Everyone who lives in New York City knows the euphoria of leaving the city to visit another, and looking at the prices on any menu. Paying $3 for a beer rather than $7? Mind blown.
Here, we drop dollars like it’s no big thing. We have to, or we’d never have any fun.
If anyone who lived anywhere else in the world saw the number on the cash register while we were buying groceries, they’d probably faint.
But NYC is for the tough, and for those who thrive on empty bank accounts. Here are 8 things New Yorkers pay a mind-blowing amount of money for...
1. Subway rides
The big buzz in town is that subway rides are now $3 (for a single-ride), and monthly rides are now $116. Which is depressing.
But it's still cheaper than owning and driving my own car. At least I read a book while I commute, which I wouldn’t get to do if I drove a car.
And no, listening to audio books on Audible is cool, but it’s not as cool as actually reading.
The subway isn’t as much taxing price-wise as it is depleting in energy. The amount of time it takes to locate, walk to, and wait for a train sometimes makes me yearn for the days of having a car.
But only sometimes.
2. Cab rides
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Okay, so riding the subway is less expensive than owning and driving my own car would be in any other city, but riding in a cab most certainly is not.
Cab rides are usually $15 on the minimum, $30 on the maximum, and are seriously draining to one’s wallet and bank account.
Only psycho, frantic New Yorkers who would do anything to avoid being late (and for whom cutting down the number of one’s commitments and activities is unacceptable) would pay the absurd fares we pay for cabs every weekend and sometimes even on the weekdays.
If I lived somewhere I drove a car, I’d probably spend about $40/week on gas. Which is how much a cab costs me to get to the West Village on the weekend-- and that doesn’t even include my ride home.
Oh, and don’t even get me started on Uber.
3. Apples
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Yeah, I paid $4 for one apple at Trader Joe’s. Four dollars for one apple!
Your eyes aren’t deceiving you-- that’s how much I begrudgingly paid. Which is still upsetting to me.
4. Rent
I made the mistake of asking one of my friends who lived in Philadelphia how much her rent was, and when she told me, I was struck by a tornado of conflicting emotions. I love NYC, yes, but her rent was less than half of mine, and her apartment is centrally located in Philadelphia.
Only crazy New Yorkers would pay $3,000 for an apartment in the East Village that’s too tiny for a couch. I mean it. No one else would do this.
Living in the East Village is excellent, yes, but really. Only New Yorkers understand just how excellent it is to live in the East Village, and just how overrated saving money for things like retirement or groceries really is.
,5. Going out to eat
Sure, you can find a restaurant in NYC that’s not too expensive. I’ve done it, and these places are unicorns. They’re lovely, and I go to them often.
But if you’re going to hit up someplace that’s well known, that has a name and a nice location, it’s not unheard of to drop over $50 on one meal.
Why do we do this to ourselves? Heaven only knows.
6. Alcohol
New Yorkers hardly bat an eyelash when we pay $14 for a drink at a bar or a club.
The only weird thing is when we go different places and see just how much their cocktails cost. When people in other cities pay $4 for a cranberry vodka, and we’re partying in the basement of Niagra and ours cost $13, things can seem pretty bleak.
But then we exit that bar into the cacophony that is NYC, and we’re drunk and swirling under the lights-- at that point, everything starts to seem a little better.
7. Clothes
Clothes may cost just as much here as they do anywhere else, but let's face it.
The seams on that $10 dress you bought at Forever 21 are not going to stay stitched on for very long. We live way too hard for that.
8. Groceries
If you spent $50 at the grocery store, you probably only bought like six things. It’s completely normal for any New Yorker to spend upwards of $200 on a normal amount of groceries at Gristedes, or the wonderlands of Trader Joe's, Fresh Direct or Whole Foods.
Pro tip: go to Harlem or Brooklyn to buy your groceries. I live on East 100th Street and it costs almost two-thirds the amount to buy my groceries at Cherry Valley (that grocery store on 101st Street) than it does at the Gristedes on 96th Street.
And that’s a cold, hard fact.
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