Help me live cheap in NYC?

Cognisseur

Hey all,

I'm moving to the city this summer with my girlfriend. I'm going to start a doctoral program in the fall, and she's going to start a master's program. My doctoral program doesn't fund well and will take 5 years and an additional 1.5 years for me to get licensed, so I won't start making money for another 6-7 years. Over that time, I'll probably accrue ~150k in debt (scary number).

Where do I live? Her program is in upper Manhattan, mine is in the Bronx, so I figure Washington Heights? How do I pick an apartment? There are a million offered, all sound identical. I'll go visit a ton before I decide, but nonetheless I wish I had some checklist or extensive guide for all the things to ask and check.

I'm probably not going to be able to afford health-care during this time. Is that possible? Have you guys tried it?

I probably want to eat sometime in the next 6 years. What do I buy, where do I buy it?

I'm going to be living off loans so I don't have an income I can set a budget by, so how do I figure out what I'll need and such? Will I afford Internet or just leech Wifi at Starbucks? Basic cable TV? Is there any shortcuts around paying $100 a month for metrocards? Where can I find free stuff / coupons / discounts?

Help me folks. I need to find a place to live, find a way to live cheaply in the city for the next few years, and find a way to finance this whole insane operation.

What tips, stories, guides, links, books, etc, do you guys have at your disposal?

Thanks in advance.

witch_ie

I don't know much about New York, but was able to live pretty cheaply in Boston when I was in graduate school there. This is what I did:

- Searched the internet to find the cheapest place I could live (that was still safe). This means roommates. Having roommates also means you get to split the cost of internet, utilities, and other luxury items (cable), that you agree to share.
- Bought a bus pass - in Boston, it was cheaper than paying for parking + a car + insurance. It was also less expensive than taking the T (Boston's train system).
- Budgeted based on the surplus that is typically included for living expenses with a student loan. For example, for a given school year, I might have $5000 extra - this means I can spend $500 per month for everything (assuming two months of a summer job and additional income to pay for those months). I typically spent no more than $25 per week on food and went shopping every week.
- Did not eat out more than once every 2 months and accepted free food whenever it was offered.
- Only paid for entertainment (movies) when I really wanted to see the movie (about 1 per semester).
- Got a library card and used it to check out movies, books, etc.
- Did not go to Starbucks to be tempted by their expensive drinks.
- Avoided social situations where I would have to spend money.

Edit: When looking for a place to live, I've found that places with private owners usually cost a lot less. They may not be as well maintained as those owned by a company, as you get what you pay for, but when you have no money, the cost matters more. It's not a fun way to live, but can be done.

cooljammer00

This sounds like you're just accruing massive amounts of debt and digging a deep hole. You can't get some sort of part time job?

Cognisseur

cooljammer00 wrote: »

This sounds like you're just accruing massive amounts of debt and digging a deep hole. You can't get some sort of part time job?

Doctoral programs are pretty time-consuming... a bunch in my department explicitly ban their students from getting part-time jobs. I don't think mine explicitly prohibits it, but it seems like a pretty tough curriculum so I'm guessing it won't be possible.

Grizzled

Some things that have worked for me (I also lived in Boston, as well as spending time in the Bay Area and now Los Angeles, and I'm in grad school as well).

- You need health care. I did fine without it until I had a minor medical problem and paid $400 to spend 30 minutes in urgent care and get a prescription written out. You can also check if there is an effort at your school to get free/cheap health care for grad students (hint: probably) and get involved with that.

- There are often little academic-skill jobs that you can do for pocket money even if your department doesn't want you to work. Just keep your ear to the ground for them; I've done translation, paper grading, computer help and cartography. Think about what useful skills you have that you can whip out and do something with.
Tutoring is also good, especially with kids who need help with something you've already mastered (e.g. algebra) - although the economy has probably changed this, in the past I've gotten anywhere from $20-60/hour to tutor middle and high school kids.

- Part of your department privileges should include a computer lab somewhere; I found that all my internet needs (as opposed to things like PA forums) could usually be taken care of in a short amount of time each evening at the lab, as long as I planned ahead a little (although I eventually cracked and got internet at home).

