While Saturday Night Live is known for minting stars, the comedians whose careers have been launched by the show all started at the bottom of Studio 8H.

In celebration of SNL's 50th anniversary, cast members past and present spoke to New York Magazine about how they splurged after getting their big break and landing a spot on the long-running program.

Purchases ranged from shoes to furniture, but many of the cast shared a similar sentiment: first-year writers don't make as much money as you probably think they do.

Here's what the SNL stars and alumni told the magazine:

Pete Davidson: "Do you guys know what they pay us? It's like three grand an episode. I think I got dinner."

James Austin Johnson: "We bought the most uncomfortable West Elm couch of all time. I swear to god. It's, like, made of bricks."

Julia Louis-Dreyfus: "I bought a pair of shoes that were out of my budget. They were $75."

Rachel Dratch: "Probably getting an apartment. I mean, that's so boring, but that's the real thing."

Sarah Silverman: "I bought a cashmere sweater. It was like $300."

Jason Sudeikis: "I mean, you don't make enough money to make big purchases, so I think New York rent was probably the biggest purchase I made after writing my first year on SNL."

Sarah Sherman: "A nice mattress."

Cheri Oteri: "A couch. I've gotten it reupholstered three or four times."

Seth Meyers: "I went to, like, a Crate & Barrel and I got a really big couch and then I went to a Best Buy and I got a really big TV."

Bowen Yang: "I remember going to Saks across the street and buying a pair of Gucci shoes. The kind that everyone got and the kind I wouldn't feel super cool wearing out now."

It's not the first time that SNL stars have talked about how they've spent their money. Davidson and Weekend Update anchor Colin Jost — both Staten Island natives — famously spent $280,000 to buy a decommissioned Staten Island Ferry in 2022 with plans to convert it into an entertainment venue.

Jost would go on to call it "absolutely the dumbest and least thought-through purchase I've ever made in my life."

"The way I justified it is for the amount of money we were putting into buying it, on just a basic square-footage level, is if you found the right place for it to be, you were essentially buying a building on its side that's 65,000 square feet," he told People earlier this year. "So around New York, that is a very good price per square foot."

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