As an aspiring writer (read as: as someone aspiring to earn less money) I've looked into this quite a bit.
I'm married with kids (well soon to be plural anyway) so the cheap rents are out of the question, and despite their generally lower cost apartments aren't ideal. Not only is there a high risk of bedbug infestation, which will set you back significantly if you get hit, but the costs are fixed and will increase every year.
From what I've figured out reading other peoples stories, the best way is to go nearly-off-grid. If your area allows mobile homes as a primary dwelling, then this is generally the ideal. They're generally cheaply available, they're normally of a size comparable to a single bed apartment, but they also come up to 3 and 4 bedroom models with two bath.
In rural areas these often have wood stoves as the primary heating with small propane/electric ones as backup so your pipes don't freeze if you go away for a weekend.
If you're setting up in a rural area, with 5+ acres of land you can easily be self-sustaining on your own wood supply. You can set yourself up with a small wind turbine and solar rig for your electricity.
Honestly though, the majority of my work experience is from various construction fields. I want to go this way to maximize my freedom. Cutting wood and tilling soil is just exercise to me so I don't have a problem growing my own vegetables and managing my own wood lot. The only thing I've spent money on owning my house was getting my furnace replaced, and only then because I didn't have the equipment to do the piping due to the age of my house.
My dream is to build my own house from the foundation up, and if possible using lumber I harvest myself.
So really you need to quantify what your reasons for doing this are. If it's just reduce expenses for a few years to maximize your savings you're probably best going for a college town apartment. If you want to escape the city and are merely using your skills as a means to an end to fund this endeavour, then I'd say learn the skills and go rural.
There's people in Alaska and elsewhere who can make ends meet at $10 a month. You need soap? Save your stove ashes, put them in a lye barrel and you make your own lye that you can mix with fat you've saved from cooking or - if you're really into it - your own hunting, or your own animals.
When you pay for a burger at McDonalds you're paying for the guy who grew the corn, the guy who fed the cow, the guy who drove it to the slaughter house, for the slaughter, for the processing, for the guy who drives the delivery truck, for the kid who cooks and makes the burger, and for the kid who serves you - and for every owner, manager and foreman along the way.
You can pay nothing at all for a burger by growing your own corn, raising your own cows and slaughtering them, growing your own wheat, raising your own chickens and making your own bread.
So: Earn a shit ton of money, buy a $750,000 house and never do anything around the house. Gardener does the outside, maid does the inside and takes the garbage out on garbage day. You pick up most of your food from restaurants, or you can even hire a housekeeper that does the groceries and prepares an evening meal for you.
You can earn good money, buy a $250,000 house. You'll mow your own lawn, you'll do your own cleaning and cooking. You'll do small repairs around the house, etc.
Or you can do what off-grid can do. You earn nothing, you sell what you have to. You grow your own food, hunt/raise your own meats, and you make pretty much everything you want.
The question is, how far down the rabbit hole does your happiness lie?