How to live in New York City on a budget

Series on how to thrive while saving in the world’s most expensive city

Cait
3 min readMar 2, 2023
Imaging how expensive it would be to have this view (taken from Summit Vanderbilt)

Welcome! I plan to create a series starting with this post on how to live in New York City on a budget. This is also applicable to anybody in their 20s who might be living on their own in any of the many expensive cities.

I know first-hand how expensive it is to live in New York City, and I’m here to help! I am in my mid-20s, renting my first solo 1-bed apartment and working a corporate 9-to-the work’s finished job. I strongly believe that while it is important to save, invest, and plan for the future, it is just as important to spend on the things I enjoy. No Scrooges here.

Budget examples were really helpful when I began creating my own. Now, I adjust as I go based on if my circumstances change.

To help you, my post will be structured in 2 parts:

  1. What I typically spend in a month
  2. Example budget for the month
Photo by Patrick Perkins on Unsplash

What I typically spend in a month:

  • Rent: $2600 (my biggest expense right off the bat)

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