Okay. Use your head. If you want to live in New York City as a twenty-something you have to be frugal. You don't need a degree in accounting to know how to budget. You don't need to rely your parents for money either, in fact most of us don't even have that luxury. You just need to use your head and smarten up. It's really that simple.
Extravagance = debt. Frugality = saving.
My first apartment in NYC demanded triple the rent of my previous apartment in Wisconsin. My second NYC apartment, quadruple. My income? Not increasing at quite the same rate. So it's goodbye 85% of my income to bills and hello living on less than $10 a day. If there's anyone that knows about living frugally as a twenty-something in NYC it's me.
Of course it's easier to socialize when you're out to brunch, having drinks, or at a trendy club. But spending extravagantly now will hinder your finances before you know it. Why do you think so many twenty-somethings move back in with their parents? Default on their school loans? Can't afford their credit cards? They don't know how to be "OK" with being frugal! And they don't know how to budget.
Brace yourselves people, I'm about to unleash some harsh reality.
Drinking in NYC is the devil. Not only is it SO expensive, but it also leads unhealthy decisions like eating like crap later that night. And let's not pretend that you won't be hungover and spending the half the next day in bed either. Save yourself the headache and trade your $12 martinis for a cup of coffee instead.
And unless you're from mars, you know that dining in NYC isn't getting any cheaper either. It's time to make nice with Groupon / Living Social if you want to dine out, and besties with the grocery store for everything else in between. Home cooking...it's healthier, cheaper, and can make for some killer dinner parties. Nothing says "fatter bank account" than skipping dining out.
Embrace the frugality, you got this!
(to be continued...)
