Even with a rent-controlled apartment, living in downtown Manhattan is incredibly expensive. In season 8's “The One Where Rachel is Late,” Joey tries to figure out just how much he owes Chandler for keeping him financially afloat the past three years. When he sees the enormous figure, he hurriedly reassures Chandler that all has been forgiven and calls it even.
A curious Redditor wanted to know the actual amount Joey owed, so he posed the question to the They Did the Math subreddit. Within 24 hours, the world had its answer.
He then says 3 years worth of rent, utilities, and food. They live in Manhattan in a nice area of The Village, in a 2 bedroom, 1 bath, apartment on one of the upper levels. That is a very expensive location to live in; today an apartment like that would cost around $5000 a month easily, using Zillow.com as a guide (and I'm low balling it assuming they got a good deal). Using an online dollar appreciation site, and using the year 1997, i found that $5000 would translate too about $3500 for them. The rent was supposed to be split 2 ways, so this is 3 years of chandler paying Joey's $1250. So $45,000 in rent alone. Now we're at $49,000.
Also counting for three years of utilities, cable and satisfying Joey's insatiable appetite, the total cost is staggering.
In total, if he calculated everything, it would be around $90,760. Chandler basically funded the living expenses of a full grown man for 3 years in one of the most expensive parts of Manhattan, so it was pretty costly to him.
Even for a friend, those are expenses you just can't ignore. It makes one want to ask the question why does Chandler let Joey mooch off him so much? One Redditor's answer:
"Because they're F·R·I·E·N·D·S!"
Source:- http://goo.gl/8GAw5x