Is Day to Day living in NY city really that expensive ?

These are all things you’ve seen in films. I’m sure real people would use a little more sense, shop in thrift stores, and walk places once in a while. ;)
Damn if movies were accurate I would have ridden off on Falkor from the neverending story years ago! on a side note, for those of you who haven’t seen the movie, total misadvertising with the title

haha.. anyway, sure it won’t be that bad, its not against the law to tighten the purse strings, sure you won’t blow all your money.

A cab ride that isn’t stuck in horrendous traffic can cost about as much as a fast food meal would cost. A cab ride to a borough might be fast food for two.

Prices are higher in anything that’s a chain or franchise, but if you live in the city, you quickly learn where you can get deals and things that aren’t ridiculously expensive.

The thing that’s most expensive is rent. The boroughs aren’t that bad, but you can go from an okay neighborhood to dicey right across the block. You’ll still be looking at $800—$1000 for a one bedroom apartment. Manhattan? Forget it. You’ll pay out your freaking nose for a studio… unless you get lucky.

You just really have to be smart and do your homework, and you can get by just fine.

I don’t know about rent, but….why take a cab when you can take public transportation that can take you almost everywhere in NYC for $2.50
*Edit it’s 2.25, sorry

Theonlyexception is right movies do over exagerate things Its just as expensive to live there as anywhere else although the taxes may be higher, but it is definately very populated!

@Michael_Huntington: At the wrong time of day, public transportation can be a harrowing experience. Almost nothing sucks more than a packed subway or bus in the summer with failing air conditioning, and most of the old trains rarely have working a/c. Plus, it’s about an hour commute from Queens to Manhattan (from my experience) taking a bus and two subways, but it’s a 10–15 minute drive.

@poofandmook Oh right I forgot to mention, the subway sucks on the weekends. Took me two hours to get home last saturday night/early sunday morning from time square to queens
And fuck the G train

Poofandmook is right and what if where you wanted to go wasn’t too far away yet was too far to walk?I think people should just stick with a cab.

Hmm.. I always thought NYC was more expensive than where I live, but 800–1000 here will get you a studio apartment… there are better deals to be had of course if you are here and can shop around…

Here it’s not odd for people to have roommates past 30, either, if they wish to live in a nicer neighborhood than they could afford on their own. If you make $75K, you should be able to cover ~$1875 a month for rent, which, most likely, doesn’t include utilities. That limits where you can live, unless you have a car with insurance, and then you can live in New Jersey, upstate, or far in the outer boroughs. Or you could live in Harlem/Washington Heights/Inwood in Manhattan.

I’m convinced a lot of people stay in relationships here so they don’t have to see an increase in rent from having to move out!

Of course everywhere is going to have different price ranges but even if it is more expensive then it isn’t by much.

I am glad you asked this question. I have always been curious about this. A friend of mine from New York was telling me all sorts of stories about the dog eat dog culture in the professional environment – people working 12–14 hour days to compete with colleagues, high rents etc. I always like to hear several opinions on things like this as embellishment is not unheard of.

I was searching housing in San Francisco recently and was shocked by rent prices there too whereas one can buy property for under $10K in some places in the US. Forgive my ignorance, I live in New Zealand and simply either hear stories or browse real estate on the internet.

Again in films you always see people taking cabs once or twice per day,,,,{20~30 blocks at a time}

In films, every time the hero arrives at a building, crime scene etc., there is always a parking space right outside. How close is that to real life in a big city?

Don’t take too much notice of life as depicted in films.

On the other hand – my wife and I often use cabs – we both have an expense account.