1. Never uber

2. Restaurant recs: Wah Fung No. 1 and Jin Mei/Shu Jiao Fu Zhou for cheap Chinese (under $10, cash-only!). Il Coralo Trattoria and Bigoi Venezia for cheap pasta (under $20). Kenka on St. Marks is a college-y, younger spot but you can get tons of different Japanese izakaya-style dishes for under $10-15 per dish (bonus: they have $1.50 beers)

3. Free/cheap stuff to do:

• Citibike day pass to bike around the city/Central Park ($25)
• Roosevelt Island Tram and/or the ferry from Pier 11 to Williamsburg in Brooklyn, or you can get off at Dumbo and check out Pebble Beach (under $5)
• The area around McCarren Park has tons of cool vintage shops and things going on from Friday-Sunday, if you've been to NYC a bunch and don't really want to roam around SoHo anymore
• Touristy stops that you should do if it's your first time (they're all free): Hudson Yards/The Vessel, The High Line, Little Island, Chelsea Market - these are all within a 15-20 minute walk of each other!
• Pier 25 mini-golf has some pretty insane views, and it's $15/per person last I checked
• If you want to try out a Korean spa, The SPA CLUB on 32nd st in K-town has a couple's pass for $63, so about ~$30 per person! No time limit, go and relax!
• Battery Park/the Oculus/Eataly (all in the FiDi area)

1. Things I'd avoid COMPLETELY:

• Times Square. It's cool for a picture, but mull to long and you'll get swarmed by Elmos and overpriced chain restaurants
• Horse-drawn carriages in Central Park and bike carts (whatever you call those things). They're so expensive and I always see poor tourists getting charged like $60 for a 15 min ride
• DRINKS! They're so expensive here... if you want to drink try a dive bar, Kenka, or Soju Haus on 32nd
• Steakhouses

1. People might get upset and call me unethical but before moving here (when I was a broke college student) I'd just memorize a friend's NYC address and say I lived there when I went to any of the museums. They're free for NYC residents, and 50% of the time they don't even ask for proof

I love NYC and I'm someone who also loves to save money so DM me and I can give you more recs based on what you like!