Yes. But the how matters more than the whether, and I want to be honest about what the how looks like, because the brochures are not going to be.
Roommates are the norm, not the exception. In expensive cities, most PhD students live with roommates well into their late twenties. There is no shame in it. But go in with eyes open: your housing will probably be shared, smaller, and further from campus than the pictures implied. That is the deal. Plenty of people take it happily, as long as they knew the deal going in.
The number to watch is the stipend-to-rent ratio. If rent eats more than half your stipend, life gets stressful fast. Between a third and a half is workable with discipline. Under a third and you can actually save, which in grad school feels like a superpower. Do this math before you sign, not after you move.
A free grad school budget tracker app earns its keep here. You need one number, updated honestly every month: what came in, what went out. A grad student expense tracker app will not fix a too-small stipend. Nothing fixes that except a bigger stipend or a cheaper city. But it kills the particular anxiety of not knowing where the money went, and in an expensive city that anxiety is half the battle.
Side income helps, with limits. Departments often cap outside hours, and your advisor's opinion of your side gig matters more than the policy on paper. Tutoring and grading pay decently and keep you adjacent to your academic identity. Anything eating forty hours a week is a different PhD than the one you signed up for.
The programs where this works best are the ones that admit the problem exists: higher stipends, subsidized graduate housing, emergency funds. Ask current students, not the admissions office. Students will tell you the truth about money. Then compare what each stipend is actually worth in that city. The cost-of-living-adjusted figures at phdstipend.fyi show the real math, city by city, and the real math is the only math that counts.