big apple, tiny *ss budget

So you’ve made it to the Big Apple. You wake up in your new apartment, rub away the grit from your waking eyes. You can hear the beautiful sounds of pigeons, cars, and some dude screaming. What a beautiful day! You decide to go for a morning stroll to take in your new neighborhood. You sling on your NPR tote bag, pop on your knockoff AirPods, and step out the door… And somehow, you’ve already spent $20. 

Just breathing outside in NYC feels expensive, much less going out and having fun. Like many NYC transplants, I was whisked here as a young, quivering intern, making only enough to rent a sunless closet in deep Bedstuy. So, I spent over a year figuring out how to ball on a budget. Here are my favorite hacks to living in the Big Apple on a tiny *ss budget.

GET A F*CKING LIBRARY CARD - I am one of those annoying cold brew-drinking adorers of the library. But for good reason. With a library card you can not only access books, e-books, and audio books, but also resources like LinkedIn Learning, Mango Languages, and my favorite, Culture Pass. You can get a library card at any or all of the New York, Brooklyn or Queens systems no matter where you live in New York, but you can only use the cards in each matching system.

Culture Pass - As mentioned above, you’ll need a library card for this but it’s well worth it. You can reserve free passes and tickets at all kinds of museums, art centers, performance centers and theatres. My favorite is the Museum of the Moving Image, a movie buff’s sacred place filled with all sorts of movie history. But you can also ice skate for free in Central Park, if that’s your thing, I guess.

The Skint - If you have a New Yorker friend who always seems to be at cool cultural events or concerts, and you’re wondering how they’re not wallowing in (even more) credit card debt, they probably subscribe to The Skint newsletter. Every week, the newsletter compiles cheap and free events around the city and ticket deals through their sponsors. I’ve gone to art fairs, poetry readings, lectures, and more that were listed on the newsletter.

Free Museum Days or Pay What You Wish - NYC is RIFE with museums. There are probably more museums than there are McDonalds (don’t fact-check me), which seems like an extraordinary feat in today’s modern times. Most museums either have specific days or times they’re free or pay what you wish.

NYC for Free - There are countless businesses and brands in the city and they’re always running promotions and popup events where they hand out freebies. You can sign up for their newsletter but I prefer to follow their lightning-fast updates on their Instagram stories. They also have a list of birthday freebies that is truly exhaustive. Pro tip, the makeup freebies get unhinged around New York Fashion Week.

Nonsense NYC - If your vibes are weird, and I mean that in the best way, then this newsletter is for you. Nonsense compiles “independent art, weird events, strange happenings, unique parties, and senseless culture” in the city. If you have always wanted to go to Sleep No More but have audibly gagged over the price, subscribe to Nonsense instead.

Too Good to Go - Should you make dinner instead of going out? Sure. Should you be saving money instead of ordering sushi? Yeah. Enter Too Good to Go. The app allows restaurants and grocery stores to sell their stuff at the end of the day for a steep discount. The food’s perfectly fine but just needs to be moved to make room for new batches of bagels or sushi rolls. So you get your food for cheap and restaurants and grocery stores reduce food waste. It’s a win-win! Except at some point you should probably learn how to cook.

IDNYC - It’s like an ID card, but way, way cooler. All NYC residents (over the age of 10, but I think you’re fine), can apply for one. It grants you access to city services, but also memberships and access to all sorts of cultural institutions in the city like the American Museum of Natural History, MoMA, New York City Ballet, and much more. You can also get discounts on Costco memberships, at Food Bazaar grocery stores, and fitness memberships! My favorite benefit is that it can also function as your library card across the New York, Brooklyn, and Queens library systems!

TDF - This nonprofit makes tickets more financially accessible to New Yorkers through its discounted tickets membership program, making tickets to all sorts of theatre performances, including big Broadway shows, incredibly more affordable. Tickets through TDF range between $11 and cap at $59.50, which is still really cheap compared to average prices.

TodayTix - You’ve probably seen the TikTok videos of performances by Hamilton actors to crowds of adoring fans waiting for the ticket lottery drawings. You can get steeply discounted or free tickets to certain performances by entering lotteries for free. I try to enter the lottery for the Shakespeare in the Park performances every summer (pro tip, if you don’t win the lottery, you can also line up near the theater before the show to snag any last-minute tickets no one showed up to claim).

Thirsty Gallerina - If you have Sex and the City-esque fantasies of meeting some smoking hottie at an art gallery and you’d like to have free booze to boot, this Instagram account is your new best friend. The Gallerina posts deets about gallery openings and what kind of free drinks they’re serving, with emojis indicating if beer, wine, or champagne is being handed round priceless pieces of art.

Lex - If you’re queer, then Lex has your back. You can find oodles of free events and clubs to join on the app. Also like, hookups and dealers, but shhhhh… don’t tell the straights.

Atlas Obscura - This website compiles the weirdest of the weird around the world, and few cities are home to more weird than New York City. You can spend many weekends just making pilgrimages to these shrines of oddity.

Eventbrite - You can find a lot of gems on here, but be warned, your thumbs are gonna get a workout from scrolling.

Other Peoples’ Clothes - The thrifting scene could probably be its own blog post but OPC is pretty much my holy grail. They’re way more affordable than other stores, have good curation, and clean dressing rooms. You can also sell your no-longer loved pieces, and whatever they don’t buy they can drop off at a charity for you.

NYFW - So, you’re not a famous influencer or microcelebrity, let alone an actual celebrity. But NYFW beckons with haute couture gloved hands. You can still orbit the edges of that cosmos by sneaking into parties and checking out pop-ups from brands. NYC for Free, mentioned above, will do big lists of all the upcoming pop-ups. Asa Cameron will post great events that circle the group chats of fashion students and fashion lovers alike. She also has an Instagram broadcast channel where she answers questions about how to get involved during the week. Isaac Hindin-Miller is one of the DJ darlings of the NYC scene. He will often make a list of parties happening during fashion week. If you can’t make a show, sometimes you can make an aftershow party by following DJs on Instagram who tend to post the shows they spin for the week.