New York magazine's completely useless guide to saving money

Posted at 4:47 PM Nov 21, 2008

By Andrea Grimes

The New York City I used to live in is and was nothing like the New York City of New York magazine, where disposable income runs rampant and designer clothing diarrhea is a serious epidemic. My NYC bore no resemblance to Carrie Bradshaw's playground or the Gossip Girl landscape. Which is probably why I did love Sex and the City and the Sunday Styles section so very much. In the Big Apple, escapism is never far away, especially when your apartment is the size of a Kleenex box.

Still, I remain miffed at New York's Live Cheap: Without Giving Up Much feature this month. Given the New York demographic, I didn't expect all of it to apply to me. So imagine my surprise when just about all of it applied to me. No, not in that I could take the advice for my own life. But in that everything it touts doing to save money ... I'm already doing because that's the way us poor folk roll.

Ladies and gentlemen of New York City, if the "Live Cheap" prescription seems impossible, please allow me to offer some words of encouragement if you're going to be taking a step down on the recession ladder to join me and, oh, the rest of the planet.

Drink at dive bars: Not only will this not kill you, it is also unlikely to upset your delicate New York drink palette. Say the words "Bud Light" and down that thing, fast. Think of it as drink camping. It's only temporary, and it. is. going. to. be. fun. dammit.

Embrace low fashion: This means shopping at J. Crew and Zara. Shit. I wish I could shop at J. Crew and Zara.

Have "frugal fun": Here, they advise you to go see Mark Kozelek instead of AC/DC. I don't call this having "frugal fun." I call this "listening to good music."

Recycle your romances: Since it's too expensive to date and impress new people, you should just keep getting back together with your exes. I'm pretty sure me and my man o' the hour are on version 6.0 now. I used to think that just meant we had issues, but now I know we're just recession-proof. Call up somebody in that lil' black book and join us!