[davidw]

September up through January is 5 months. 2K a month doesn't sound like a "cheap" lifestyle to me... I would think that even in SF or NY you could squeeze more out of that kind of money; potentially by moving somewhere cheaper (the East Bay for instance).

[thorax]

> which would give me enough personal income and business income to last until around January 2010

First off, 2k a month could be considered frugal depending on area of the world they're living, etc, even for a single person (especially if not living at home or if it's difficult to find roommate situations where they live) when they may have debts, etc.

Also note that number includes further expenses for his business from November to January (at least). And depending on the business, there's no way you can "judge his frugality" on the numbers he's given.

Even if the costs can be $1k or $1.5k a month, I highly recommend he estimates this out with somewhat conservative estimates (for an emergency issue or two) when deciding how long a runway he has. If it turns out to be 9 months instead of an estimated 8, that's awesome, but you don't want to be in month 9 thinking you've got a month to spare and have your car being repossessed.

[davidw]

Well, no, I don't have much information to go on. It just seems like a lot if what he's doing is similar to what many others are doing here. You can get a room in SF for 6/700$, it looks like:

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/roo/

And there's probably no more expensive/better place to be for startups. There are places that are more expensive, but at that point, you should move to save money. And like I said, you can get by on less and still be in the bay area, if it's important to be there physically.

So I'm not judging his frugality, just saying that from what little we have to go on, it doesn't sound quite right.

Maybe we could even help him figure out how to save somewhere...

[lsc]

the effort to go from $2K/month to $1.5K/month is probably not worth it if you have the option of contracting yourself out; at bay area computer janitor contracting rates, (and I imagine good devs are more expensive than SysAdmins.) that's less than 8 hours of work. If you are good and have contacts, you can realistically expect twice as much; but if you are good, $500/day is reasonable to expect without expending too much marketing effort.

Being frugal is good too... but sometimes spending money makes sense, I think. Me, for example, I drive a $3,000 car, and pay $750 in rent. (I live in the south bay, my girlfriend and I split the rent on a $1500/month duplex) . Paying more isn't going to free up any time, so I don't. But I do hire someone to clean out my house once a week; It seems like a big win, as that saves me a lot of time, for a relatively small amount of money.

[menloparkbum]

I would think that even in SF or NY you could squeeze more out of that kind of money

Good luck.

  studio apartment, best deal in the city: $1000
  1 burrito per day (or equivalent)         $150
  1 coffee per day                           $45
  2 beers per week                           $30
  health insurance                          $250
  muni pass                                  $45
  cell phone                                 $70
  cable modem                                $50
  stuff like soap toilet paper, laundry      $30
  github                                     $7
  hosted slice                               $40
  subtotal                                 $1717

Note that in SF or NY renting a room in an apartment is often more than $1000. Renting your own studio is usually at LEAST $1300. I have a special situation, I don't have to pay utilities. Everywhere else you will have to pay utilities on top of rent.

NYC will cost at least 30% more than this.

It's very easy to spend $2000 living a "cheap" lifestyle. I don't know what I'd cut out here. Aside from coffee and the beer, I don't really do anything a normal adult single male would do. That budget contains no dates, no movies, no restaurants, no books from the book store, etc. If I do any of those things a couple times a month I'm hitting $2K.

Moving to the east bay doesn't save much money unless you move far, far away. The nearby nice parts are not cheaper, the nearby bad parts are sketchy, and the far away parts require a car or else hours on the bus.

[twoz]

I know Hayward's pretty cheap although it's been awhile since I've lived there (mid/late nineties).