New York City is, for some, the center of the universe. But those of us who live here often realize we must be nuts – it’s so expensive just to live a decent life. Sure, if you’re making bazillions of dollars it’s easy street all the way. But for most of us, every dollar goes into the necessities.
Here, then, are my 10 money-saving tips every New Yorker needs to know to keep you from minimize the chances of needing to become my client:
- Groupon: This site is a wonderful resource for saving money on fun services and products. They’ve got a version for Manhattan and one for Brooklyn.
- Zipcar: I gave up my car in 2003 and joined this service that allows me to rent cars by the hour and includes insurance and gas. Prices are reasonable and there are locations all over the city. If you’re not using your car constantly, using Zipcar could save you hundreds of dollars a month on parking tickets and insurance alone.
- Monthly MetroCard: A monthly MetroCard is far less expensive than cabs or even a weekly card. Buy it once a month and then ride on!
- Go To the Museum For Free: For example:
- Use Twitter To Get Your Discounts: Use Cheap Tweets to get discounts from lots of online retailers.
- Get Grocery Store Coupons – From Your Computer: Use CouponMom to print out coupons for your grocery store.
- Newspapers? Are you kidding? Stop buying the paper every morning. Pick up a free Metro or amNew York at the subway station, then log onto your favorite newspaper’s website to read the news for free.
- Block the Pay-Per-View: If you’ve got kids you probably get a huge pay-per-view bill each month. Shut down the access and get a subscription to Netflix instead. Better yet, stick with basic cable.
- Unplug At Night: Your stuff keeps sucking electricity even when it’s turned off. Unplug everything at night (except the alarm clock) and you’ll save a few bucks on your electricity bill each month. Over a year it could easily come to a hundred bucks or more.
- Sign Up For Retailer Email Lists: Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic, Children’s Place, Gymboree, J. Crew … you name it, they’ve all got email lists. Once you sign up you’ll start getting their promotions, often with savings of up to 30% or more. Yup, even those inexpensive Old Navy t-shirts go on sale pretty often. Why pay full price?
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has Target Free Fridays.
The Brooklyn Museum has First Saturday.
New Museum–First Saturdays for Families.
Queens Museum of Art MetLife First Sundays
Children’s Museum of Manhattan–Free First Friday Nights
El Museo Del Barrio Super Sábado!
Studio Museum of Harlem—Target Free Sundays
Got kids? No worries – here’s a bunch of family-friendly museums with free times:
Children’s Museum of the Arts – Pay what you want Thursdays 4-6pm.
Children’s Museum of Manhattan – Free first Friday each month from 5-8pm.
The Jewish Museum – Free for families Saturdays 11am to 5:45pm
NY Hall of Science – (September through June only) Free on Fridays from 2 – 5 pm and Sundays from 10 – 11am.
Photo courtesy of stuckincustoms.
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