We’ve already pointed you to some free and cheap semi-professional services offered by students, from beauty school haircuts to dental school teeth repair. But the city, chock full of bright-eyed aspirations, is rife with many more smart, up-and-coming vocational students, apprentices and other pros-in-training who are willing to work for a fraction of what their professional counterparts make, according to NY Magazine. The mag this week runs down where and how much it costs to get tons of different cheap services, from bartenders, caterers, marriage counselors, facialists, jewelers, party musicians, dog groomers and more. Did you know you can get a CUNY Baruch accounting student to do your taxes for free? Or music lessons from a Juliard student for 50 percent what a pro charges? If you feel bad about taking advantage of struggling students, don’t worry: this is New York City, so odds are one of them will be dog grooming for a Kardashian before long.
TaskRabbit still needs rabbits (plus, $25 off!)
You can be a TaskRabbit like Chris M. -- or hire one.
Maybe you’ve heard about TaskRabbit, the web site where you can post small jobs for pre-screened helpers to bid on. We’ve written about them; I recently reviewed TaskRabbit for New York Magazine. Since it was a positive experience, I’m happy to pass along a tip that you can get $25 off your first task through 1/22 by entering SCOUTMOB at checkout. (The deal isn’t on the app.) Also, if you have a van / toolkit / mad Ikea assembly skills (a top NYC request) the service is still hiring rabbits, especially “handymen, house cleaners and those with ready access to easy transportation (cars)” says Jamie Viggiano, head of marketing for the company. You have to be pretty hardcore to eek out a living as a full-time rabbit, but a few of the part-timers I met were profitably supplementing day jobs with a few TR gigs a week.
From bartenders to jewelers, NYC’s world of student labor
We’ve already pointed you to some free and cheap semi-professional services offered by students, from beauty school haircuts to dental school teeth repair. But the city, chock full of bright-eyed aspirations, is rife with many more smart, up-and-coming vocational students, apprentices and other pros-in-training who are willing to work for a fraction of what their professional counterparts make, according to NY Magazine. The mag this week runs down where and how much it costs to get tons of different cheap services, from bartenders, caterers, marriage counselors, facialists, jewelers, party musicians, dog groomers and more. Did you know you can get a CUNY Baruch accounting student to do your taxes for free? Or music lessons from a Juliard student for 50 percent what a pro charges? If you feel bad about taking advantage of struggling students, don’t worry: this is New York City, so odds are one of them will be dog grooming for a Kardashian before long.
Time Out vs. New York Mag: The Cheap Eats chompdown
There’s probably a really juicy, petty reason why New York Magazine and Time Out put out their annual Cheap Eats issues the same week every year, but Brooklyn’s frugal foodists are all the richer for it; our borough makes a strong showing. In New York Mag, 18 of the 71 featured eateries on the pizza-heavy roster are in BK. Time Out’s “parade of fantastically affordable new eateries” features 23 Brooklyn spots out of a total of 93 places where you can eat for under $10. So which mag gets the Brokelyn nod? Read the rest of this entry »
Brokelyn makes the Approval Matrix!
Yes, that picture is what you think it is: Brokelyn has earned a spot on the Approval Matrix, everyone’s favorite cultural ratings graph in New York Magazine. And our “useful site for living thriftily without turning into an ascetic recluse” (amen) is Lowbrow Brilliant! Exactly how brilliant? More so than an optical illusion on Discover Magazine’s blog and a deluxe reissue of R.E.M.’s Reckoning, but less so than Zooey Deschanel in (500) Days of Summer and the web site for Raaaaandy, a standup comedy video by Aziz Ansari. And we’re right on par, brilliance-wise, with the G train stopping at Church Avenue. Cool! Do the cars have leather seats and cocktail service or something? See the full Matrix here.
