How we did New York on a budget.

Accommodation was Airbnb. There have been some negative things written online about using Airbnb in New York. This is apparently due to the local government wanting to clamp down due to fire regs, tax and because the hotels don't like it. I like Airbnb, though. You get to meet real people, they give you great local tips and the places are often quirky. I like a home from home.

We stayed with Victoria and Michael on Staten Island. They were really helpful, super friendly and we had a great stay. Staten Island is much, much cheaper than Manhattan and is easily accessible with regular transport. The ferry is free, for instance, and we got to see Carole every day. Accommodation needs to be booked a bit in advance to get the best bargains.

For activities and transport. I'm not a great planner and I rarely have an itinery (or a clue). I booked the Yankees game at home via Ticket Master. There is a real range of prices, I chose the block numbered 200 because its physically lower and you get a great view of the game (100 lowest, 400 highest). I also pre booked the one world observatory, but only so we didn't have to queue. Otherwise, we just looked for free stuff to do.

In terms of transport, we bought a 7 day metro pass for $32 each - total bargain-and used this to hop on, hop off and go where we wanted. This option takes you anywhere on the metro. There is a version which includes buses for $60 ish. Another plus point about the metro is that the carriages have air con. The metro is pretty easy to understand, but less intuitive then you'd hope. Some connections are hard to find and at some places you need to get out, go up, cross the street and descend again if you have made a mistake (for example..ie we did) and are going the wrong way. Overall, it's clean, safe and easy to use.

We had $60 a day for food, drink and treats for two people. Its easy to find mega cheap options for food (supermarket noodle pots $1.49 / street vendor hotdogs $2) but we didn't want to eat like that. We asked for local recommendations and we searched online when we were in a given area. We ate one good meal for about $20-$30 each, inc drink, daily.This included a good tip (15-20%) wherever we went. This is fair and important. Coffees and other drinks are about $4-5 dollars each, so we really limited ourselves on those. I didn't really drink any alcohol. He illegally sipped my beer when I went to the not a restroom. during the game.

We had a good time, used a taxi once and didn't feel like we were missing out. This really is a place where you can holiday for $60 bucks a day, or $600.