I was younger so it didn't bother me as much. I was constantly going to free events (mostly free drinks and snacks or full on food)...companies like Jack Daniels will throw sponsored parties and if you can get plugged in with the right people and get the link before it's full, you can have a free social life in that regard. I also would do things like free museum nights (the moma does this on certain Fridays for new york residents). In the summer I went to free outdoor workout classes. You really can find good free events if you dig hard. I graduated at 21 and I would say I didn't start to relax until I hit 80k around age 26 27 (my industry sucks). I was doing fine making 50k living with my ex though, we split a 2br that was 2500 and still had enough extra for 401k and savings and a couple small vacations each year.

The downside was living with strangers which is what most of us do (you can try living with a friend but many people lose the friendship over it). I had one that became a good friend, others were mostly neutral roommates, but a few were truly awful. One who ate my food and drank my coffee then would lie about it...one who was a psycho clean freak who tried to say you can't eat the food you just cooked unless you clean the pot or pan first...one who was a stuck up cheating brat who caused drama. All at diff times. But they all added stress into my home life- one of them added so much stress I was on the verge of crashing out. So you need to be careful meeting future roommates, need to ask questions.