<p>When I was first supporting myself in the city I would attend all the “happy hours” at bars where for the cost of 1 drink ($1.50) I could eat a full dinner of turkey, ham, roast beef, etc. With the drinking age at 21 now I don’t think that would work quite as well for a college student!</p>
<p>Linda,
Here are some lists of grocery stores in the area (the search also seems to pick up some deli/markets)
At the bottom of the post are the addresses of the two closest D’ags that amtc mentioned.</p>
<p>Grocery stores in Union Square Area
[Grocery</a> Union Square Manhattan | Yelp](<a href=“http://www.yelp.com/search?find_loc=Union+Square%2C+Manhattan%2C+NY&cflt=grocery]Grocery”>http://www.yelp.com/search?find_loc=Union+Square%2C+Manhattan%2C+NY&cflt=grocery)</p>
<p>Gramercy
[Grocery</a> Gramercy Manhattan | Yelp](<a href=“http://www.yelp.com/search?find_loc=Gramercy%2C+Manhattan%2C+NY&cflt=grocery]Grocery”>http://www.yelp.com/search?find_loc=Gramercy%2C+Manhattan%2C+NY&cflt=grocery)</p>
<p>Stuyvesant Town
<a href=“http://www.yelp.com/search?z=15&bbox=-73.9808607101%2C40.7269335439%2C-73.9679861069%2C40.7366895598&find_desc=&cflt=grocery#mapCenterLat:40.7378898417/mapCenterLng:-73.9767837524/mapZoom:13/cats:grocery/places:NY%3ANew_York%3AManhattan%3AStuyvesant_Town/sortby:composite/mapsize:small/show_more_search_options:true[/url]”>http://www.yelp.com/search?z=15&bbox=-73.9808607101%2C40.7269335439%2C-73.9679861069%2C40.7366895598&find_desc=&cflt=grocery#mapCenterLat:40.7378898417/mapCenterLng:-73.9767837524/mapZoom:13/cats:grocery/places:NY%3ANew_York%3AManhattan%3AStuyvesant_Town/sortby:composite/mapsize:small/show_more_search_options:true</a></p>
<p>Closest D’Agostinos:
D`Agostino at University Place
64 University Pl
D`Agostino at 25th Street 341 3rd Ave</p>
<p>Here is the East Village list. (Sorry, not getting this to work right - will have to repost it later).</p>
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<p>I agree with Tuppence, bank fees can be a killer. If she needs to withdraw money, use the Chase ATM at Duane Reade where the fee is $.99
as compared to $3.00 if you are not a chase customer. CVS and most grocery stores will alow you to get cash back when you pay with your debit card (free). So if your child needs a couple of $$ in cash, have them use one of these options.</p>
<p>This is a little off topic. My niece and many of her friends are at HS summer camps run by colleges across the US. They attend an international school in Asia. From their comments in facebook, one girl(not ethnic Asian) is given an allowance of $180 a week !! She was proud that she only spent $120 ! Their weekend activities include shopping and eating at sushi restaurants. I am sure their room and board are already paid through the camps. My niece and her friends will be freshmen in HS this coming fall.</p>
<p>This just illustrates the diversity the OP’s daughter will encounter, especially in NY. Different people will have different budgets.</p>
<p>East Village Groceries and Deli/Markets</p>
<p>[Grocery</a> East Village Manhattan | Yelp](<a href=“http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=grocery&find_loc=East+Village%2C+NY&ns=1&rpp=10#mapCenterLat:40.7269003062/mapCenterLng:-73.9823627472/mapZoom:14/cats:grocery/places:NY%3ANew_York%3AManhattan%3AEast_Village/sortby:composite/mapsize:small/show_more_search_options:true]Grocery”>http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=grocery&find_loc=East+Village%2C+NY&ns=1&rpp=10#mapCenterLat:40.7269003062/mapCenterLng:-73.9823627472/mapZoom:14/cats:grocery/places:NY%3ANew_York%3AManhattan%3AEast_Village/sortby:composite/mapsize:small/show_more_search_options:true)</p>
<p>hi, i’m usually an active poster on the NYU board, but sometimes i skim the other boards and this caught my eye.</p>
<p>i usually shop exclusively at trader joe’s only because it is a lot cheaper compared to the loss leaders at some of the other grocery stores. i grew up in an outer borough of NYC and i wasn’t used to the Manhattan prices of things when i moved here. it’s easy to lump trader joe’s and whole foods into the same category, but TJ’s is much less expensive. </p>
<p>another place to get cheap food is Chinatown. there are excellent prices on veggies and fruits and sometimes i buy the authetic frozen dumplings there to save for later. </p>
<p>i’ve never shopped at D’Ag but i find Food Emporium to be maddeningly overpriced. there IS a cheap Pathmark on the LES but it’s a bit of a hike to get there.</p>
<p>i have Chase as my bank and there are NO fees to withdraw from a Duane Reade Chase ATM. </p>
<p>i’m a native NY and a young woman and i have to echo the sentiment that living in Brooklyn or Queens is a bad idea for a non-native first (or even second) year college student. it gets really sketchy on subways at night and the later at night it is, the less often subways run.</p>
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<p>I think most bars in NYC charge more than $1.50 for a drink these days, too.</p>
