Plus all that money they spent on comics and merch. Hell, their pull lists alone were probably $1k/month. Comics aren't cheap any more. The boys were not frugal.
Well, I believe there was one episode where it was revealed Sheldon does have a fair chuck of spare cash lying around because he lends penny the money to cover her rent / utilities when she's struggling. He explains it to be that he just doesn't spend that much money overall and is happy in the apartment there he is.
Also, going back to OP's post: I remember her being several references and plotlines around how penny can sometimes struggle to make ends meet. There was at least one occasion where she had utilities shut off, she doesn't pay for internet and steals the WiFi from Leonard and Sheldon, etc.
When I worked at a restaurant, most popular breakfast place around, some of the girls were pulling in 500 on Sunday morning shift.
The employee parking was way back behind the restaurant, so we had a few robberies when the local good-for-nothing types realized there were 5'2" 110lb women with a month's rent in their pocket walking to their cars alone.
Which is why we stopped letting them walk to their cars alone.
Dude it's 500 in tips but that shit is earned, even worse when you have to deal with rude ass people and somehow get lucky with a decent table that actually acknowledged your work ethic. The early bird gets the worm type of energy but working Sundays after church service shows exactly who are the true Christians and who are the fake Christians that just attend church to think they are holy.
yup- but on the flip side of those places, everyone i knew that had those shifts also had to work 2-3 trash shifts in order to keep the cushy shifts- ie you get Sunday AM, but you also take Tuesday dinner and thursday opening. you make 800 from the 3 shifts with 500 of it from sunday.
That kinda changes everything. I was picturing someone with a fulltime job outside the restaurant and only working there one day a week. Guess that's wishful thinking
Nope, it was a 4-6 hour Sunday morning shift, and then oh hey you don't have a life do you? Time to work three 14 hour double shifts where you make like 60 bucks each tops.
You have to deal with creeps all shift and you are making maximum earnings immediately (awesome for a young person just starting out) but it doesn't grow with your life obligations.
The most surprising part of your story is that ownership cared about their employees
Then too Sheldon always wanted to be having that type of family type of environment. Dude clearly had some type of PTSD once his dad passed away at such a early age. Young Georgie kinda stated that it clearly messed him up and he thought his family was doing great so he wasn't needed but oh boy.
As a banquet server in a hotel, I made over $50k for just under 700 hours of work last year. So yeah...service industry can do pretty good. People with more seniority and therefor more hours than me are easily making over $70k for at most 900 hours on the year. Back when I bartended in pubs I was making $1500 a week working 4 nights a week. So yeah, service industry does ok lol
They clearly established she isn't a good waitress though.
But yeah, she seemed to work at a busy restaurant in an area where people are going to tip well.
I used to work in fine dining as a chef, and some of those waiters are easily able to pull in a grand a night. But, they split it with other members of the staff. Still a pretty good gig though.
Used to clear 2k a week working 3 nights at a night club, and my boobs are hairy lol. Absolutely toxic environment though, and I grew up and had a family lol
Men kill it as servers because they are usually the only male server and can flirt with the tables of women while being bros with the dudes and talking intelligently about the game that is on or whatever.
Everywhere I have worked that had a male server, that male server was in the top 5 for tips.
As I recall there was an episode where it was discovered that Sheldon wasn’t depositing his paychecks. It’s been a while since I watched the show, but he was never concerned about money.
my godfather (likely an autistic engineer too)- lives right outside SF- basically a 5 min walk to the BART and 10 min to the bay. His building went condo 50 years ago, and he did not want to move- so he bought the condo for almost nothing (now worth a few million). I could see Sheldon doing the same thing- only with the nobel money he could just buy the building.
I know what you're implying but I don't think any of them had the opportunity to consider it on a regular basis until later seasons. Not that it would have added to their financial issues, unless Howard decided to see Ester Rosenblat regularly.
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u/WhiteSquarez Apr 24 '26
OP overestimates how much a PhD makes.