- Use your school library as a source of reading material as well as research. The only books I ever bought in Boston were the $1 sale books out front of the store, everything else came from the school or public library. You can even abuse things like interlibrary loan just to get copies of always-checked-out books from affiliated institutions.

- Subscribe to your local Freecycle group and just check it once in a while for stuff you need. 99% of what goes through there is junk, but occasionally something mundane but useful comes up, like coat hangers, boxes, etc.

- Food shopping: if New York is like other big cities I've lived in, a lot of food is cheaper in bulk at the appropriate ethnic market than the regular store. By ethnic market I don't mean a trendy multi-ethnically-themed grocery store, but rather the places where the local immigrant population gets their stuff. Things like rice, chicken, fresh vegetables, spices, dry beans, etc. Also sometimes these stores have cuts/items/sizes that you can't find at a regular store; for instance I used to buy little half-pound bricks of ground pork which I assume was just the trimmings and leftovers ground up, for $0.89/lb. Not very healthy, but it was better than starving.

Some more basic stuff:
- Buy a thermos and a coffee filter. Never go to Starbucks again.
- Ditto for bread, fruit and lunchmeat/peanut butter instead of deli sandwiches or school cafeteria.
- Ditto a Nalgene and tap/filtered water instead of bottled water
(These things can be tough to get used to, but once you have the routine down, you wonder what the hell you were doing before).
- In grad school there are a million talks, seminars, events, etc. Often they have food (and booze!). You can eat well at the talks you actually go to, and sometimes even snag something from the ones you didn't.
- No cable. Why are you watching TV when you could be studying? Seriously though, I threw away my TV halfway through the second year of school and never looked back; besides now everything good on TV comes to DVD eventually. If you like sports, try listening to the radio; baseball for one is better that way.

That's a good start, I'll post more if I think of it later. Feel free to PM me if you have questions or need more ideas for specific problems.

Ponge

Have you ever been to NY? We were there on holiday and stayed in a hostel in Washington Heights and it... Well it wasn't very nice. Theres a very large Puerto Rican (I think) population and it definatly seemed a bit dangerous at nights. Don't get me wrong there are probably good and bad bits of Washington Heights, I'm not a local so wouldn't be able to tell you.

Shazkar Shadowstorm

for example, in upper manhattan go to fairway

freshdirect is honestly not a bad option though

GrimmyTOA

Washington Heights is actually gentrifying pretty quickly. It's not there yet, but it's definitely getting nicer. Still cheap, though. A lot of young real estate agents live up there now, so you know there's something to recommend it. Harlem is also getting better, too, especially in the parts near the north end of the park.

Advice for finding an apartment in NYC: Get a broker. They're expensive. You'll end up paying a month and a half's rent (or more even, I can't remember) on whatever apartment they find you. They'll also be able to get you into apartments you couldn't otherwise see, and they'll know what's fair-market price and what's a total rip-off. I wandered around and checked out places on my own for a few days, and then got a broker who found me an awesome and cheap apartment in the course of an afternoon.

Fairway's a good place for food. It's expensive, still, but it's New York. Everything's expensive. I'm not sure if there's a Trader Joe's up at that end of the island, but they're worth checking out too if you can find one. The temptation to have everything delivered in New York is a strong one. Everything from laundry to food to your newspaper can come up to your door if you want it to. Resist! Resist!

If you're not commuting every day, don't buy a monthly card. Get a card you can top up, and use that. Get used to walking. New York's a great walking city.

Cable and internet are expensive. Depending on where you're living, you might be able to find an unsecured network, but I never have much luck in that department. Consider talking to your neighbours about it. Maybe someone has a wireless router and would be willing to split their internet bill.

