When Lukas Jannick’s parents heard how much he was spending on coffee in New York City, they bought and sent a coffee machine straight to his house.
“I told them it’s $5.69, and they were shocked,” he said. “Now I’m not spending any money on coffee.”
The 23-year-old Dutchman moved to NYC four months ago from Apeldoorn in the Netherlands, where his family lives. He moved across the Atlantic to live closer to his girlfriend, a native New Yorker, whom he fell in love with after a chance encounter at a bar in Greece.
He earns around $580 a week as a sales administrator and has found NYC prices are generally two to three times higher than back home. He’s not alone; many New Yorkers struggle to meet the city’s high cost of living, having to pay hefty rents and face high food prices. Jannick is one of the people Business Insider has spoken to for our Cost of the City series, reporting on what it takes to afford life in one of the most expensive cities in the country.
He spends most of his salary on rent and food, buying his weekly groceries for under $100 from Amazon Fresh and Trader Joe’s, where he has fallen victim to its “insanely long lines.” Jannick leads what he describes as a frugal lifestyle.
“To be honest, I don’t spend so much outside of my rent,” he said.
He said he inherited typical Dutch frugality, a mentality passed down by his grandparents, who experienced food scarcity during the Second World War. Although attitudes are changing with Gen Z, whenever he buys something, his family usually asks about the price and congratulates him when he strikes a good deal.
“I’m almost grateful that I earn so little and that I’m in New York,” Jannick said. “I feel almost that the city is pushing me with the high expenses,” he said, explaining that it makes him work harder.
He saved around $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 for future investments.
From a bar in Greece to finding housing in New York City
Jannick dropped out of university at 18 and from there worked various jobs in the Netherlands.
His life took a turn after a company vacation to Greece over the last weekend of September 2024, when he was 21. On the first night of the trip, he went to a bar with some coworkers and met his now-girlfriend, who lived in New York City. After five months of texting back and forth, he decided to visit her in-person. In a week, he fell in love with her. This led to a one-and-a-half-year-long-distance relationship, during which Jannick decided to move to NYC to be closer to his girlfriend.
No one in his family or community had made that type of move, so he was left to figure it out himself.
“A lot of people thought I was crazy for it,” he said. “There is a lot of time that I could save with the knowledge that I have right now. On the other hand, I also feel you kind of have to make those mistakes.”
The process to get to the US took over a year. He started applying for jobs and received help from Stage Global, an international exchange and placement company that connected him with US employers and arranged interviews.
Eventually, he landed a sales job at Vertex Security, a commercial security provider, and was able to move by May 5, 2026, two large suitcases in hand. He said the approximate total cost of the move was over $6,000, including his flight, visa fees, and Stage Global’s fee.
For the first few weeks, he lived with his girlfriend, and while he started his new job, he fell into the NYC apartment hunt.
“I didn’t really know where to start,” he said.
He sought advice from ChatGPT, got blocked from Facebook for sending too many messages, and was blindsided by the need for guarantors. Meanwhile, 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 secured 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 his first time living away from his family, this is not his first time paying rent. He has paid rent to live with his parents in the Netherlands since he was 18, initially contributing €180 and later up to €249.
Adjusting to New York City prices and habits
NYC’s food culture was one of the things that surprised Jannick. He noticed that New Yorkers’ social interactions revolve around food, and that many invest their time and money in trying different restaurants and traveling to new cafés and bars.
“In the Netherlands, we don’t have that whole culture around food,” he said. “There is a fundamental difference in how they look at food. Here, you eat food to enjoy it, and we eat food to survive.”
Since arriving in NYC, he has tried a plethora of new cuisines, from Brazilian cheese bread to “amazing” Thai food for the first time.
“These types 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 because of student loans — in the Netherlands, there is usually access to good-quality, affordable schools, and universal healthcare.
“To be in debt to pay things — it’s very strange to me,” he said.
Another change is the long distances and methods he has to use to get across the city. By land area, New York City is around 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 live an hour away from your office, as it is expected that you can find something better and closer than where you live. Currently, he lives a 45-minute subway ride away from his office in Manhattan.
Although Jannick said he likes the subway, he recently bought a bike to get around NYC for its convenience and to save on transportation costs.
“I’m a little bit too frugal to use the Citi Bike,” he said.
He’s hoping the bike will help reduce his roughly $140 a month transportation costs.
Why the move feels worth it
New York City’s energy is part of what makes the move worth it. The city’s ambition is pushing Jannick to work harder and make more money, he said. By the time he reaches one year living in the US, in May 2027, he hopes to grow his YouTube channel from 14,000 to 100,000 subscribers.
“I’m absolutely loving the energy around the city, the ambition that is driving people to really almost force you to make something of your life is incredible to me,” he said. “It was worth it in a lot of different ways: for my relationship, for my career that I’m building with YouTube, and for the experience of becoming more of an adult.”
Staying long-term is one of his goals, but he is still uncertain how he will achieve it, as he is on an 18-month J-1 visa.
“So far, this has been absolutely my best summer. I feel very grateful, very lucky.”
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