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Tickets for Broadway and off-Broadway shows are sold at a 25 to 50 percent discount (plus a small service charge) on the day of the show at TKTS booths. Payment is in cash or travelers’ checks only. Queues get very long very quickly so it is advisable to arrive early.

Watch your favorite show for free – if you can get in a request early enough. For more information, call the individual networks. Same-day tickets are sometimes available at the Tourist Information Center or from the NBC lobby desk.

There are regular free drama performances and concerts in Central Park in July and August. Contact Summerstage (212 360 2777) . Free masterclasses and excellent concerts are also held by faculty and talented students at the Julliard School (212 799 5000) .

Metropolitan Opera performances, New York Philharmonic concerts, Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, and outdoor performances at Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park – all free – are among the reasons why New Yorkers love summer. Contact NYC & Company (212 484 1222) for a current schedule.

The best transit deal is the $7 Fun Pass, a Metrocard that allows unlimited subway and bus rides from the first ride until 3am the next morning. If you are staying in the city longer, a $20 Metrocard includes two free rides, and a $21 card will buy you unlimited rides for one full week.

Pre-theater prix fixe dinners are good value, but lunch menus are usually even better. During Restaurant Week, for two weeks in January and again in June, New York’s best restaurants offer three-course lunches priced according to the year: $20.02, $20.03, and dinners for $35. The promotion is very popular, so book ahead through www.opentable.com

You can save money by using your bank card at ATMs (Automated Teller Machines). Many accept Plus or Cirrus network cards and will debit your account and pay you in dollars. The transaction fees are less than those at Currency Exchanges, and you get the wholesale exchange rate used between banks (see Banking and Communications).

CityPass will buy you admission to six top attractions for $53 ($41 for ages 6–17), half the price. You can buy it at participating sites, including the Empire State Building, the Guggenheim Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Modern Art, Circle Line sightseeing cruises, and the Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum.

White sales on linens are held in January and August, coat sales are featured during the November Veteran’s Day and February George Washington’s Birthday holidays. Bathing suits go on sale after the 4th of July and everything is on sale after Christmas.

Round trips are available seven times a day to Woodbury Common Premium Outlets, a one-hour drive to a mall of 220 discount outlets carrying top name brands such as Armani, Gucci, and Burberry. Tickets cost $35.