for electricity and internet, but I don’t have to pay for water or gas/heat. I’ve cut back on my monthly subscriptions, so those only cost about $13. My monthly fixed expenses are $1,188. So, what do I do with the rest of my monthly income to ensure my financial stability?

Remember when I read “Broke Millennial” and Erin Lowry introduced me to the percentage budget? It’s time for that budget to shine. First things first: Let’s spreadsheet it!

The percentage budget outlined in “Broke Millennial” designates 50% of monthly income for fixed expenses, 20% for savings or financial goals and 30% for wants or flexible spending. The first thing I wanted to see was the true percentage of my monthly fixed expenses. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was under 50%. This gives me even more flexibility in this budget, especially if some months I want to save more than 20% of my income, or I need to spend a little more on dental costs—or fancy cheese!

I tried out this budget for the month of February this year and it worked out well for me, even when it came to paying off my credit card! I haven’t set a specific food budget yet, but for now I’m including it in my 30% for flexible spending and will determine it in future months. I’ll also be looking into some other budgeting methods, including trying out a budgeting app or two, so stay tuned for more of the Carrie Finances series!

Have you tried a budgeting method? Did it work, or did you have to create your own?