It's not free, it's mostly free

This guy knows what I'm talking about

It should be no shocking revelation to you to hear the cost of living is rather high in New York. If that wasn't bad enough, I live in Manhattan, which is basically asking for it. Like so many twenty-somethings with $100k+ pieces of paper these days, I am also somewhat extremely poor. Now I could just give up and move to Queens, but I've got a fake lifestyle to maintain here. In order to keep up my facade of success, I've had to make some adjustments.

Before you got all misty-eyed for the poor middle class white male having to give up his truffle burgers, don't. While I don't eat truffle burgers- on account of me not being a pretentious asshole- I still manage to do most of the things otherwise successful people enjoy. I even eat breakfast certain days of the week. (Thursday is almost here!) I am able to afford such luxuries in part due to the small hustles the world hands to you. Take for example the omnipresent overlord of coffee, Starbucks. Who is this jerk talking about being broke and then buying $4 coffees, you might ask? I'm the asshole who gets free mermaid coffee.

Starbucks has a very reasonable deal of 50¢ refills on any coffee. Even so, a regualr coffee is like two bucks. Why would I pay that when the guy in the street charges 75¢? Because cups are free. Better yet, if you have a Starbucks card, refills are free. Free Cup + Free Card + Diminishing Pride = Free Coffee, Bitches! And that's just the tip of the iceberg. I am honing my radar for any type of place with "Unlimited" toppings. Sure, those toppings are only supposed to go on your sandwich, but who's counting? Tip: Ask for a tray for your sandwich and you're practically set for life. I'm even considering getting into Extreme Couponing. Seriously, this guy got enough cereal to make a pyramid. The only difference between me and him is that sucker gave it away to charity.

So how do this all lead to financial freedom? I also rob banks.