From the Editor-in-Chief

After several years of living in Boston post-college on a meager, nonprofit salary, I began scouring Boston’s newspapers, websites, and bookstores for information on how to live on a tight budget.  Frustrated by the time it took to find ANY information, I decided to develop a comprehensive guide for those looking to slow spending and save money. 

To ensure this guidebook details all the coolest and cheapest places in the city, I’ve enlisted the help of financially strapped recent graduates and journalists from Boston University, Boston College, Harvard University, and Brandeis University, as well as graphic design and cartography specialists.

The guidebook, Broke in Boston: A Guide to Living Cheap in the City, covers all of Boston’s major areas, including Boston Proper, Brookline, Cambridge, and Somerville. 

• Cheap places to eat
• Cool, Cheap Date Places
• Discount clothing & furniture stores
• Annual festivals, police departments, hospitals, cab numbers, and helpful websites
• Orienting to the city and its culture
• Apartment hunting and safety
• Boston’s hottest clubs and dance venues
• Gay & lesbian nightlife
• Entertainment for those under 21
• Historical landmarks
• Inexpensive excursions
• Free and inexpensive sources of entertainment
• A complete set of maps detailing the entire metropolitan area
• Public transit maps and schedules
• Neighborhood descriptions
• Dating tips
• Inexpensive food & drink recipes
• Free wireless internet providers
• Cheap cable, DSL, telephone, and utility providers
• Obtaining a parking permit

While many resources are available online, it can take hours upon hours to answer the questions covered in Broke in Boston, and even longer to retrace those answers weeks later.  The guide addresses nearly every way a Boston resident can limit spending.  This information has never before been consolidated and took a devoted staff of seven people well over a year to put together.

Every aspect of the book was designed with you, the reader, in mind
The book’s dimensions (4.75” Wide x 7” Long) make it an extremely portable reference that can fit easily into a back pocket or purse.  The chapters are laid out in the order they would be needed by someone moving to the city.  Explicit directions for reaching destinations are provided throughout the book.  Even the mundane tasks of obtaining parking permits, avoiding parking tickets, finding the right cable and internet providers are addressed. 

Use the 200-plus pages of information and state-of-the-art, digitally-designed color maps to inexpensively navigate your way through Boston’s exciting and historic streets, restaurants, bars, clubs, neighborhoods, parks, landmarks, and water bodies!    

A Word About Purchasing Directly through our Website

 While Broke in Boston will be available in stores and through online retailers, we encourage you to purchase directly through this website to support our struggling staff of authors.  Publishing companies and retailers retain 95% of sales revenue, and that equates to less than 85 cents per book sold for us writers. This might translate into a lot of money for an international best seller, but it isn’t very much for a book like Broke in Boston with a very limited readership­­—Boston residents only. And let’s face it, we’re Broke too!  

All of this is a long way of saying we’ve self-published, and that gives us the freedom to sell directly to you!  If we want to sell the book though bookstores, we the little guy are forced to use a wholesaler who distributes our book to a retailer.  Collectively the wholesalers (aka middle men) and retailers (e.g. Barnes & Noble) take about 80% of the profit from every book sale…So please, don’t be skeptical, buy the book now through our website and support those in pursuit of doing more with less!

To ensure you’re personal information is protected, we’ve partnered with PAYPAL, a well known and trusted online financial services company used by EBAY. 

Thank you for reading and enjoy!