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This guy in NYC rented a 78 square foot space for $800 a month.

He has to share a bathroom with 3 other tenants.

He said he'd rather live in a small space then spend hours every day on a train in a small space.

I could see where it makes sense. I looked it up online, and the commutation cost by train would cost $400 a month, which is half his rent.

You eat out every day, and are out enjoying everything that's right outside your door. Maybe you only need a place to sleep, relax and keep some clothes.

78 sq ft, that's a typo right....the area rug in my front room is 100 sq ft.

nope, 78 sq feet.

actually, I was just looking at the video below, this woman has a whopping 90 sq feet. I can see how she's happy.

She's got her own bathroom too!

Wow, I've seen how some folks live in Japan and such....

That would kill me, no ****.

My office at work, which I spend very little time in, is maybe 100 sq ft....I usually set out in the conference room, it is 24 by 30 or so, even then I get cramped up feeling....I tore most of the walls out of my house....it now looks like a barn....I love it.

Give me wide open spaces.....

I do know what you're talking about 2paks, I can see both sides of it, depending on where you're choosing to live.

The rooms in my house are nice and spacious, and I like the feeling of being able to move through the space. I enjoy seeing what I have put there to decorate, as I'm looking around. However, at work, I get rather "zoomed in" and don't even pay attention to what's a couple of feet from me. When I had a job where I had a largish office, I put pictures I liked on the walls and promptly never paid any attention to them again. Now I work in I guess you would call it a large cubicle, and I have no interest in putting anything that takes up unnecessary space in it. I look at my computer, or at whatever else I'm doing, or else I'm out of the cubicle, doing something else.

Thinking about that, for me it depends on what's environmentally available. At home, I'm surrounded by neighborhood houses, and to get to anything besides that involves walking at least a few blocks, or driving the same, or a mile or more. So, I make my immediate environment large.
If I lived in a city, there would be things of interest literally feet from my front door, and tons of stuff are all within blocks. I guess I would consider all that my home, and the part that I can close a door on is my bedroom/bathroom. I could live my life in the largeness of the city and use my apt to sleep/read/as my office.

When I'm here in my office at home, doing A2k, ebay, researching stocks, I'm like at work, not really noticing what is more than a couple of feet from me.

BTW, when I was in college, my roommate and I built a loft in our small dorm room, and I slept "upstairs" like the woman in the video.
I really liked it, it gave us both privacy, and I felt cozy up there. It was actually as large floor space wise as most of the room below, just not tall.

She didn't mention how much she pays/paid in rent. I would love to know that UBERimportant fact.

Even in NYC, this amount of rent is highway robbery. This guy is really deluded in my book. Where does he live? In the middle of bloody Times Square?


Where did you get this obscene figure? An unlimited monthly metrocard for NYC is $104 a month.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44004150/ns/business-real_estate/t/new-yorker-pays-month--square-foot-apartment/

he's in Hell's Kitchen (or was last year)

did someone break your googlefinger?

http://inhabitat.com/nyc/womans-impossibly-tiny-90-sq-ft-manhattan-apartment-is-one-of-the-smallest-in-nyc/

As I said in my post "He said he'd rather live in a small space then spend hours every day on a train in a small space."

That means commuting from outside the city, like living in NJ.

Per the NJ transit website, a monthly pass time/money wise from various points to Penn Station....

Bridgewater - 90 minutes one way, $386/month
Asbury Park, Long Branch or Allenhurst - 120 minutes one way, $425/month
Linden - 45 minutes one way $233/month
Middletown - 90 minutes $408/month

And that's not counting the cost/time of getting from Penn Station to where you need to go, the extra $104 for the Metrocard.

Sure there's closer places, but he said hours commuting in a small space.

here's the actual video....



However, I like the woman's place better.

At least they have windows.

Cozy is nice....for a bit.

I get their point, that they would rather spend the money on...entertainment or what not....not really spending time or money at/or on the home. You might as well put me in a jail cell though, which is about the same size. The closet in my bedroom is bigger than either of these two apartments, the bulk of my history books are stored in the closet, and I often will set in the floor and read a bit, so really I do understand cozy.

I'm from a very small town, and as a small boy I was pretty much allowed to roam, as most of us were, to our content. I have lived my entire life this way...if I get up on my roof, I can see next town over....five miles away. My last big stay in the hospital, my {grand} mother prayed everyday....."Please don't let him kill one of them Yankee folk"....cause I was bed-ridden for several weeks. Honestly I was too weak to even slap one...plus they were mostly nice to me.

