Maybe it's the resurgence of Sex and the City that has prompted all of the profiles of New Yorkers getting by on their salaries in an inflated city, but they seem to be popping up all over The New York Times during the past couple months. The notion of what is fiction and what is reality is written between the lines, though the realities they picture really aren't much different from how 20-somethings around the country try to balance the cost-of-living with having a social life. The most recent piece published in the Times described the money tactics of various NYC newcomers [1], specifically "those who are neither investment bankers nor being floated by their parents." Discover some of the ways they sustain living in the most expensive city in the US when you .
- Instead of clothes shopping, one NYC dweller refreshes her wardrobe by having her mom occasionally ship some items from the storage bins that she keeps at her parents' home.
- Sharing tiny apartments with strangers.
- "Eating cheap lunches and skipping dinners — not just to save money, but so that drinks pack more of a punch and fewer need be consumed."
- Forgoing salon hair coloring, manicures and pedicures, and waiting to get haircuts in their hometowns.
- Seeking out B.Y.O.B. restaurants.
- Stretching lunch into dinner by eating a later lunch.
- Drinking at home before going out.
- Flirting with men in hopes of them buying you a drink.
- One 26-year old woman refuses to give up her Bumble and Bumble shampoo saying, “I don’t do drugstores. I will eat Pringles for dinner instead.”
- One 27-year old man has simply sworn off impulse purchases and credit cards, cooks at home, pirates wireless Internet, uses Craigslist or eBay for electronics, and buys his clothes from Salvation Army and retains the receipt to write off on his taxes.
Do you see any of your own tactics in those profiled, and do you have any that you feel are unique, like the Pringles girl? Would you ever consider moving to a city knowing that you'd have to make financial sacrifices?
Source [2]