There is no question that living in New York City is expensive. But how expensive? I can only tell you from my perspective as everybody’s situation is different. We are a married couple with one source of income and are currently living in Manhattan. Below is an overview of our living expenses and ways we do to budget for travel and goals.
Income
My husband’s corporate job is our source of income. Fortunately we can live off one income when we budget it well. In general the rent in NYC is amongst one of the highest in the world. We prefer location over space, thus we chose to live in a 300 sq. feet studio for almost 2.5k per month. For a decent non-doorman studio in NYC you are looking to pay around 2k – 2.5k in Manhattan, you can find cheaper options or bigger space for this price range in other boroughs. For New Yorkers, rent usually takes up to one-third to half of the monthly salary.
Monthly Expenses
Rent: Studio apartment in Manhattan
Grocery: My husband brings lunch to work, and we cook at home on weekdays and sometimes on the weekends. Dining out is not too budget friendly, so cooking and eating at home definitely has saved us some money.
Bills: Gym, Laundry, phone bill, insurance, utilities & internet
Entertainment: Date-nights and dinning out are our major weekend expenses. We don’t really go out for drinks and nightlife unless it’s a special occasion.
Big Expenses
Travel: We travel 2-3 times a year together. I also travel by myself a couple times a year. Generally we spend the majority of our savings on travel.
Gifts & Miscellaneous: There are unavoidable occasions where buying gifts and luxury items such a suit for work and a tennis pass for summer.
Savings & Goals
We haven’t used any particular method when it comes to saving. We set a goal of how much we want to save per month and budget our living expenses accordingly. I use this app called Daily Budget to budget our daily expenses. It’s straightforward and it keeps all of our spendings organized. Over the past years, we’ve been spending the majority of our savings on travel. Travel keeps us inspired and motivated. We definitely will continue to travel as much as we can, but since we are not getting any younger, we want to also save for other things and set new goals for upcoming years. Below are the categories that we are currently saving for or will eventually start saving for.
Emergency Fund: I’ve heard from a friend who has always been good with money that she always has 6 months of living expenses saved up. These funds had come handy when unexpected events happened to her. This month we spent almost $300 on our cat’s vet emergency visits. We were grateful for the emergency fund we’d had. We are still working on this.
Downpayment: We want to own a property in the near future. We don’t know where yet, but we have set a budget and will start saving toward our goal.
Travel: We put away a portion of our savings toward our travel fund. We plan where we want to go a year ahead and do research on the costs. We usually book as early as we can for cheaper fares.
Gifts & Miscellaneous: This is also part of our big expenses. It’s good to have some money saved up in case of weddings, birthdays, and supplies we might need for work and leisure.
Photos by me