Our favourite fictional characters may be fun to watch and read about, but sometimes their ability to have a perfect life without seeming to lift a finger can be a little annoying. So just how unrealistic are the ways in which our favourite characters live? How much would Cersei Lannister need to have borrowed from the Iron bank to fund her lavish lifestyle? And would Harry Potter’s spending habits have quickly left his Gringott’s bank account dry? We investigate.
Harry Potter and the mountain of gold
Harry Potter, the boy who lived and the boy who lived in the cupboard under the stairs. With such an awful start to life, this character surely deserved to let his hair down a little and treat himself, which he does in abundance when he first finds out he’s a wizard. He buys out the entirety of the tuck shop on his first journey to Hogwarts, as well as loaning Fred and George Weasley start-up money for their business in his fourth year.
Thankfully, Harry’s parents left him a small fortune in a Gringott’s bank vault that would have definitely kept him in chocolate frogs until he left education, or perhaps much, much longer. One fan believes it would have been the latter and went to great pains to work out the minimum amount the unspecified sum of money could have been.
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This included calculating the depth of galleons pictured in one shot of the bank in the first film. By working out how many coins long, deep and wide the pile was, the fan estimated the stash to have a (muggle) value of £905, 021. As this only includes only galleons and not the ‘Columns of silver. Heaps of little bronze Knuts’ also alluded to in the book, then we can safely say that Harry Potter is a millionaire.
Spending habits breakdown:
J.K. Rowling confirmed that the Ministry of Magic pays for all magical tuition. This means Harry’s food and lodging are completely covered for at least 9-10 months of the year. The rest of the year he is then under the care of Vernon and Petunia Dursley. The only expenses Harry has during his entire childhood includes his annual shop for school supplies and any treats, such as Butterbeer from the Three Broomsticks. Taking into account his sizeable family fortune it doesn’t seem like the famous Harry Potter will have any money worries for quite some time to come.
Related: How Much Money Would These Book Characters Make In Real Life?
The debt of Cersei Lannister
First up is the woman we all love to hate; Cersei Lannister. Cersei is a conniving, calculating villain who manages to get her way without ever getting her hands dirty. As a Queen who comes from the wealthiest family in the land, she has expensive taste, including everything from her clothes to her beverages.
She seems to constantly have a large glass of wine in her hand, and she never wears the same outfit twice. As well as this, she has a habit of starting expensive battles, meaning the Iron Throne is indebted to the Iron Bank to the tune of at least 6 million gold dragons. Despite this, it’s well documented that a Lannister always pays their debts. So, although Cersei most certainly lives beyond her means, that doesn’t mean she can’t make up for it. In fact, by allying herself with the wealthy Tyrells, she plans to pay off the Iron Throne’s debts in one large lump sum, leaving her without a loan or interest to repay.
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Spending habits breakdown:
As Queen, it’s understandable that Cersei has an eye for luxury. Using the maths from this Reddit thread, it looks like a bottle of Dornish red would cost about £250, making it very fancy wine. As she seems to manage a whole bottle a day, on average, then her weekly wine bill tots up to £1750. Plus, since her clothes are tailor-made for royalty, they’re probably considered priceless. Add to this the fact that war is an expensive venture and it’s easy to see how her hundreds of billions of pounds of debt to the Iron Bank adds up. No wonder she’s so keen to get her hands on Highgarden’s gold…
Related: How Much Money Would These TV Characters Make In Real Life?
The poor spending habits of Lorelai Gilmore
Lorelai Gilmore is a headstrong and free-spirited single mother who, alongside her daughter Rory, is the joint protagonist of the Gilmore Girls. Since the age of 16, Lorelai worked her way up from a maid to her current position as Inn Manager at the Independence Inn. After this, she then borrowed money to become a Co-owner and Manager of the Dragonfly Inn.
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The average salary for an experienced Inn Manager is about $62,000 (which is around £44,212). It doesn’t appear that Lorelai gets any child support for her only daughter – and she definitely doesn’t accept help from her parents – meaning this is the only money coming into the Gilmore household. Lorelai professes to hate cooking, so both her and Rory survive off takeaways and food from Luke’s Cafe. Our biggest question is how do they both stay so slim?
Spending habits breakdown:
The average takeaway for two, at a conservative estimate, costs around £15. To cover both lunch and dinner we’ll presume they eat out or get takeaway at least twice a day. A coffee in an American diner averages at £1.50, which Lorelai tends to have alone. If Lorelai and Rory eat this way every day all month then their average monthly food costs come to £945 (£15×2+£1.50=31.50 = £31.50 x 31 days a month). As her income means she would probably net about £3685 per month before tax, then she’s left with £2740 to pay for everything else. Not too bad, but hardly the smartest budgeting.
Dodging rent fees with Monica Geller
Everybody loves the TV show Friends, even if the way the characters live is completely unrealistic. The group work their fair share of low paying jobs, but seem able to afford to live in large, comfortable apartments in Manhattan without struggling for money. One of these characters is Monica, who works as a professional chef. Her spacious two bed flat is, according to Chandler, ‘rent-controlled’, as her grandma lived there before her.
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Monica also has a few tenants over the years, meaning her rent is kept even lower. This includes Phoebe and then Rachel who is immediately replaced with Chandler. Both Phoebe and Rachel have relatively low incomes but Chandler’s, as a Statistical Analyst, is quite significant at £73,000. Considering that Monica doesn’t seem to have any expensive vices and mostly cooks for herself, her lifestyle begins to look quite realistic.
Spending habits breakdown:
As an executive chef with a wealth of experience under her belt Monica would have earned at least £52,000 per annum before tax. The maximum a rent-controlled apartment can charge for rent in New York is roughly £1935 per month (though this source believes Monica could have been paying as little as £200 per month!). Each year the flat could have cost Monica £23,220 in rent, leaving her with £28,780 per year, or £2,398 per month to cover all other outgoings. Though these calculations are worked out without considering other expenses such as tax, maintenance expenses, bills, food, pension payments and any other recurring payments, it’s easy to see that Monica’s lifestyle was surprisingly achievable. Add the fact she didn’t have to cover the rent all by herself and suddenly she’s living a very comfortable life indeed.
The spending habits of some of our favourite fictional characters aren’t quite as outlandish as they first seem. Many of them are aided by sizeable family fortunes, well-paying jobs or just a bit of old-fashioned luck. So, next time you question the lifestyles of your favourite protagonists consider the fact that they might just be very, very lucky.
What do you think of the spending habits of these fictional characters? Is there anything you would change if you were in their position?
