He moved from the Netherlands to New York out of love. Here’s how he lives on $580 a week.

When Lukas Jannick’s parents heard how much he spent on coffee in New York City, they bought a coffee maker and shipped it straight to his house.

“I told them it was $5.69, and they were shocked,” he said. “Now I don’t spend money on coffee.”

The 23-year-old Dutchman moved to New York four months ago from Apeldoorn in the Netherlands, where his family lives. He moved across the Atlantic to move closer to his girlfriend, a native New Yorker, with whom he fell in love after a chance meeting in a bar in Greece.

He earns about $580 a week as a sales administrator and has found that prices in New York are generally two to three times higher than at home. He is not alone; Many New Yorkers struggle to afford the city’s high cost of living, having to pay high rents and facing high food prices. Jannick is one of the people Business Insider spoke to on our behalf Costs of the city series, reporting on what it takes to afford living in one of the country’s most expensive cities.

He spends most of his paycheck on rent and food, and buys his weekly groceries for less than $100 Amazon verse and Trader Joe’s, where he has fallen victim to the “insanely long lines.” Jannick leads what he describes as a frugal lifestyle.

“Honestly, I don’t spend that much outside of my rent,” he said.

He says he has inherited the typical Dutch frugality, a mentality he adopted from his grandparents, who faced food shortages during the Second World War. Although attitudes are changing among Gen Z, his family usually asks about the price when he buys something and congratulates him if he got a good deal.

“I’m almost grateful that I make so little and that I’m in New York,” Jannick said. “I almost feel like the city is pressuring me with the high costs,” he said, explaining that it made him work harder.

He saved about $20,000 before coming to the US, but his goal is to live off his salary. So far it has worked. He plans to keep the savings in his back pocket future investments.

From a bar in Greece to finding housing in New York City

Jannick dropped out of university at the age of 18 and from there worked various jobs in the Netherlands.

His life took a turn after a company holiday to Greece on the last weekend of September 2024, when he was 21. On the first night of the trip, he went to a bar with some colleagues and met his current girlfriend, who lived in New York City. After five months of texting back and forth, he decided to visit her in person. Within a week he fell in love with her. This led to a year and a half lastinglong distance relationshipin which Jannick decided to move to New York to be closer to his girlfriend.

No one in his family or community had taken such a step, so he had to figure it out for himself.

“A lot of people thought it was driving me crazy,” he said. “There is a lot of time that I could save with the knowledge I have now. On the other hand, I also have the feeling that you still have to make some mistakes.”

The process to come to the US took more than a year. He started applying for jobs and got help from Stage Global, an international exchange and placement company that connected him with American employers and arranged job interviews.

He eventually landed a sales job at Vertex Security, a commercial security provider, and was able to move on May 5, 2026, with two large suitcases in hand. He said the total cost of the move was about $6,000, including his flight, visa fees and Stage Global’s reimbursement.

He lived with his girlfriend for the first few weeks, and as he started his new job he fell into trouble Apartment hunting in New York.

“I didn’t really know where to start,” he said.

He sought advice from ChatGPTwas blocked on Facebook for sending too many messages, and was overwhelmed by the need for guarantors. In the meantime, he documented the whole thing on his YouTube channel called ‘Jannick’, where he posts daily videos about his move to NYC.

After many hours of searching with his girlfriend, he found a room in a three-bedroom apartment in Woodside, Queens, for $990 a month. He also pays $35 for air conditioning costs and about $50 for utilities.

Although this is the first time he has lived away from his family, this is not the first time he has paid rent. He has been paying rent to live with his parents in the Netherlands since he was 18, initially contributing €180 and later a maximum of €249.

Adjusting to New York City prices and customs

NYCs food culture was one of the things that surprised Jannick. He noticed that New Yorkers’ social interactions revolve around food, and many invest their time and money in trying different restaurants and traveling to new cafes and bars.

“In the Netherlands we don’t have that whole culture around food,” he said. “There is a fundamental difference in the way they look at food. Here you eat food to enjoy it, and we eat food to survive.”

Since arriving in New York, he has tried a plethora of new cuisines for the first time, from Brazilian cheese bread to “amazing” Thai food.

“These kinds of flavors are completely new,” he said.

Another thing he found strange was the extensive use of credit cards and the number of Americans in debt as a result student loans — in the Netherlands there is generally access to affordable schools of good quality and universal healthcare.

“To have debt to pay for things, it’s very strange to me,” he said.

Another change is the long distances and methods he has to use cross the city. By land area, New York City is about four times larger than Amsterdam, the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, a country known for having more bicycles than people.

“We bike everywhere because everything is so close, and I feel like I miss that,” he said.

He said that in the Netherlands you might not get hired if you are an hour away from your office because it is expected that you can find something better and closer than where you live. He currently lives a 45-minute subway ride from his office in Manhattan.

Although Jannick said he loves the subway, he recently bought a bicycle to get around New York for its convenience and to save on transportation costs.

“I’m a little too frugal to use the Citi Bike,” he said.

He hopes the bike will help reduce his transportation costs of about $140 a month.

Why the move feels worth it

The energy of New York City is part of what makes the move worth it. The city’s ambition forces Jannick to work harder and make more money, he said. By the time he has lived in the US for a year in May 2027, he hopes to grow his YouTube channel from 14,000 to 100,000 subscribers.

“I absolutely love the energy in the city, the ambition that pushes people to really almost force you to do something with your life is incredible to me,” he said. “It was worth it in many ways: for my relationship, for my career building with YouTube, and for the experience of becoming a more mature person.”

Staying in the long term is one of his goals, but he’s still unsure how he’ll achieve this as he’s on an 18-month journey. J-1 visa.

“So far this has definitely been my best summer. I feel very grateful and very happy.”