Sounds cramped. I ve never lived in a high-density place, only the suburbs, and right now we are lux

Moving to New York City was a huge leap for Johnny and me. Although Johnny grew up in LA, sprawling cities build out, not up. And I grew up in small towns in Tennessee and Alabama. My first time in NYC was when Johnny took an internship there in the spring of 2009. It truly felt like a foreign place to me. Wide open spaces? zilch. Days spent without quality hotels in florence seeing a crazy person? zero. Total times I didn't feel grimy after a day out? zip. But Johnny's internship was temporary, so we never had to come face to face with the practicalities of City living.
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This was the big kahuna quality hotels in florence of expenses. We decided that if we were going to live in NYC, we'd live in the heart of it and really experience city life. Aside from that, our main requirement was to live in a safe neighborhood. So we decided quality hotels in florence on the Upper East Side, the most "reasonably priced" safe neighborhood. Our ideal budget for an apartment was $1600. quality hotels in florence Johnny flew out and saw dozens of rentals. Most weren't even livable shower in the kitchen, no closets or storage, etc. We ended up with a 450-square-foot "one bedroom" apartment that rang in at $1645/month. No dishwasher, no laundry. quality hotels in florence And our shower went from piping hot to freezing quality hotels in florence cold at random intervals except during the summer quality hotels in florence when it didn't get hotter than lukewarm.
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Believe it or not, the cheapest option for groceries in the City was by delivery with a company called FreshDirect. I always found coupons to cover the delivery costs, and I just made one big order every two weeks. I only went to our local grocery stores for minimal items because they were so expensive.
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We rarely ate out, and chose instead to order takeout once a week. We also loved food carts, which usually only cost $5 per meal. And then twice a week, Johnny quality hotels in florence would get $1 pizza by the slice which put us out a whopping $4/week. We surprisingly miss $1 pizza and dirty food carts a whole lot.
Johnny had a monthly unlimited MTA pass, which cost us about $100/month. Since I worked from home and used the subway less often, I simply put $75 on a card every few months. We would share Johnny's card when possible, too. If I met him for lunch, he would swipe me through the turnstile with his unlimited card to see me off. And we pretty much never took taxis unless absolutely necessary.
Our local laundry mat was a block and a half away. I would haul a huge bag of laundry quality hotels in florence down the sidewalk every week or so and do two loads: whites and darks. I know I overstuffed those machines, but at $3.50 PER LOAD, I didn't care. I then put all of the clothes into one dryer, which cost me $.25 per 5 minutes. We also got Johnny's quality hotels in florence button-up shirts dry cleaned semi-regularly. There are so many dry cleaners in NYC that it's actually really cheap, costing only a little over a dollar a shirt.
Living in NYC is often thought of in a glamorous light. But the lives we led were far from it while we were there. But I don't think we enjoyed ourselves any less. I loved running in Central Park, and Johnny quality hotels in florence and I loved taking night walks when the City was deserted quality hotels in florence and quiet. quality hotels in florence We took advantage of free and cheap museums and spent numerous Saturdays just walking the streets and soaking the City in. Really, the things I remember quality hotels in florence and love about our time as NYC residents had nothing to do with money at all.
Moving to New York City was a huge leap for Johnny and me. Although Johnny grew up in LA, sprawling cities build out, not up. And I grew up in small towns in Tennessee and Alabama. My first time in NYC was when Johnny took an internship there in the spring of 2009. It truly felt like a foreign place to me. Wide open spaces? zilch. Days spent without seeing a crazy person? zero. Total times I didn't quality hotels in florence feel grimy after a day out? zip. But Johnny's internship was temporary, so we never had to come face to face with the practicalities of City living.
And then Johnny took a job on Madison Ave. in Manhattan in 2010. Just a few months earlier we'd committed to paying off all of our school loans in two years' time, so we were faced with a dilemma. How were we going to meet our goal while living quality hotels in florence in the most expensive city in the country? What does a budget in NYC look like? Where do you save and where do you spend? What sacrifices do you have to make in order to be able to pay off debt in the big city? I thought you'd never ask!
