( CNN ) -- Hillary Clinton 's assertion this week she and her husband left the White House `` dead broke '' left some Americans scratching their heads . How , they wondered , could a family making six-figures , living rent free , and writing best-sellers possibly run out of cash ? As it turns out , being President does n't necessarily come cheap . While first families do n't have to pay rent at the White House , they are responsible for personal costs that can multiply , especially if they spend the full eight years in that spotlight . Former first lady Laura Bush wrote in her post-White House memoir that she was expected to pick up the tab for every meal she ate at the White House or the presidential Camp David retreat -- for her husband 's two terms . `` The presidential room , as it were , is covered , but not the board , '' she wrote in her book , `` Spoken from the Heart . '' While first families are n't responsible for utility bills or a mortgage , `` it is more than fair that they pay for personal items like every American household . '' So traumatized was Laura Bush by the constant attention to her predecessors hair that she hired a stylist to give her a blow dry daily -- at her own expense . Bush wrote that a bill came monthly , itemizing everything she and her family owed , including food , dry cleaning and hourly wages for waiters and cleanup crews at private parties . `` There were some costs that I was not prepared for , '' Bush wrote . `` I was amazed by the sheer number of designer clothes that I was expected to buy , like the women before me , to meet the expectations for a first lady . '' 'Hard Choices ' : A book rollout or a campaign tune up ? The Clintons would n't be the first presidential couple to emerge from the White House in debt . When he left office in 1825 , James Monroe was deeply in debt . It was n't just dinner parties and designer dresses weighing down the Clintons financially . Enormous legal fees followed them after their departure in January 2001 . By the end of the previous year , the Clintons carried debt totaling somewhere between $ 2.28 million to $ 10.6 million . But the red ink was taken care of pretty quickly . They both signed big book advances , and the former president raked in millions giving speeches . Clinton tax return . By 2004 the Clintons had paid off all their legal fees . It was n't just speaking engagements boosting the Clinton 's income . When a President leaves the White House he 's still on the government payroll , receiving an annual pension of about $ 200,000 , health care , paid official travel and an office . Hillary Clinton Senate disclosure form . Rent for President Jimmy Carter 's Atlanta office is $ 102,000 per year , according to 2010 figures compiled by the Congressional Research Service . President George H. W. Bush 's Houston office costs $ 175,000 per year . President Bill Clinton 's office in the pricey real estate market of New York City is $ 516,000 . He currently gets about $ 750,000 per speech . What 's not in Hillary Clinton 's memoir ?
Hillary Clinton 's ` ` dead broke '' comment touched a nerve . The average White House expenses are over legal expenses . But there are some surprising expenses all first ladies incur .