[T-hawk]

I did this, on a 40k salary, in 2003. I had a $1k/month studio apartment in Hoboken NJ and commuted on the Path subway to lower Manhattan. I kept spending very low: never went to restaurants, never traveled, no relationship, no cell phone, cheapest available DSL internet at $30/month. For food I'd sometimes actually get ramen, but more often other cheap groceries like store brand cereals, pancake mix, PB&J. I had about $400/month disposable income and saved about $300 of it.

Adjusting from 2003 to today, the apartment might cost $1500 now, but a 65k salary is still better off than I was then.

By the way, one of the best places to live in New York is actually New Jersey. If your office is in Manhattan anywhere close to the Path stations, you've got a 30 minute commute from Hoboken or the downtown areas of Jersey City out to Journal Square. Housing is decently affordable there, and as a bonus you dodge the NYC commuter income tax.

[jyu]

Cheap rents in NJ is not true anymore. Hoboken and Jersey City rents are pretty comparable to cheaper parts of Manhattan. Same story in Williamsburg.