Style and Sustenance in NYC on $25 a Day

Walking Off the Big Apple is sometimes upset, along with her fellow citizens, over not having enough money to enjoy the city. New Yorkers pay so much in rents and mortgages now that we have little for anything else. Budget-minded tourists, I would imagine, also feel like there's not much left after one night in a hotel. Luxury travelers, on the other hand, can afford the $1,000 a night hotel rooms and probably don't care how much they spend during the day.

A zany older woman I know from Jackson, Mississippi once told me that she always drank champagne with her bowl of beans and rice. I'm with her on this sort of style and class mash-up. If you've got just $25 to spend on food and drink for a day in New York, I'd suggest the following:
• breakfast: get a small coffee and croissant at a coffee cart and take it to a park = $2.50
• lunch: order a panini at a small authentic Italian walk-up eatery = $6
• dinner: locate a hot dog stand (they're everywhere) and buy one for $2 and then sit in the park. If that's disgusting, then you can buy some bananas and have money left over.
• after dinner or before, find the unmarked Temple Bar on Lafayette and order a world class martini for $12, and leave $2.50 as a tip. If you don't drink, your money will go far in New York.