Rent help for Calgary/Canada + working/living expenses.

[popinfresh]

Hey guys i'm moving to Canada in about a month for 12-18 months and need some help and tips with living expenses.
I'm going to be staying in Calgary with my girlfriend (who is Canadian) and moving out into a place around April/May with her and 1 or 2 others. In the meantime i'll be staying with her family a little and wherever else I can find accommodation (her family is er, very conservative).
Her family is in the SW area and she's coming back from UBC and finishing off some uni courses at UofC so we'll be in the same area I suppose.
What is average rent prices per month in the area? Even if it's a bit further out of downtown or what not.
I'll be going over with about $8kCAD to help with the first month or two before we move out and will start working when I need to. What's work really like over there at the moment with the recession? I'm I going to be able to find work to pay the bills or will it be a struggle? I don't care what it is, just so I can make it through.
What is it like getting work up north in the oil fields now? Is an international going to have much hope getting work or not? I was thinking of going to work there for a couple months to get some money.
What are living expenses like over there? Just basic foods/drinks/petrol (gas) etc. I can live extremely cheap food wise as i've been backpacking around Oz and got it pretty down pat, but i'll need a car eventually.
What is public transport like?
Also are there any hostels or are shared houses common? Or does anyone know of anyone or anywhere I can find places that just have a room for rent?
I'll be traveling a bit over the summer if she doesn't take courses, then next winter am aiming to go work in the snowfields somewhere so I can snowboard for the season.

Just a general jist of what i'm looking at would be much appreciated.

Cheers.

[Jim Campbell]

first, telling people you have money/expensive gear is never a good idea...........better to not volunteer information....try googling calgary rental houses,properties,apartments for rent,houses for rent,the real estate news,craigslist,kijiji,for an idea of the cost.even with the recession its a very expensive housing market in alberta.there probably are shared housing/rooming houses but you have to exercise caution especially if you have gear that is tempting for rip off types....

alberta,being a boom or bust type place has a lot of transient traffic.always remember that someone from somewhere else can always re invent his past .....that is not to say that ab is a bad place.there is a light rail,bus,service but the auto is king in canada,especially out west...perhaps an alberta member can enlighten.......

[popinfresh]

Cheers. I won't be having expensive gear or anything on me though. A bag of clothes and that's about it, if someone wants to jack for that, he needs something better to do ha.

[jade]

Originally Posted by popinfresh

Hey guys i'm moving to Canada in about a month for 12-18 months and need some help and tips with living expenses.
I'm going to be staying in Calgary with my girlfriend (who is Canadian) and moving out into a place around April/May with her and 1 or 2 others. In the meantime i'll be staying with her family a little and wherever else I can find accommodation (her family is er, very conservative).
Her family is in the SW area and she's coming back from UBC and finishing off some uni courses at UofC so we'll be in the same area I suppose.
What is average rent prices per month in the area? Even if it's a bit further out of downtown or what not.
I'll be going over with about $8kCAD to help with the first month or two before we move out and will start working when I need to. What's work really like over there at the moment with the recession? I'm I going to be able to find work to pay the bills or will it be a struggle? I don't care what it is, just so I can make it through.
What is it like getting work up north in the oil fields now? Is an international going to have much hope getting work or not? I was thinking of going to work there for a couple months to get some money.
What are living expenses like over there? Just basic foods/drinks/petrol (gas) etc. I can live extremely cheap food wise as i've been backpacking around Oz and got it pretty down pat, but i'll need a car eventually.
What is public transport like?
Also are there any hostels or are shared houses common? Or does anyone know of anyone or anywhere I can find places that just have a room for rent?
I'll be traveling a bit over the summer if she doesn't take courses, then next winter am aiming to go work in the snowfields somewhere so I can snowboard for the season.

Just a general jist of what i'm looking at would be much appreciated.

Cheers.

I'm from Calgary so I can help out a bit.

Rent is a bit expensive. For a basement suite, you are looking at about $800-1000/month. You can find cheaper but that's pretty average. My friend is renting a 1-bedroom downtown and she's paying $1200 a month which is the high end. There is one hostel downtown that I know of.

http://www.hihostels.ca/pm/en/calgar...?sortcode=2.17

http://www.rentfaster.ca/calgary.php

http://www.homerent.ca/canada/albert...-rent/listings

The oil field isn't hiring much anymore because the price of oil has dropped. A lot of projects have been on hold until the prices comes back up. I know my friend's been looking for a job and she's not having much luck unless you up for working in retail. Check out this website. It's pretty good.

http://www.jobbank.gc.ca/

The transit isn't bad (in my opinion).Regular fare is about $2.50 for a 90 min transfer or about $70/month. The train goes to the NE, NW and the south. I'm from the NE so I can't say much about the transit in the south. In general, it's not as great as it is in more developed places like London and New York but it isn't horrible if you don't have a car.

http://www.calgarytransit.com/

If you don't want to buy a car, you can check out the car co-op. You pay for a use of a car when you use it.

http://calgarycarshare.ca/

I probably spend about $60/week on food but I spoil myself sometimes. You could probably spend less than $50 if you plan out your meals and buy in bulk. Eating out is about $20/meal at a sit-down burger place.

Let me know if you have any questions. I'll try to help out if I can.

[heroincredible]

The SW is decent for transit. The big problem is that Calgary is so spread out so it takes a while to get where you're going using transit sometimes.

One of my buddies rents out rooms for $400 or $500, mostly to students though, and you'd be living with about 3-4 other people. If you end up being desperate for a place to stay, the university is a good place to go and check out bulletin boards for people looking for room mates, usually for a decent price a month ($500-600 from what I've seen).

As far as jobs go, the easiest place to get a job is probably in retail.

[Bassslayer69]

Once your past all that hard set up stuff, You'll find that calgary is a beautiful, and a neat place to visit. you can see the mountains from town, theres a river, a world class ski resort mearby,excellent museums,an NHL hockey team the Stampede and so much more!
good luck!

[popinfresh]

Sweet, thanks heaps guys, i'll check out the links and ask any questions if I have any.

I'm mainly just concerned with finding work to pay the rent, hopefully it goes well!