So we’ve already told you about all of the other free concerts series the city is hosting this summer, but there’s more! The City Parks Foundation is presenting their free concert series at parks across the city.

With costs rising so severely in contrast to salaries, it’s even more pertinent to find free and low-cost activities so as to not blow your budget each month. Years ago, living in Manhattan on a salary that even a Mickey D’s employee would scoff at, I became pretty adept at entertaining myself for next to nothing. We’ve covered free, recession-proof activities before, and we’re continuing the series with out latest batch of awesome entertainment that costs less than you pay for your morning coffee.

It would be an understatement to say that New York City’s real estate market is a maze. With too few available rentals and a surplus of fresh transplants, finding a home of your own can be more than a little bit daunting. We asked Joey Arak, Senior Editor of Curbed.com, for some advice on how to navigate the intricacies of the New York City market and his thoughts on the future of real estate in New York.

Renting an apartment, especially in New York, can be an enormous headache. Lots of people fall into the trap of getting a job and seriously overestimating what they can afford to spend on rent each month. When I first moved to New York, I lived in a pretty spacious (at least by New York standards) one bedroom in Washington Heights. The rent was $850. My salary was 26K. How did I do it? By using almost all of my paycheck to pay my rent, and paying utilities, food and other random bills with credit cards. A big no-no.