I'm a Special Snowflake, ya'll

Home Sweet Home, the view from Brooklyn.

I don't really feel like I'm special. There are many, many people/mothers who have it harder than I do, or a more interesting life. I just think I can offer a unique perspective, compared to a lot of other blogs I have read. I'm a mom in Manhattan - but I'm a young, single mom. I had my daughter when I was 23. I don't have the help of a spouse. I didn't wait to have a child till I was 40, established in my career with the Manahattan equivalent of the big house with a white picket fence. I don't make a lot of money. I don't even make six figures. (Which, everywhere else, is quite a lot, but in Manhattan, is still considered "scraping by").

So how the hell do I live in this expensive, crazy, gorgeous city? Well, luck, to be honest, first and foremost. I am in a beautiful neighborhood of Manhattan by the grace of rent stabilization. What is rent stabilization? Rent stabilization applies to apartment buildings with six or more units, built before 1974. If an apartment is rent stabilized, the government caps how much rent can be raised, generally resulting in below market rents. There are other factors involved - when income gets pretty up there, the rules change, there are ways to take a building out of rent stabilization, etc. I won't go into those. There are also rules regarding renewing leases. I won't go into details, but generally, you have to be a pretty big asshole to not be offered a lease renewal in a rent stabilized apartment.

Isn't she a beauty?

How exactly does one find a low cost rent stabilized apartment? That's where the luck comes in. You basically have to know someone. Or know someone who knows someone. My aunt lived in the apartment for 20 years before passing it on to me. She ended up with the apartment because my grandparents knew the owners. I've been in the apartment for four years now. I don't plan on leaving anytime soon. My building doesn't come with any "extras" - no laundry room, no elevator, no doorman. We don't even have a buzzer. I have to walk up & down three flights to see who it is when someone rings the bell. My apartment is big enough though. Some of the kitchen was updated when I moved in. We have lots of windows and my bedroom overlooks a park. Plus, we are zoned for a great elementary school.

Don't be fooled though. My rent is still expensive. Childcare is expensive. Heat & hot water are included in my rent, so utilities aren't usually bad. I budget carefully and make it work. I don't wear expensive clothes, we don't eat out often, we don't take many vacations and the ones we do take often involve staying with family. Of course I'd love to make more, but I have time on my side. I know I'll continue to work towards my goals, but in the meantime, I'm perfectly fine with our life, and I'd love to show that it's possible to live a good life here without making half a million dollars a year.