As regards healthcare, I did what Grizzled did. Showed up with none, and eventually paid the price. Find something. Your school probably has some sort of agreement with a clinic or hospital or something. Sign up.

illig

you'll definitely want to find a roommate... you'll shell out around $2K a month for rent and utilities/cable/internet for a place that's decent enough and safe enough if you want to live on your own.... you can do the same in a shared apartment for half the cost

reach out to your school, i'm sure lots of other doctoral students will be looking for roomies as well, and it'll be easier to live with like minded people (instead of alcoholic hipsters or finance workers)

try to get a place that's reasonably close to your school... i know that commuting via subway from the Bronx, Bklyn, or far Queens sounds OK in the beginning, but eventually you'll hate yourself for having to spend 2hrs standing in a hot subway each day in exchange for slightly cheaper rent

cheap food is plentiful... i lived on $50/week in college in Manhattan... and that was mostly restaurant/fast food, if you can cook, you can definitely do better (china town is an excellent source of extremely cheap fruit/veggies, seafood, and other ingredients)

Dog

Also in New York everything is connected to everything else by a multitude of subway stations. As long as you can get from point A to point B through the subway easily it doesn't matter where you live. As long as it's "safe" and near point A :P

KalTorak

Stay out of bars. That isn't really NYC-specific advice, but get out (or stay out) of the habit of going out to a bar every week or twice a week or whatever. It costs a ton.

jma820

i live in harlem with 2 other roommates and my job only pays me hourly and not that much. What i like to do when I go grocery shopping is to look for meats that are about to expire since they're generally marked down.

Also Harlem is a perfectly safe place, at least east Harlem, i dont have any curtains in my apt for crying out loud and things have been fine. We pay about 2.5k a month for 3 bed rooms, 1.5 bathrooms, kitchen and living room.

I can't really think of any other NYC specific tips off the top of my head right now. Good luck

Cognisseur

Hey guys, thanks for all the really great advice so far :-) I'm going to throw in a few more comments to see if that helps the advice:
-I'm pretty sure I'm just going to be living with my girlfriend alone in a 1 bedroom somewhere. So that helps rent to some degree. Looking around Craigslist lots of 1 bedrooms were going for ~$1000, so it'll be ~$500 a month for me which doesn't sound terrible?

-I know this is one of those "fast, quality, or cheap, pick two of the three" sort of things, but ideally I would like to find some place that's fairly quiet and safe, yet cheap.
>My girlfriend is tiny and cute, so the neighborhood will have to be safe enough for her to walk around in without fear.
>I don't care about traffic noise or whatnot, but it would be nice to live somewhere quiet enough to get to go to sleep when I choose to.
>I'm having a bit of difficulty figuring out how much weight to place on rent versus other intangible attributes. Is a safe neighborhood worth $100 more per month? Is 100 square feet? Is 100 square feet even a lot? I just made it up. I mean, I figure if I'm already going to be paying my grad school ~$25k a year in tuition alone, would paying an extra $100 for a nice neighborhood impact it much? It's like ~$31k a year or ~32k a year for tuition and rent.

-Health Insurance: You said you didn't have it until you had to pay $400... how much is health insurance per year? I thought it was a pretty good amount of money, enough that paying $400 every couple years would be cheaper.

-I will need Internet, as it'll serve the bulk of my entertainment, from TV to video to gaming to message boards.

-I live in Jersey so I have a decent amount of experience in the city. Enough to know not to go out to bars and such, not enough to know that the north part of Harlem is getting better.

Thank you everyone who replied so far!

Grizzled

Cognisseur wrote: »

-Health Insurance: You said you didn't have it until you had to pay $400... how much is health insurance per year? I thought it was a pretty good amount of money, enough that paying $400 every couple years would be cheaper.

This could be a whole thread in itself, because of the way that deductibles vs. monthly rates work. Basically, you have the right idea; if you are pretty sure you are not ever going to get sick you might take the risk; crappy insurance will run you 70-100/month with a huge deductible, meaning you will pay for most stuff anyway unless you get hit by a car or something. The point I was trying to make is that you never know when something really crappy is going to unexpectedly happen that you can't afford, hence insurance.

For basic care stuff, look around and see if there is a free clinic or something in the area you end up in, sometimes that will let you do basic checkups and stuff, i.e. preventative care which helps to keep you healthy. Basically, you want insurance in case the shit hits the fan.

KalTorak

One thing that might help find an apartment is to see if any nearby colleges have listings or webpages of tips for apartment hunting.

witch_ie

As was mentioned earlier, most schools do offer some sort of health plan that isn't all that expensive. They also typically have a student health clinic you can use for the little stuff. When I was a grad student, I considered the cost of the school health plan as part of my tuition expenses and paid it up front. I think it came to around $900/year. This was several years ago, so it might be a little higher now.

