In Sunday's Times Real Estate section, we met Lauren Daitch and Jules Spehar, who are, respectively, a publicity assistant at Simon & Schuster and a salesgirl. We also met their West Village duplex, for which they pay $3,800. That's right, each of these entry-level laborers pays almost two grand a month in rent. And they want us to believe that they do it all by their own selves. Well, mostly.

"We cover it ourselves now," Ms. Spehar said, "which is something we're pretty proud of. But my mom sometimes helps with the groceries."

Ms. Daitch was already familiar with the satisfaction of financial independence. "There was something very fulfilling about knowing that my parents had cut me off," she said, remembering when she first earned her share of the rent for a previous apartment.

Hot tip, ladies: if you stop spending 80% of your income on rent, then you can stop charging the FreshDirect to mommy and actually be financially independent. Also, maybe then Jules will be able to afford some eye cream.

And Diggity Makes Three [NYT]