NYC on the Cheap

It's amazing how quickly you get right back into things once you get home. Although I haven't gotten into laundry yet and boy do I need to! We've got our first delayed opening of the season for schools in our area. Its a welcome treat that's allowing me to just ease into the week. I thought I'd share a little more of how we kept costs down in the big city this past week.

First of all, I wound up sharing a room with a friend who had taken the first class with me over the summer. (Her mom recommended the hotel we stayed at.) The cost of the hotel included a continental breakfast each morning, coffee or tea, fruit or juice, and pastry or bagel. It was also in walking distance to the yoga studio which meant no transportation costs. The room also had a fridge which allowed us to do a little grocery shopping so we could pack a lunch and snacks each day.

Of course you couldn't go to NYC without checking out some veggie restaurants! We ate at Natural Village on Greenwich Ave and Integral Yoga Institutes Natural Food Store. We also had really good luck at the Westside Market. It had a nice mix of vegetarian and vegan options. There was a really cute diner with really nice service and a great veggie burger, somewhere in the vicinity of West 17th and 6th Avenue. We ate there on our first night but were so delerious with exhaustion that I couldn't tell you the name of it.

If you want to look at the best aspect of spending a week in NYC, it was the fact that we could walk everywhere. Our only transportation costs were train tickets and cab fare to and from Grand Central.

The worst aspects, aside from being away from my family, were the high cost of things, particularly foods, and our limited kitchen.

As with so many things when you want to live frugally, planning is everything. I'm breathing a sigh of relief that I alotted myself enough cash to get through this entire experience, even the hotel bill!