I live in Manhattan and make roughly what you make.

I pay $1100 in rent in Gramercy but have two roommates. My apt is decent.

I also don't really save much but i don't feel broke. I go out, buy ****, decent dinners sometimes etc.

Why do you have a car? Where do you live?

Credit card debt sucks but suck it up, pay it off and then that's one big expense you can remove. That's basically whats effing you.

Plus, I assume you have the prospect of getting a raise/better job at some point in the future. Plus, pokers?

I'm actually not as astounded by the $800/month figure as a lot of people in this thread. I think if you don't pay attention to sales, don't have a plan for using what you buy, and shop carelessly in a fairly expensive area, it's not hard to do that at all, between stuff that gets wasted because it isn't eaten and overpaying for things. Plus as a girl, I can tell you that our toiletries and grooming expenses are higher (for mostly legitimate reasons but some less legitimate) than most of the posters itt.

All that said, the part I've bolded is, at least in my part of the country, really not true. Pre-packaged and convenience foods cost much more than cooking from scratch.

Had to look from work. Didn't read all the replies yet but saw some discussion on Costco. For health reasons I try to eat more seafood than meat. I only really like shrimp and salmon though. Never would I buy either at Costco as they only sell it farmed. Farmed seafood is terrible for so many reasons, just google it for yourself. I will only consume wild seafood, which is more expensive. I know its important to stick within a budget but I don't think saving money while skimping on my health is a good idea. What's the use of having more savings if you are not alive and well to spend it?

Later

i can't imagine that anyone will respond indignantly to this.

if you are trolling with this entire thread, it's totally A++++. you bring out everyone - the haughty non-new yorkers who are like 'i live like a king for 65k in my city - OP, you suck!', he.nry17 talking about how expensive it is to cook food when he doesn't actually cook, plus everyone else who budgets prudently and has contempt for people who don't. bang up job.

Ok, $800 just seems crazy to me.

My wife and I never plan for meals. We take a regular grocery shopping trip every Monday evening, and buy all our breakfast/lunch foods, and maybe a couple meals for dinner. Then a couple times a week one of us stops on our way home to pick up something for dinner.

We spend between $400-$500 a month, including laundry detergent and shampoo and what not.

I've lived in my house for almost 4 years. I could probably count on one hand the number of times I've went out to buy light bulbs.

1) Wild salmon is frequently, although not always, available at CostCo.
2) Meat is good for you.
3) You can, of course, choose to eat any way that you wish. However, you need to recognize that that is a lifestyle choice you are making which will require you to give up something else.

You're not poor. You're entitled. Earn more or spend less or continue as you are.

you live in [censored] winnipeg. $800 between two people is not that outrageous in NYC if you have certain tastes, don't budget, and probably waste stuff as well, like VR is explaining.

I work for a healthcare company / RX company and I will agree you are paying a lot for a name. Our items are very similar to generics yet the price difference is ridiculous for a name. Essentially you are concerned with the active and want packaging such the active works correctly. I guess the smaller hurdles it takes to get generic drugs out since they are copy cat make it such that you don't always get the same kind of quality as you would get with a named drug...but not really sure if that's true. Honestly, the margins the company i work for at times is insane so buying generics or store brand probably makes sense. But this is true with a ton of items that grocery stores have, clothing stores, etc. you are paying a ton for a name, not really a ton for quality that's associated with that name. maybe in some cases you get it but as a whole i wouldn't pay a super premium for a named brand over the counter items.

Read more. I wouldn't recommend farmed shrimp or salmon (or most other fish-fish, e.g., halibut), but most shellfish are considered just as healthy if not healthier when farmed, and it's certainly better for sustainability (not that we need to go there). "I will only consume wild seafood" is just being uneducated on the subject.

you are obviously trolling. i was pretty sure you are but i know now you are. how did your GF gain 50 pounds if you are eating "healthy." you are just making up bs as you go now.

as amazed as everyone is about the $800 number, i'm amazed at everyone. op says he has $250 monthly after bills, so his total monthly spending aside from rent/car/utilities/debt is about $1000. i've lived in LA, vegas, and SF since college. the "everything else" category, which includes groceries, restaurants, personal items, going out, travel, clothes, etc, etc. have always added up to at least $2K / month for me, probably more like $3K / month, and that level of spending makes me feel like i don't have nearly enough spending money (and i've never supported a GF)... most people think spending $800-1000 / month on this stuff is outrageously high. to me it seems ridiculously, impossibly low. just a huge disconnect on this topic between me and basically everyone.

def agree with the people saying $250K+ required for comfortable nyc living

runlola - why are you buying light bulbs every month? Why do you spend $15/mth on detergent and $5/mth on batteries

Because they are also guzzling olive oil by the gallon and evidently consume a fair amount of alcohol.

