<p>For serious. You do realize that the median HOUSEHOLD income is just over 50K? granted not everyone lives in NYC, but still. It’s amazing how a college degree actually doesn’t mean anything in terms of life skills or common sense.</p>
<p>Reason to never let your friends bum from you:</p>
<p>“Neither a lender nor borrower be.” -William Shakespeare.</p>
<p>Oh and if you lend money to your friends, never ever expect to see it back.</p>
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<p>Better yet, an unlimited MetroCard=$91.</p>
<p>I could see where food can cost $1k a month especially if you don’t have time during the day to go out to Trader Joe’s and spend 45 minutes shopping every week. I spend $500+ on food easy.</p>
<p>Also-I can see whether health insurance/life insurance/property insurance/car insurance (you live in NY, ditch the bloody car) can cost $250 or more.</p>
<p>But $2k for rent? I occasionally pass by Citi Habitats on my way to school and I’ve seen listings for $1,500 in the NYU area. Where the hell are you living? Try like $1k.</p>
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<p>You do realize it takes less time to make your own sandwich than to run across the street, wait in line, and wait for someone else to make you a sandwich, right?</p>
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<p>I shop for, and cook, my own food. I still spend upwards of $500 a month. It’s cheaper and I can usually make it taste better in less time.</p>
<p>What are you buying that you’re spending $500 a month on food? I spend about $35 a week for my girlfriend and myself, and we eat probably 90% of our meals from stuff I’ve made.</p>
<p>Who knows. I don’t buy anything particularly expensive and try to keep grocery costs under control, but every time I go grocery shopping I end up $50-80 poorer and with 3 or 4 bags of groceries. How the hell do you live on $35 a week? Are you living on ramen and peanut butter? Then again, the $500 is a round number based on roughly what I spend on groceries and eating out.</p>
<p>Maybe the $25 worth of wine I bought yesterday has something do do with my $500/month food tab.</p>
<p>Well, no liquor and buying barely anything from the inside aisles tends to help with costs. We have oatmeal, tea, and a piece of fruit with breakfast (weekends maybe something nicer like eggs and waffles with sausage or bacon). Our snacks during the day are fruits, nuts, carrots, and celery. Lunch is generally a sandwich on homemade bread with some deli meat and cheese. Dinner is whatever I feel like making, though it’s usually a far cry from ramen. Over the weekend I made a big pot of jambalaya and the other day I made a lot of Cuban black bean stew. Was just at the supermarket last night and saw they had corned beef on sale for $1.49/lb. Bought three of them since they’re normally around $4.50 a pound and might go back later today to buy some more. Won’t even have to bother with deli meat for a while, I can just make my own!</p>
<p>We probably save a bit of money by not drinking alcohol or premade stuff at the grocery store.</p>
<p>hm. That’s weird. I don’t buy anything from the inside aisles besides shampoo/conditioner/body wash, pasta, rice and ice cream. Oh, and chicken broth (at $2.29/quart, it adds up-cup and a half per portion of risotto). I made bolognese sauce yesterday night and it’s really good and it gets better by the day. I might keep making this stuff-and I usually don’t eat leftovers (I usually cook fresh every day). I normally don’t eat breakfast and don’t snack. I just chalked it up to NYC’s absurd cost of living.</p>
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<p>1k seems far too low for a decent place in manhattan</p>
<p>Ahh, I was brought up on leftovers. Generally I’ll make a really big dish of some sort and then make a side of veggies fresh to go with dinner every day. Also, I’d suggest trying to find a smaller, ethnic grocery store to go for all of your meats/veggies. I’ve found they tend to be half the price and just as good (if not better). I only go to the national chain stores when I need toiletries or canned/jarred goods.</p>
<p>We did a project in 5th grade where we buy square meals (takeout or resteraunt food, not micky d’s) three times a day for a week with $100…eat cereal or toast for breakfast, dinner is paid, and all you have to pay for is lunch! You can even cook!</p>
<p>just my note! good luck</p>
<p>yeah my rent is $2500 / month, but i split it 3 ways so it’s peachy</p>
<p>Racin-I used to do that too, but I found that I just throw away my leftovers (I don’t eat them) so I cook at most 2 or 3 portions.</p>
<p>people still make 120k their first year out of college?</p>
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Let me introduce you to the novel concept of renting further out and taking the train in. Mid-career adults do it all the times. What’s the sense of entitlement that requires living in Manhattan?</p>
<p>They cheat, steal, whatever. ;)</p>
<p>"people still make 120k their first year out of college? "</p>
<p>Yeah, it’s called investment banking. </p>
<p>A lot of first year analyst pulled in 70k base + 50k bonus in 2009.</p>
<p>I don’t think mid career professionals work 80 hour workweeks.</p>
<p>This stuff cracks me up. Just shows that lots of spoiled kids have absolutely no sense of reality and how average people live.</p>
<p>In certain companies, packing lunch as a management is out of question. You are supposed to “socialize”, network and mentor at lunch unless you are in an admin or hourly type of job. In addition, you may be asked to give a fair share of your salary to causes such as United Way. While it supposed to be voluntary, you may get called into management office if you are moving up the ladder as you are expected to give a lot more. Sure you get paid more but you are also expected to give more.
Regardless of your annual income, one always feels it is not enough. I think there was an article about it in WSJ number of years ago.
Great thing about NYC is having lots of options. Yes, you can get a haircut for $600 but you can also find a place for less than $30 in Manhattan (Subway barbershop on 32nd St.- not sure their exact name but I pass by there). As a single person, cooking can also end up costing more than a take out. There are so many inexpensive options in NYC but it is best for you to do options analysis to determine the optimal living condition. Summer experience would be a good time to see if you can manage your budget as a FT.</p>