moving to moorhead (cheap apartments, how much, house)

[s.h.a.y.l.a]

Hi
I'm from slovenia but next year I'm probably moving to Moorhead, Minnesota (if I get accepted to the university). I'll be living off campus, but I have no idea how high the living expenses are. So can you please tell me how much does food cost, electricity, water...everything...I really have no idea what to expect.

[Old Surrender]

Hi!

Check this Web site out: ApartmentsHQ is your headquarters for Red River Valley area apartments
Sometimes you can find places that include heat and water with the rent. Are you attend Minnesota State University Moorhead? My wife is a grad student there. Send me a private message if you want.

[s.h.a.y.l.a]

Thanks. I saw some really cheap apartments on that site. But I still don't know how much money I need. Is food expensive there? How much does an average person spend in a month?

[jwmn]

I live in Moorhead, but it would be difficult to compare my expenses to yours since we're a family of four living in a house that's bigger than any apartment.

I would guess that you might spend about $300 a month on food, but that's a pretty rough approximation. It also depends, obviously, on how willing you are to live on cheap food. Food prices in Fargo-Moorhead are a little below the national average. Here's a website showing the cost of living index for Fargo-Moorhead and some other cities.
Chamber of Commerce Fargo Moorhead: Community: Cost of Living

The overall cost of living is below average in Fargo-Moorhead, but it is above average for utilities due to the cost needed to heat your home in the winter.

Here's a website showing the rates for electricity and water in Moorhead.
Residential Rates

If you live in an apartment, you probably would not have to pay for water or garbage (I never paid for water or garbage when living in apartments in Fargo), but you would have to pay for electricity. Electricity is $6.95 per month plus $.061 per kilowatt hour. So if you use 1000 kilowatt hours, that would be 6.95+0.061*1000= $67.95 per month. I honestly don't know how much electricity you would use, but I'm sure it would be more than that in the winter if you have electric heat and probably less than that the rest of the year.

[Dubuquer1]

Good medical care? Things to do?

[jwmn]

Yeah, I would say there is good medical care. That tends to be my impression, though maybe someone with more experience would have more to say about it. There's two main hospitals: MeritCare and Innovis. Here's info from the Chamber of Commerce website:
Chamber of Commerce Fargo Moorhead: Community: Health Care

There's things to do, too. But I don't know what exactly you're looking for. Fargo-Moorhead has a population of about 150,000 or so, and growing, and it's located not more than an hours drive from Minnesota lakes country.