Hmm, according to www.paycheckcity.com 90k = $5,014.58 / month after taxes which is significantly more tax than I was expecting. However, if you think 33$ on food per day is necessary your clearly doing something wrong. Learn to cook or buy more normal food or something?

A big aspect of the NYC lifestyle is having very little space or stuff at home and living your life outside the home. Most New Yorkers don't have what anyone in the first world would consider a kitchen... at best you've got a two-burner stovetop, a toaster-oven-sized oven, maybe a microwave, a miniature refrigerator, a tiny sink, and a few square feet of counterspace. And one or two plates. Most of your meals come from the huge assortment of restaurants and delis that fill all NYC neighborhoods.

For many years I lived in NJ and worked in NYC, and I typically spent $20/day for a bagel and coffee in the morning and take-out lunch from a local shop. That's not exactly an extravagant lifestyle.

$33 dollars per day is not "wrong". A bottle of drink costs $4. Coffee or Tea? Egg sandwich? Noodle soup lunch special? $10 A few beers with friends? God forbid a date? Popcorn at the movies? Takeout indian or sushi? Oh and buying a steak on sale and freezing it at the same time..

Is there a law against bag lunches in NYC? Needs and wants are not the same thing. Refusing the acknowledge that is a big reason so many people with comfortably middle/upper-middle incomes can "barely make ends meet", since as their income goes up so do the "requirements" of their lifestyles...