{"id":205563,"date":"2026-04-22T01:28:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T01:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/205563\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T01:28:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T01:28:39","slug":"how-new-yorkers-spend-splurge-and-scrimp-to-live-in-the-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/205563\/","title":{"rendered":"How New Yorkers Spend, Splurge and Scrimp to Live in the City"},"content":{"rendered":"

Times Insider<\/a> explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.<\/p>\n

A New York State parks worker who lives on $37,500 a year<\/a> in Tompkinsville, Staten Island. A Manhattan family of five who lives on $140,000<\/a> in Morningside Heights. A house cleaner who lives on $24,000<\/a> in Rockaway, Queens.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people here are really enterprising and really resourceful,\u201d said Eliza Shapiro, a reporter who writes about the affordability crisis in New York City for The New York Times\u2019s Metro desk.<\/p>\n

When she put out a call at the end of last year<\/a> asking New Yorkers to talk about how they navigate living in such an expensive city, she didn\u2019t expect the outpouring of responses \u2014 more than 900, featuring a wide variety of incomes, job titles and locations \u2014 she has received so far.<\/p>\n

In January, the Metro desk began publishing a weekly series, Affording New York<\/a>, based on those responses.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think part of New York is learning how to make it work,\u201d said Ms. Shapiro, a lifelong New Yorker who grew up in Morningside Heights and who is the daughter of two journalists.<\/p>\n

In an interview, she talked about what has surprised her while working on the series, how it has made her reflect on her own life and what feedback from readers she has received so far. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.<\/p>\n

How did you get the idea for the series?<\/p>\n

I started reporting on affordability in 2023, around the time that the housing crisis in the city was getting worse, and people were talking about the cost of child care and the cost of groceries, the cost of getting around. Part of the vision for my beat, which was a new one for the Metro desk, was really granular reporting on how people spend their money. We can have big, sweeping articles that convey the seriousness and scope of the affordability crisis, but we also need a peek into how a bunch of different New Yorkers actually live, to show how many people are affected by this cost-of-living crisis and how people are adjusting.<\/p>\n

How do you choose the subjects you feature?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m looking for people who are willing to provide details about how they live, and are willing to be open about their finances. And I\u2019m looking for people who live in different parts of the city, who have families, who live alone, who have different jobs.<\/p>\n

I ask people how much money they make, how much money they save \u2014 if they\u2019re able to save \u2014 if they have kids, what they spend on child care, what their monthly grocery budget is. And then I\u2019ll ask about other expenses, like if people are helping to take care of elderly family members, or what people splurge on. For instance, if people take an annual summer vacation, what\u2019s the budget for that? Or if people have side projects or hobbies, what do they budget for that? I have several conversations with everyone I feature; I spend around two hours talking to them.<\/p>\n

Why do you think people are willing to be so open about their finances?<\/p>\n

So many people in New York are experiencing this cost-of-living crisis, yet are passionate about how much they love New York. They want to stay here. They wish it was an easier place to live. So I think people want to participate in this broader conversation about how to make it in New York in 2026.<\/p>\n

Why do people stay?<\/p>\n

Some people have lived here their whole lives, and their families have lived here, and they\u2019ve always wanted to raise their own kids here. For others, they feel like the city is where they\u2019re in the best position to succeed in their career. The city is such a big market, with lots of different people to meet and talk to. The opportunity of being here is still really strong. Some people, though, have also been like, I\u2019m here right now trying to make money, but I don\u2019t know that I can afford to be here, or that I want to be here, in the longer term.<\/p>\n

Did you struggle to afford life in the city when you were starting your career?<\/p>\n

I was very lucky, because my family lives here, so I always had that support. But it\u2019s been unmistakable in the last five or 10 years how many people around me have been leaving or thinking about leaving. So many of my conversations with friends, once people started having kids, have been focused on: Can I make it?<\/p>\n

What do you hope people take away from the series?<\/p>\n

There are a lot of misconceptions held by people outside of New York, and I think it\u2019s helpful just to show, in the plainest, most straightforward terms, how people do this. The goal is to show readers a wide variety of how people live and spend money, and for that to deepen their understanding of New York as a place and as a story.<\/p>\n

The series has only deepened my interest in and my love for reporting about New York. There are just so many good stories to tell.<\/p>\n

What feedback have you received so far?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve gotten some great notes from readers saying that it\u2019s nice to read about how a bunch of regular people live. People have even written in, asking, like, \u201cI wonder if this person could file for this tax exemption.\u201d People feel connected to the stories they\u2019re reading about, which has been very gratifying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[433,18041,5286,49713,29759,49714,9,24,11,10,49,51,50,56,81508,14018,62145],"class_list":{"0":"post-205563","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-affordable-housing","9":"tag-brooklyn-nyc","10":"tag-budgets-and-budgeting","11":"tag-cost-of-living-and-affordability","12":"tag-ditmas-park-brooklyn","13":"tag-morningside-heights-manhattan","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-new-york-headlines","17":"tag-new-york-news","18":"tag-new-york-state","19":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","20":"tag-new-york-state-news","21":"tag-ny","22":"tag-personal-finances","23":"tag-staten-island-nyc","24":"tag-tompkinsville-staten-island"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}