Rent: $1700 (tiny studio in Manhattan)
Utilities: $200 (electric and FIOS)
Transportation: $120 (subway + occasional taxi)
Food: $600
Fun: $400
Maid: $400
Clothing: $100
Grand Total: $3,520- Get a roommate and cut out nearly half the rent and half the utilities (two bedrooms aren't much more in a walk up).
- You're clearly eating almost all your meals out. You could probably cut this by 2/3 if you went to a Trader Joes and ate 3/4 of your meals at home or made lunch.
- Cut out the maid. Buy a nice vacuum and some cleaning supplies.
New Total: $1,950. Just saved you $19k next year.
Pro-tip: Take dates to Thai restaurants in Manhattan. Many have great ambience and you'll spend ~$30 with a drink each.
Super Pro-tip: The girls you want to date in the long run will be happy to pay their share. :-)
Mostly I want to dispel the idea that New York is prohibitively expensive for startups. It's not if you're resourceful.
My email is railsnoob at yahoo dot com.
Thanks.
And the biggest expense in manhattan is : taking dates out for dinner ($50 a pop usually so about $300 a month) + drinking and hanging with friends ($300 a month easily).
Oh, and I'm 32.