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I have watched most of the episodes of Friends and Joey always seems to be broke with Chandler helping him out.

Is there an exact amount or an approximation of how much Joey owes Chandler in the unlikely event that he ever decides to pay it back?

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AachmanShukla
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    No official source and fan theories aren't fixed on one amount, but all of them mention over $100,000. – A J Jan 29 '18 at 05:34
  • I think Joe clears his debt once he gets regularly paid work doesn't he? That is part of how all the flat swapping is funded towards the end. – TafT Jan 29 '18 at 08:55
  • @TafT I think he doesn't, and Chandler never asked Joey to pay up all of his money back – Vishwa Jan 30 '18 at 06:10

1 Answers1

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Based on a user over at Reddit, the amount comes upto $120,760

Source: https://www.dailydot.com/upstream/friends-how-much-does-joey-owe-chandler/

Amount breakdown:

  • We can calculate that Chandler's Manhattan rent was about $3,500 a month. (To compare, Monica's grandmother's apartment, rent-controlled since the '40s, could have been about $200.) Split two ways between Chandler and Joey for three years, as stated in the episode, the total is: $63,000
  • We know utilities weren't included in their rent, so we'll follow user ASmileThatKills' lead and calculate Joey's half at $1,000.

Total so far: $64,000

Now for food. ASmileThatKills tries to guesstimate the amount Joey, known for his love of eating, spends on food every week—or rather the amount Chandler spends covering him. ASmileThatKills speculates the total is "$100 a week on groceries + $100 a week on pizza/takeout/coffee + $50 a week for Joey's dates, every week for 3 years." So that’s $5,200 annually for groceries.

Joey went on a lot of dates, and this is Manhattan. Let's bump it up to $75, so $3,900 yearly. And since we all saw how much coffee those poor kids drank, let’s tack an extra $15/week onto the takeout total, or $5,980. That brings the three-year total for food costs up to $45,240.

Total so far: $109,240

But wait, there's a lot more:

  • Two sets of acting resume head shots, $500 each: $1,000
  • Discounting inflation, Joey’s half of the phone and cable bills would have been around $35/month. Plus, if we assume that Chandler didn’t want to have to fight Joey for the phone when Joey was using their dial-up Internet, then they probably had another separate phone line for their computers, so an additional $10 for Joey: $1,620
  • In season 4, episode 2, Joey is responsible for all of their apartment furniture getting stolen. Yikes! [...] ASmileThatKills estimates this total cost at roughly $5,500.
  • In season 6, episode 18, Chandler mentions that Joey owes him $3,400.

The grand total: $120,760

But of course, this is all trivia and not the official amount disclosed.

And so as Joey says, "it's a MOO point" ;)

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Nikhil Eshvar
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    $3500/month, even in NY, seems unusually high. – The Forest And The Trees Jan 29 '18 at 09:03
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    @TheForestAndTheTrees According to https://www.rentcafe.com/average-rent-market-trends/us/ny/manhattan/, it might actually be about right. Assuming they have a 2 bedroom apartment, which today costs about 5500 on average, 3500 in the days the series were active could be accurate. – Nzall Jan 29 '18 at 11:09
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    The problem with this answer is your last point. In season 6, episode 18, Joey owes $3,400. This is an exact figure from the owner of the debts. You can't just sum every other debt before that. We must assume that Joey already paid his previous debts. – pipe Jan 29 '18 at 12:56
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    Joey probably owes $3,400 cash as of S6E18. The rest are other things in addition to that amount. If I give you $20 and also cover your $5.32 bill at the cafe when we go out in the afternoon ("this one's one me"), I'm going to say you owe me $20, not $25.32. – Roddy of the Frozen Peas Jan 29 '18 at 14:48
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    @TheForestAndTheTrees That's adorable. –  Jan 29 '18 at 15:18
  • @thumbtackthief I hadn't realised inner-city rents in the US were so high, even in the Greater London area they're not that bad here in the UK https://homelet.co.uk/homelet-rental-index – The Forest And The Trees Jan 29 '18 at 15:34
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    @TheForestAndTheTrees I'd also point out that their apartment was both in prime location and of palatial-size. My apartment could have fit in their living room. The link above of average Manhattan rentals covers all of Manhattan, which comprises vastly different neighborhoods--many that are less desirable than the Lower East Side--skewing the average. –  Jan 29 '18 at 15:51
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    Do apartments with only three walls go for less than market rate? – Mark Plotnick Jan 29 '18 at 17:06
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    @MarkPlotnick The missing wall brings the price down, but the live studio audience offsets that amount. – BrettFromLA Jan 29 '18 at 17:33
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    In the final episode Monica (I think) says what a shame it is to be moving out when the rent was such a bargain - can we therefore assume that rent for Joey and Chandler's flat was also ridiculously cheap? – Mr_Thyroid Jan 29 '18 at 17:38
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    @Mr_Thyroid No; it was mentioned repeatedly throughout the series that Monica was illegally subletting her grandmother's rent-controlled apartment. It was never implied that Chandler and Joey had any such situation. –  Jan 29 '18 at 20:12
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    While it's stated that sometimes Chandler has helped Joey out with the rent; I don't think it ever says that Joey never once paid any rent the whole time; which is what this answer implied. – GendoIkari Jan 30 '18 at 00:14
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    As @GendoIkari implied, the total of $120,760 might be considered a reasonably calculated upper bound for Joey's debt. The actual debt might, and probably would be, less. – I'm with Monica Jan 30 '18 at 07:45
  • While $3,500 a month may be realistic rent, in The One on the Last Night, Chandler wants to give Joey $1,500 to cover him “for a few months”. He might not be trying to cover all Joey’s expenses, but if rent alone is $3,500 a month, $1,500 seems like a drop in the ocean. – Paul D. Waite Jun 18 '18 at 23:10