Moving within Montana, which area (Billings, Great Falls: apartment, credit, employment)

[mama32]

Hi,

My family and I live in the Helena area and are looking to move somewhere else in Montana. Housing is too expensive here for us anymore, among other reasons. I haven't really been outside of Helena and don't have the cash to go wild goose chasing

If yall would give me some ideas of cities and towns we might want to check out I'd appreciate it.

Its just me and the kids and we are Bible believing Christians. We are also vegan. We need to be in or near a town with a health food store and a reasonably priced Christian school. My employment experience is in childcare and customer service.

Thanks!

[Mt-7]

hate to leave you hanging but I am stumped.
anyone else?

[rangerider]

Your last two stipulations make finding a spot problematic. Easy enough to find a small town with a church or two and affordable housing, but anyplace able to support a health food store year-round might be tough. And private schools, church supported or not, tend to be pretty expensive - I live just down the road from a private Christian school, and it is plenty expensive, clear out of my league, at least.

Guess I'm not much help either, my location has a higher cost of living than Helena.

[Mt-7]

Lower here but not the other requirements...

[mama32]

Thanks anyway yall. I was afraid it would be tough. Here Christian schools start out at $100/mo.

[montygarlic]

Originally Posted by Mt-7

hate to leave you hanging but I am stumped.
anyone else?

I'm also drawing a blank. High housing prices and low wages prevail in much of the State for those in service industries...

Good luck to you, and may God Bless you in your circumstances, current and future!


mg

[Klapton]

I would hope that some Christian schools would have scholarship / assistance for people of limited means? I would start by finding all the schools you can, and finding out what their tuition rates are, and whether or not they have any assistance available.

That would serve to narrow your search.

For the health food...

First I would recommend growing as much of your own as possible. Check out "Square Foot Gardening" for info on raised bed gardening. But with limited growing season, this won't help year-round. Another thing you might consider is low density aquaponics indoors. Look up "Friendly Aquaponics." They have designs for everything from apartment-sized systems to commercial operations. The smaller systems are relatively cheap to build and produce a remarkable amount of food in a small space.

You might have to plan on making a long drive once a month or something to get less-perishable things like grains, beans, etc.

I'm planning on setting up a year-round aquaponic system once I move, and hoping to start a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) once we see how our production goes. When we do, I plan to offer at least one out of every 10 "shares" as a tithe to someone with a situation like yours or to a local church to distribute as they find most helpful. I wish I was already there so I could make you that offer. Who knows? Maybe it will happen.

[mama32]

The hydroponics sounds very cool, but out of my budget I'm afraid. And yes, it is common for Christian schools to offer scholarships and work-credits. In Helena the Safeway store has a large health food section, is it like that in all Safeways?

From looking online it seems like Great Falls or Billings area might be a good place to look into. Any opinions on either area?

[Threerun]

Great Falls would be my guess. There is a natural foods grocer there. Not sure about the Christian school though..

[CTC]

Originally Posted by mama32

The hydroponics sounds very cool, but out of my budget I'm afraid. And yes, it is common for Christian schools to offer scholarships and work-credits. In Helena the Safeway store has a large health food section, is it like that in all Safeways?

From looking online it seems like Great Falls or Billings area might be a good place to look into. Any opinions on either area?

I lived in Billings for a couple of years. There is a really good natural foods market/CO-OP that we used to go to called the Good Earth Market. There were a couple of others as a well. Billings was a good place to live and I believe the cost of living is pretty low compared to other cities in MT. Not sure about the Christian Schools, there was a Christian Book store Downtown as I recall.

A link to the Good Earth Market

Good Earth Market | Billings Montana