Guys stuff gets pretty expensive as well -- not quite up to the higher-end female products but our products are actually quite expensive if we actually put effort into taking care of our skin. Most guys don't though.

It depends on the meal but I'd say that isn't the case for 80% of stuff here. Chicken Parmigiana if I make it from scratch will cost me the more than a box of frozen Chick-n Parmigiana. Regardless, that wasn't the main point. For me if I'm going to prepare a meal it is actually a meal that involves a lot of ingredients which is much more expensive than eating like a nine year old and just throwing some chicken nuggets and fries in the oven. I couldn't make what I consider a meal for under $20 and most likely I would be looking at $30+ but if I just wanted to eat whatever I can buy pasta in a can for $1-2.

It's not a difference of living paycheck to paycheck vs. saving.

You're 15k in DEBT. Do you understand that? You can not afford the lifestyle you are maintaining, so something has to give.

You can make yourself believe that it's ok to buy all of this super high end organic food and say it's for your health, but ultimately you can't pay for it.

All of this said though, a few above posters are correct in saying that there is too much focus about finding ways to save money in this thread. Since you clearly have a lifestyle you want to maintain (and certainly not an unreasonable one), you need to find ways to make more money.

Take a second job, improve your skillset, do whatever it takes to make more income. That goes for your parasitic girlfriend as well.

Yet amazingly there are a ton of people living reasonably comfortably in NYC who make less than $250k. It must be some sort of magic trick.

Of course, this depends on your definition of "reasonably comfortably", but listen, MicroBob - I have *run the numbers* on this. Several times.

You need $250k+ to live a solid, comfortable lifestyle. (And I really only looked at stress testing salary ranges in nicer Manhattan/Brooklyn neighborhoods, not all of NYC, but I wouldn't want to live in say, Bensonhurst, so whatevs.)

The point I'm trying to get across here is that Manhattan is really expensive. If you have not actually lived in Manhattan before then your opinion is meaningless.

-Al

this sounds like 'i'd need 100k to live a solid, comfortable lifestyle elsewhere'. which, assuming we're not discussing a couple pooling $, sounds like [censored] to me, barring lots of outrageous luxury spending.

The biggest driver of the high $ amount in NYC (again, "nicer neighborhoods in Manhattan/Brooklyn") is real estate related costs.

In my definition of "comfortable lifestyle", you are a homeowner.

-Al

less on groceries, more on organic sheets and toilet paper. you will sleep better at night, and your money wont be of any issue.

obv my point of view is different from most people, and i understand that. i've never lived in NYC, but in LA and SF, what i found is this:

(generalizing obv)

people who made less than that and had some sort of decent living situation in any desirable area lived incredibly boring lives, were racking up debt, were miserable / super-stressed, or had access to funds in addition to their income (or any combo of the above).

countless numbers of people who made less than 250K but didn't fall into one of the above categories moved out of the city after a year or two (i assume knowing that if they stayed they would inevitably end up in one of the above categories).

by and large, the self-sustaining people i knew who seemed fun, comfortable, relaxed, stable, and debt-free had incomes > $250K.

Agree with Henry here (again). A Lean Cuisine costs between $2-3 IIRC. There's no way I would be able to make a meal I would want to eat for that price. Anywhere from $10 to $40 for two people, excluding the wine, is about right. Depends on how much you spend on the protein.

real estate is ******edly overpriced in most parts of manhattan. i have friends who pay 2600 for 500-600 square foot apartments. a lot of these same guys make a huge chunk of money on bonuses which are taxed at a ridiculous rate (sometimes 50% of their bonus goes to national, state, city taxes). so you could be making 250k but only bringing in 160k which is good money but let's say you want a 1000-1500 square foot apartment for you and your wife and your 2 kids. well that's a 5000-6000 a month for just rent. if you want to go smaller, you can get by with 2000-3000 a month which is 36000 a year for just rent. then you have transportation, utilities, savings for retirement and college, groceries, etc. things add up quickly in NYC especially with the ******ed real estate prices. then if you want your kids to goto private school in the city. my friends co-worker estimated he would need around 500k to live really comfortably in the city with a low to mid upper class family.

with that being said you can live for much less than this. you just have to live more frugal than the OP. OP is living above his means with respect to many things especially with a hanger on like his GF.

as mentioned repeatedly 65k/yr in NYC isn't poor it just not that rich and pretty middle class. you need to spend wisely if you want to save any money.

Do you plan on throwing your leftovers away?

If not, this should be figured into your analysis for this cost comparison.

-Al

Bolded sound about right to me as well.

-Al