Anyway, the whole idea of apartments, no matter how big and roomy, just goes against my nature....and the prices, ouch.

What I have a hard time wrapping my mind around is how much it costs to do all the things associated with getting into a NYC to work, if you live outside of it.
I'm not talking about all 5 boros, since I'm not familiar enough, but the getting from NJ, if you live on the Shore, i.e. Asbury Park, Point Pleasant to Manhatten is so onerous.
I grew up right across the river from Point Pleasant, and if you wanted to take the train, you'd go to Manasquan, the station just North of Point, and get on there. I remember a neighbor did that every day to go to work, and even as a kid I remember thinking how much time he spent, at least 3 hours a day, to just go to work.
Plus, you have the cost of driving, getting to the station, as well as the time/cost of continuing your journey once you get there.

If you didn't want to leave a car at the station (so the expense of owning a car) let's say you take a bus. You miss the bus, then you miss the train, and you're screwed.

My friend lived in NYC for a few years, before getting a different job, and moving back to NJ w/ a much shorter commute, by car. He had moved into NYC largely because of the commutation costs. I too, like tsar, hadn't realized how much it cost to get there.

Yeah, I'd love to have my travel costs be just $104 a month. I loved how surprisingly easy it seemed to be to operate your life if you actually lived there. Easy compared to all the rigamarole above, plus still having to get fed, run errands etc etc.
I would totally just have a coffee pot and some breakfast basics in my apartment, since it's so easy to pick up a meal anywhere, or have one delivered.

People who commute from New Jersey, Philadelphia, or even Connecticut to NYC on a mostly daily basis confuse me. Their obsession with how much cheaper it is to live outside the city is goofy (as you rightfully pointed out Chai) as any money saved with real estate and more is offset by the commuting costs and time wasted in the commute. All of those lost HOURS (not minutes) spent in a car each morning and afternoon....

The first thing that comes to mind when I see people such as these in the videos, is .....which may sound stupid, but......they must have never ridden a horse. I can't think of anything that can compare to the pure free-ness of horse back riding....even at a stroll....maybe they did and **** in the saddle...I don't know....I just can't imagine someone that has felt that kind of freedom, cramming themselves up in a closet like that.

I've never ridden on a motorcycle.

I've ridden horses several times.

Didn't **** in the saddle, but certainly didn't feel free.

Felt out of control actually. Too much animal for me.

Doesn't sound stupid at all though 2packs

When I was in my 20's I'd to that point only lived in NJ (don't kill me) or (yuck) S. Fla. I once said to my New Yorker friend that I'd love to be (visit) somewhere where I could said and look all around to the horizon and see nothing of man. He looked at me like I was cracked.
I've been in places like that several times, and felt the exhilaration. Most recently in S. Dakota. There a lot of sky out there. I think most people who live in a urban, or suburban environment don't realize just how far they can see when there's no obstacles. I loved seeing miles away the different weather that was moving in various directions. I don't mean that "oh look, I can see that it's raining ahead on the road, and I'm headed into it. I mean these huge weather patterns that are moving around like tremendous beasts, with a life of their own, crashing into each other, bearing down on you, or running across the horizon, ahead, behind, next to you.

Heh, I inwardly roll my eyes when someone says something like "oh it started raining, and I can't go/do xyz" as if the rain was some personal affront to them. As if it is only raining in their personal space, or on the streets that they are specifically driving on. This area has been in drought for several years, but most people seem to view the lack of rain as an inconvenience toward keeping their lawn green. Sometimes it'll rain out in the hill country, but not obviously right where you live, and I've heard people comment that the rain didn't do them any good. I'll get a blank look when I say yeah, but it did good for the animals and plants that live where it did rain. You know, that bird outside in the tree in front of your house is going all day in the 100 degree temperature with nothing to drink too. Like anything besides humans or our domesticated pets don't have physical needs.

Anyway, I digress. However, I do get that freedom, but I like to be grounded, with my feet/body literally on the ground. Never cared for bikes either, don't like anything separating me from the earth, be it horse, bike or stiff shoes.

I've ridden a horse a couple times in my life. I've enjoyed it. Been there and done that. Yet I find there more freedom living in the greatest city on the planet with the unlimited range of activities always in my grasp... like horse back riding in Central Park if the mood ever hits me.

Having a monstrous size house doesn't interest me that much as I don't own enough junk to fill a monstrous size house. All of that extra space would just be wasted on me. I like comfy and cozy. Could I save money by buying food in bulk and storing it in a much bigger fridge and freezer? Yep. But I choose to make that sacrifice. C'est la vie.