My rent (which is the cheapest possible in town) is $6,000 (not including heating oil, which is ~$75/mo in the winter) a year for a very small room of a duplex in which each half is shared by 4 people. In a very different real estate market I've been in within the last two years (KY houses are on the order of 1/2 the cost of houses in NH), it's still about the same price for rent. You won't make it on the $1-2k that's left over from that. How long ago were you living on <$7k?