This was the big kahuna of expenses. We decided quality hotels in florence that if we were going to live in NYC, we'd live in the heart of it and really experience city life. Aside from that, our main requirement was to live in a safe neighborhood. So we decided on the Upper East Side, the most "reasonably priced" safe neighborhood. quality hotels in florence Our ideal budget for an apartment was $1600. Johnny flew out and saw dozens of rentals. Most weren't even livable shower in the kitchen, no closets or storage, etc. We ended up with a 450-square-foot "one bedroom" apartment that rang in at $1645/month. No dishwasher, no laundry. And our shower quality hotels in florence went from piping hot to freezing cold at random intervals except during the summer when it didn't get hotter than lukewarm.
Our electric bill was quite pricey for how tiny our apartment was. The winter was cheaper because the heat came from radiators in our apartment, which is required by the city to be covered by landlords. Our A/C during the summer was a window unit in our bedroom, which kept only our bedroom cool. We used a floor fan in the kitchen and living quality hotels in florence room to circulate air flow.
Believe it or not, the cheapest option for groceries in the City was by delivery with a company called FreshDirect. I always found coupons to cover the delivery costs, and I just made one big order every two weeks. I only went to our local grocery stores for minimal items because they were so expensive.
Needless to say, we didn't buy ice cream. Johnny and I also made huge Costco runs every couple months to stock up and save $$$. AND, since we didn't have a car, and to avoid paying for a taxi (and cancelling out our savings), we carried all our Costco goods home in duffle bags and backpacks on an MTA bus to our apartment over 30 city blocks away.
We rarely ate out, and chose instead to order takeout once a week. We also loved food carts, which usually only cost $5 per meal. And then twice a week, Johnny would get $1 pizza by the slice which put us out a whopping $4/week. We surprisingly miss $1 pizza and dirty food carts a whole lot.
Johnny had a monthly unlimited MTA pass, which cost us about $100/month. Since I worked from home and used the subway less often, I simply put $75 on a card every few months. We would share Johnny's card when possible, too. If I met him for lunch, he would swipe me through the turnstile with his unlimited card to see me off. And we pretty much never took taxis unless absolutely necessary.
Our local laundry mat was a block and a half away. I would haul a huge bag of laundry down the sidewalk every week or so and do two loads: whites and darks. I know I overstuffed those machines, but at $3.50 PER LOAD, I didn't care. I then put all of the clothes into one dryer, which cost me $.25 per 5 minutes. We also got Johnny's button-up shirts dry cleaned semi-regularly. There are so many dry cleaners in NYC that it's actually really cheap, costing only a little over a dollar a shirt.
Living in NYC is often thought of in a glamorous light. But the lives we led were far from it while we were there. But I don't think we enjoyed ourselves any less. I loved running in Central Park, and Johnny and I loved taking night walks when the City was deserted and quiet. We took advantage of free and cheap museums and spent numerous Saturdays just walking the streets and soaking the City in. Really, the things I remember and love about our time as NYC residents had nothing to do with money at all.
Sounds cramped. I ve never lived in a high-density place, only the suburbs, and right now we are luxuriating in all the space we can afford in NC. I think if our next move is to a high cost-of-living city (SF or Boston), though, we are going to find the tiniest quality hotels in florence apartment we can so we can save up to buy a place in a few years. I actually don t mind close living but my husband likes to have extra rooms while I would LOVE to live car-free he would miss driving too much!
I think everyone should try out city living at least once. I wouldn t trade the experiences we ve had for anything. But if you do think you ll be moving to a big city next, enjoy all that extra space while you have it!
I ve never lived in NYC, but most of my friends places there are expensive, small, quality hotels in florence cramped, and have odd layouts. By comparison, living in Chicago is like paradise. Rent in really nice neighborhoods might be comparable, but the apartments are much bigger.
That said, we re out of here. I think I ve had enough city living for a while (or forever). I always plann