Quote:
Originally Posted by derosnec
grunch
OP, i've lived in nyc for over 10 years as a single, attractive male. and i can assure you that any little "excesses" you try to trim just aren't gonna make much of a difference. nyc is expensive. $65k is nothing here. $800 for food a month is nothing. if i had to live on less than $30 a day for food in this city i'd go crazy. i'm sure i'd put my head in the oven by week 2 of a $800 month budget as i find myself reaching for yet another hot pocket or can of chef boyardee. in the end though it doesn't matter because the savings from food choices aren't going to make a huge difference given what you're currently spending on groceries.
i mean, it looks like you lead a pretty miserly frugal life to begin with. i don't see you going to nightclubs everyday, broadway, 4 star restaurants, bar crawls, shopping sprees at Saks etc.
ok, you could move out to the far parts of the boroughs or suburbs where rent is cheap. but it's cheap for a reason. do you like 2 hour commutes? do you like living in far away parts of queens, brooklyn, jersey where the only entertainment for a 30 block radius is scratching lottery tickets at your local bodega or dodging bullets? there is a reason people spend $1,600 to live somewhere. when i first moved to the area, i lived in 4 places over a 3 year period in neighborhoods that were 90 minutes plus commute door to door and i was never so miserable in my life. yeah i spent $600 a month to share but i think i started to develop depression.
that said, i am personally getting tired of how expensive this city is. it just doesn't seem like it's worth it for the long haul unless i win the lottery.
I'm with you. I can accept how expensive everything in NYC is, but it's real estate that I'm getting way too frustrated with. I'm at a point where I would really like to purchase a house. Of course those don't exist in Manhattan, but certain area's of Queens are nice enough. Unfortunatly, a modest 3 bedroom home starts at about $600K. Even when my salary goes up to 100K I still wont be able to afford to buy something that expensive.
Long Island isn't much better either. I'm not fond of the area, and even though housing is slightly lower there, the property taxes are INSANE!
Parts of Jersey are OK, but again, high prop taxes, and I'm not commuting that far. I doubt I could get a job there with an equivalent salary to what I make here in NYC.