Historically it’s been a well-known fact that living in New York is expensive.  Rents especially can be incredibly cumbersome.  While singles have traditionally preferred living alone the expenditure involved in this is only getting worse.

According to a recent SmartAsset report,  nationwide, New York is the “second city where a roommate saves you the most.” Further:

“Roommates save on average $1,056 per month each, or about $12,600 per year each. This means that together two roommates have a combined savings of more than $25,000 annually. Given the sheer number of people, finding a roommate in New York should not be difficult.”

That is a saving of close to $1,000 every.single.month. There are five boroughs in New York and on average, rent for one bedroom in any of those areas is $2,915 and for two bedrooms, $3,717.  Which is how you get to the $25,000 yearly savings figure from the SmartAsset report.

Having said all that there are some less expensive options to help tighten the budget for those just starting out in New York.  Take a look at NYC Mesh – a group of New Yorkers who are building their own Internet service. The volunteer non-profit entity works on donations of approximately $20 per month from each member for use of a high speed connection which can be used to stream videos without any issues.  It works with a super node antenna and 31 hubs in lower Manhattan and some parts of Brooklyn.  Another super node was recently installed in Sunset Park as well.

And then of course there is the co-living space option. One example of this is Quarters which currently manages three of these housing spaces in New York in order to “provide an easy solution for people looking to move into big cities. With an average price tag of $1,599 per month, this is much cheaper and a great way to network.