<p>But there is free food to be found in a lot of venues, especially around colleges, with various social gatherings.</p>
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<p>When I was living in the East Village while in college, I spent maybe approximately $150 a week. Including rent and utilities, it would be approximately $350 a week.</p>
<p>Missamericanpie,
Do you know anything about the Met Food (there’s one on 3rd and 17th)? Prices on the circular on their website look to be fair and there’s coupons as well.</p>
<p>Also, could you share with the parents what you posted about your budget per semester on the NYU board? It’s very much in line with what a number of us suggested to the OP.</p>
<p>lindab, the links others have posted should help you a lot! D’AG, Pioneer, Met, Red Apple, Associated and Pathmark are all pretty reasonable priced supermarket chains. And going to Chinatown for produce is an excellent suggestion.</p>
<p>My best advice, though, is still to make sure that your D knows how to shop wisely and cook a few simple meals if she doesn’t already. I think that what makes sticking to a budget so tough for many newcomers to NYC isn’t really that supermarket prices are higher than elsewhere. Rather, a lot of young people w/o much experience fending for themselves can easily be overwhelmed by all the choices we have here. …Wherever you live, going out for sushi is going to cost more than staying home and making an omelet, a sandwhich, or pasta.</p>
<p>so, the unique financial situation i have is that my tuition through NYU is 100% reimbursed through the school one of my parents teaches in. (one of them is a professor in the school of medicine.) my family receives my tuition as income and they are taxed accordingly. </p>
<p>to maintain that scholarship and not have to worry about having a job, my parents give me a lump sum of 2,000$ a semester. that’s it. i’m expected to budget that between:</p>
<p>groceries
“fast food” i.e, take out, not McDonalds!
any clothing i might need
books for pleasure (i get a discount on my textbooks in the NYU Bookstore because i’m the daughter of faculty)
Metrocards (the on-campus dorm i was living in was far from campus. i never bought the monthly because unless you are taking the subway three times a day, you will never use it enough to break even. they just raised the metrocard rates here.)
“going out” expenses: drinks, cabs home if it’s really late, modest sit-down dinners out. </p>
<p>i forgot to mention i also get around $300 on my campus cash/campus debit card, but that usually goes towards school supplies i might need DURING the semester and laundry, plus the occasional dining hall meal. last semester, i found i needed a certain part for my computer to give a presentation in my video games class. i also use the money to pay for my prescriptions at the campus health center.</p>
<p>i rarely go home. i usually try to bring some groceries from my home borough if i do, because it’s insanely cheap there compared to Manhattan. </p>
<p>the thread that londonb is talking about is a thread in which a new student wondered if $2,000 would be enough for a semester. considering that i do not have a meal plan and that i spend more money going out than a first year student would, it’s definitely enough.</p>
<p>the agreement i also made with my parents was that instead of having a paid job, i would have either an unpaid internship or an unpaid research position at NYU. i applied for an on-campus job last fall (campus tour guide) but bombed my final audition.</p>
<p>here’s the thread in which other future NYUers weigh in on what their budgets are: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/new-york-university/745296-how-much-you-bringing-your-wallet.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/new-york-university/745296-how-much-you-bringing-your-wallet.html</a></p>
<p>i would suggest budgeting a little more than you think a college student might need for the fall semester. a new college student in Manhattan WILL go over budget. whether they break the bank over shopping, not knowing how to compare when grocery shopping, discovering they’re addicted to seeing movies in independent film houses or yes, even going to clubs, a freshmen student in NYC has a lot to learn about budgeting. i’m not saying to give them a ridiculous amount of money. i’m just being honest. i was broke my first semester by Thanksgiving, and that was because i just did not know how to budget. </p>
<p>if your student is tech savvy, an online budget website such as mint.com can help keep them on track. i have a mint.com app on my iPhone and it shows me exactly where all of my money is going.</p>
<p>i’m definitely the most frugal among my friends. i shop at Trader Joe’s because the food is healthy and it’s cheap. i comb websites for the best Happy Hour deals. i budget. my roommate and best friend is the total opposite. she can run through money like it’s nothing. i love her, but she can’t budget to save her life!</p>