CygnusZ

Maybe this isn't constructive, but I'd recommend against living in Manhattan if you're trying to save money at all. Rent aside, consumer prices tend to be jacked up in Manhattan. You can get a better apartment for less in the Bronx. I lived in a nice 2BR in Ditmars for $1250/mth a few years ago.

cooljammer00

CygnusZ wrote: »

Maybe this isn't constructive, but I'd recommend against living in Manhattan if you're trying to save money at all. Rent aside, consumer prices tend to be jacked up in Manhattan. You can get a better apartment for less in the Bronx. I lived in a nice 2BR in Ditmars for $1250/mth a few years ago.

I actually told a friend about this thread today, and the first words out of his mouth amounted in something along the lines of "don't live in Manhattan." I assume since OP's programs are there, he is trying to save money on train fares. But yes, do consider other boroughs.

starlancerii

When apartment hunting, couple things to check:
- Make sure the paint job's not peeling
- Make sure the hot water in the shower is actually hot

If you end up living in or around Manhattan, try to negotiate the rent down - the economy is tanking, and so are rent prices, so people are more likely to be willing to negotiate.

SatanIsMyMotor

Can't you just work as a TA or something like that? It's not a ton of money but it's something.

Cognisseur

SatanIsMyMotor wrote: »

Can't you just work as a TA or something like that? It's not a ton of money but it's something.

I mean, hopefully I'll TA, I've been speaking to the director of the program about financing options. I think I can TA starting 1st semester for like $1k per semester, but that's not going to make a killer difference regarding my other options.

nexuscrawler

I live across the river in jersey

not as exciting but rent is a fraction of the cost

PATH trains are very quick and you can be in the city in like 40 mins

oldsak

Ok so, where to begin?

First off, you're not likely to find a neighborhood where your girlfriend will feel safe in harlem or washington heights. Actually, pretty much anywhere you're only spending 1k a month for an apartment she's not likely to feel safe. That being said, Washington heights is coming up, and Columbia being in the area, there's quite a few students. Someone suggested the Bronx. Having lived in the Bronx, I'm just going to tell you no right now.

If you're willing to endure a bit of a commute, there are places in Brooklyn or Queens, or even Jersey City which are in your price range and will feel safer. It really depends on what your priorities are.

There's a Fairway in Washington Heights, which I hear has good prices for food (I've never shopped there). It's probably your best bet. Someone suggested trader joe's, but there's not one up there.

I'm a student right now. NYC sucks is rough on a budget. You're going to have to accept the fact that NYC is expensive as hell.

Erios

Everything north of W100th is gentrifying pretty fast. Also, NYC is very safe in general (safer than your average suburb in fact!) and just because they're Puerto Rican does not mean they will mug you, kill you and steal your family. Note that eating out in NYC is extraordinarily expensive. Also, buy 1 month unlimited metrocards if you are taking the subway at least twice at least 20 days out of the month.

Also, echoing Shaz, you really want to shop at fairway if you deign to live in Manhattan. Eating out is inordinately expensive here. Chicken and rice stands may become your go-to lunch. Though given that you're looking to go into Manhattan/The Bronx, consider Queens as an option.

To give you an idea of what you're looking at, a nice studio apartment with kitchen, bath, bed by Riverside Park on the Upper West Side will run upwards of 2000 a month. The person who lives in said apartment is a bankruptcy lawyer at Weil, Gotshal and Manges. Check to see if your university is providing housing. Also, if your doctoral program is an MD or something like econ, math or comp sci, you can probably get decent loans and pay them off reasonably quickly.

Balgair

The city is alive,
The city is expanding
Living in the city can be demanding.

cooljammer00

Balgair wrote: »

The city is alive,
The city is expanding
Living in the city can be demanding.

it's funny you mention that. they actually borrowed someone's apartment to shoot that show. someone actually lives in that shit hole.

marty_0001

I just bought a 4-ingredient cookbook and it is awesome. The food isn't great, but it is ridiculously easy to buy for and cook, and most importantly it prevents starvation.