MY wife and I live near to downtown (Ossington Subway) in a spacious basement of a well maintained house. I will put down our monthly expense as follows:
Monthly rent - 900 (inclusive of high speed internet, TV and utilities)
Grocery - 350 (we shop from No Frills, which is just few minutes walk from our house)
TTC Monthly passes - 252
Telephone - 110
Misc - 200
Total - $ 1812
We have tried to manage to live in the above range for the past 7 months since landing. Will upgrade to an apartment soon as I have just landed on a job (after 8 months of struggle). But we are very happy with our current location which is very safe and easily accessible by TTC