Money Diaries: Holly Golightly
Name: Holly Golightly
Occupation: Aspiring actress
Income: $10,000 - $150,000 depending on the year
Expenses:
Rent: $12 a month
Utilities: $4 a month
Vogue Subscription: $2 a year
Newspaper: 7¢ a paper
Monday: I wake up at Marianne Faithfull’s apartment after the loveliest fête and take a cab from the Upper West Side to SoHo ($3). I get some essentials on the way home: croissant for me and wet cat food for the slob ($1.40). I see a pack of smokes on the counter and slide them in my coat sleeve while the counter man has his back turned, saving a quarter. I mostly do it to keep my hand at it anyway. Once home, I fall asleep without even taking off my crocodile shoes! Daily Total: $4.40
Tuesday: I wake up absolutely ravenously craving duck à l'orange and know that Corner Bistro is the only place who can make it well. It’s quite near my apartment so I walk over and I spend the $6 and eat in the park, quelle nightmare. I leave some for the squirrels and wander to shop. I’m not inclined to buy anything but it is so delectable to shop à la distance, as they say. I make note of the things I’d buy if I was filthy rich: cast iron pans, new dresses, a yellow handbag, a set of silver handbells, a mink stole (but darker fur than the one I have!). I decide to buy a new set of earrings since the ones I get as gifts are so rotten, and I pick a pair from the display ($4.50). While I’m out, I eat again, this time at a diner for eggs and coffee, since I haven’t had breakfast in days ($5). I go to see the latest picture but sneak in the side door while some kids are coming out, and after, I decide to call my agent, collect of course.
Daily Total: $15.50
Wednesday: As gruesome as it is, another Wednesday means a visit with old Sally Tomato and fifty extra dollars in hand. I take a cab to Sing-Sing and deliver the weather report and take my candy from the candy store to buy a bottle of champagne and type-writer tape. You should always have some on hand ($9.30)!
I head back home and clean up a little, change dresses, and decide to wander around the Met Museum. All the nice things to look at make me so calm, I’d like to live between the giant columns and handsome statues. I spend the rest of the day painting and leave the still life I’ve done for Yunioshi in the corridor.
Daily Total: +$43.70
Thursday: I’m up early and go for a coffee but the sweet old man at the corner never lets me pay! I take the coffee and run into my old friend Rusty Trawler dans la rue, quelle bonne chance. To think I was almost wed to that little piggy! Still, it’s a miracle we’re both awake before noon and we decide to stroll together, arm in arm.
We wander into music shops and he buys Connie Francis records for both of us. I certainly don’t have a player but it’s always nice to bring a little music home. He tells me about some luncheon to which he’s been invited with Jean Shrimpton--aptly named, mind you--and invites me. Jeannie dear is a terrible bore and quite a phony so I’m excited to hop along. I yawn my way through the lunch and pretend to care about the latest Avendon shoot with all the rest of them. I kiss Rusty goodbye, my thanks for the meal, and leave for home. Daily Total: $0
Friday: I don’t get out of bed until noon and then spend the afternoon setting my hair and doing my nails. I have a rendez-vous with a French financier later, M., and he always likes them bloody red. I know I can pull in close to two-fifty in powder room trips tonight and I’m hoping I can scrape together enough to send some home to Tulip, Texas. I want to send my brother some peanut butter--it doesn't grow on trees!
I take a cab to the restaurant and have the most delicious steak with M. We talk for a long while and I take one trip to the powder room. I insist they pack some up for Cat and Pierre, the darling little chef whom I greatly admire, ends up sending a whole order home! We stay out nearly all night and I don’t spend a dime. I end up quite drunk, insist on cab fare, and split the second steak with Cat in the early morning. Daily Total: +$275
Saturday: I wake up nearly in time for dinner and pull myself into a gifted Givenchy shift dress and head to the Nom Wah Tea Parlor for dim sum with friends. Everyone is happy to see each other. I’m nearly starved over from the night before and we split everything the kitchen can make while drinking scalding chrysanthemum tea.
The group of us heads out by cab and we fall in line at Hurrah and meet with Verushka, who owes me a favor for saving her from a leopard (in Manhattan mind you!). She brings us in without waiting and it's all giggles and gros bisous. I have the loveliest time and buy old V a glass of champagne to celebrate. As I’m set to order some old actor friend of hers buys us a whole bottle and we split it and dance while the bubbles hit our heads. We spend the night at her place and I wonder why I don’t see her more often. If I had to count, she’d be my least phony friend after Fred. Daily Total: $3.30
Sunday: I wake up at V’s and she makes us eggs, but is a plum rotten cook. I tidy myself up at her vanity and take a cab home ($2.20).
I do all my washing myself and scrub the apartment clean. I set out to buy talcum powder, a lady remington shaver, lipstick (I’m always leaving them in bathrooms across the city!), fruit enough for the week, lunch meat, and food for Cat ($13.70). I stop and get the paper, a croissant and a pack of smokes ($2.10) and play guitar for the rest of the afternoon. I take a bath with plenty of bubbles and fall asleep, happy as a clam. Daily Total: $18.00
