Surviving While Young and Broke

After living rent-free with friends for a few months, she scored a cheap apartment in Washington Heights for $135 a week. “That includes a furnished room, television, internet, every utility. It’s a really inexpensive living situation I’m in, but it’s not unusual in the city.” Hayden still lives in the apartment on a month-to-month deal and shares the space with her landlord. And though she’s since picked up better paying freelance gigs over the past year, she still maintains that $1,000 budget.

Brokelyn has a story about a young woman who has found a way to live in New York on very little money — which is what some of us have to do sometimes when we’re young and starting out, have the luxury of having no major obligations, and have little or no debt to worry about (the young woman, Amy Hayden, has two master’s degrees but it’s not clear from the story if she has any student debt). And it’s a great thing to figure out how to make it work! The thing is, sometimes being young and broke just isn’t an option and you have to figure out how to earn more money, which is what I had to do because of student loan debt + family obligations + not wanting to worry about my bank account balance all the time.

[Thanks Olga, for sending us the story]

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