Let's try putting some numbers to this budget discussion for Martin.
Martin has an entry-level book-stacking job at a local college, so he's likely getting paid the Massachusetts minimum wage of $11/hr, which is $1,760 a month (assuming it's full time).
A 2-bedroom apartment in Northampton is around $1500/mo on Zillow (living in Boston, I find this number suspect, but I guess some places allow people to actually live), and he's got a roommate, so Martin's share is $750 or so, leaving him $1010 a month. Around $300 of this goes to groceries, leaving him with $710. An average Bronze Obamacare plan is $560/mo, but Martin's low income means he gets his health care subsidized so his premium is no more than 9.5% of his income (thanks, Obama! Possibly! I might be wrong on this!), which we'll round up to $170. This leaves him with $540. $40 or so goes to his half of the internet fees, leaving about $100 each for water, electricity, gas, ironic T-shirts, and heat. One of his expenses is also a robot, which I don't know how to budget for.
So Martin is in a situation where his survival is actually feasible, which I didn't expect when starting to google it, but he has basically no money for anything that isn't a strict necessity, and will probably hit major financial problems soon even without a medical emergency, since rent is an endlessly growing monster about to consume him. His best short-term savings goal is probably to get Pintsize a humanlike chassis so that he can get a job and contribute to rent, though that plan has several problems only some of which are ethical.