A friend of mine just got a job in Manhattan near central park (upper west side, Lincoln square area).
I want to send him a book (or failing that some URLs) about how to live cheap in that area. If there are any cheap restaurants, grocers, entertainment, etc.
There are guides like Broke stuarts, but I think those cover all 5 boroughs. I’m mostly interested in a handful of west side neighborhood in Manhattan.
I used to have a good leaflet on that but it is all outdated now. Do you mean truly cheap or just cheaper than most people spend? Manhattan is going to be expensive in absolute terms now matter how you cut it compared to most other places in the country besides a few. There are poor people that live there but they either have special circumstances like legacy rent control, government assistance or some other special circumstances that a newcomer either wouldn’t qualify for or wouldn’t be willing to do (I am assuming that he wouldn’t want to be one of those subterranean mole people that sleep in makeshift communities underground).
I am not trying to be flip. It is just inevitable that people will want to know if you are talking about living there on $40,000 a year as a single person or $100,000 as a married couple with a small child that wants to own a very small apartment. Both of those are difficult to do reasonably well in such areas but maybe doable depending on your lifestyle preferences and needs. There are tourism type guides to tell you how to have fun for a weekend for as little money as possible. There are also guides to tell you how to find the best places to live on a given budget but those two categories don’t generally overlap.
What topics do you think your friend is most concerned with?
Look in the fiction section. Seriously, when I lived there it was only housing that couldn’t be had cheaply. There’s a book called Broke-Ass Stuart’s Guide to Living Cheaply in New York, which seems to be more up to date than the Cheap Bastard’s Guide.
He already has housing, I’m looking for info on cheap groceries, restaurants, entertainment, healthcare, etc. in that area.
The way you live cheap in Lincoln Square is to live in Lincoln Square.
There’s the famous HOW TO LIVE IN MANHATTAN ON $1,000 A DAY, but I think it’s kinda old, like 1995.
A book on living cheap in Manhattan is unfeasible, it would be out of date within days. He could check out newspapers, the weekly alternative rags, New York magazine, paper or online, for ideas for free or low cost entertainment, etc. Living cheaply is an art form, if he knows how to do that (learn to cook rice and beans, clip coupons, split an entree in a restaurant while drinking water on the side, travel to ethnic food stores or discount grocery stores many blocks from his home, find free clinics/sit in the ER for hours). Still, everything is going to be fantastically expensive there for anyone not a millionaire. The very rich and the very poor live in Manhattan, the middle class can’t afford it.
Perhaps they could placate the little one with a dollhouse. 
The book is titled, "Move to Wichita ". Native NYer here and have yet to find a way to do that…I guess…learn to cook , bring breakfast and lunch,lose the Starsucks habit and avail oneself of free concerts,free days at museums,street fairs, and make friends…get yourself invited to other people’s work events. Join a cool church and attend lectures, tours, etc.
And learn to stay In, once in a while…something magical happens in Manhattan…money seems to disappear…
In NY if you want things cheap you go to where they are cheap. Like if you want a cheap grocery store you can go to Queens, like maybe Jackson heights for Indian groceries, or Flushing for Asian groceries or Brighton beach for Russian groceries. But if you want “cheap groceries” without ever leaving the upper west side the answer is, “you can’t have that.” You have your choice of 1. expensive, 2. extremely expensive and 3. who the fuck can afford this.
The one exception is entertainment – free/cheap entertainment is prevalent in manhattan, especially in the summer – check out Time Out NY, listing change constantly.
missed edit: I know Brighton Beach is in Brooklyn, I flubbed my list.
Another great thing to do is join TDF (The Theater Development Fund). It costs $30 a year and is available to huge swaths of people: students, teachers, members of unions, anyone who works hourly… You get the TKTS prices but you can order them in advance. So no standing on line or wondering what is available, ladies love it, and you can hook up out of town friends which makes you the greatest in their eyes. If you buy 2 tickets a year it more than pays for itself!
Not only can you get Broadway shows at 50% or less, they have a huge roster of events that all cost $9.
Beyond housing the only accommodations you can make are food and entertainment. If you are living in NYC and are cooking beans and rice and Ramen to live and not going out except to free stuff it kind of begs of the question of why you moved to NYC in the first place. To eat poorly and be entertained inexpensively?
Having said this in looking at restaurant reviews of NYC many of the more affordable rated restaurants have entrée prices that are (IMO) not that different than the rest of the country.
I was going to say the fantasy section.
If he wants to live on the Upper West Side for cheap, he doesn’t need a book- he needs a miracle. Or at least a housing stipend or something. The problem is that businesses in that area are mostly going to cater to people with serious money to throw around. But I think Fairway is a pretty reasonable choice for his grocery shopping. Not all of the restaurants in that area are frighteningly expensive but he’ll probably have to be very selective about going out to eat.
My plan was to act on Broadway to support myself while I tried to hit it big in cab driving and bartending. Didn’t work out.