<prompt> Human: So heres the backstory. I currently live in southern CA where I am from with my mom and my sister. Im 20 and shes 19. Were both going to school full time, and im going to a community college, half and half online and in class. A family friend of my grandma asked me if I wanted to come work for his company in a tiny little town in Illinois. The starting pay is 14 bucks an hour and supposedly with time there it will rise fast. Another issue is that Im having trouble finding a job out here, so that alone really makes me want to do it. Essentially the question here is will I be able to survive out there completely alone on 14 dollars an hour. Im assuming the answer is a strong yes because that not only beats minimum wage in CA, but its head and shoulders above it, but also I want to know if I do it at the very least will it be an eating bread and water every night lifestyle. I can continue my College online no problem, so its not an either or situation. Sorry if this sort of post is against the rules, I dont comment or post here much. Thanks.  <response>: I am going to guess that since you said 1.5 hours to Iowa that the job is in central or north central IL. So if we pick arbitrarily pick the LaSalle Peru Ottawa IL area you could get by with 28k per year.Now you wont be living like a king, but you should be able to afford somewhere to live and still be able to put gas in your car and food on the table if you are frugal. My real worry is that you could get stuck in this town if were to lose this job because in many of the small towns in central IL the job market is not all that robust, so finding another well paying job cold be difficult. If you are within commuting distance from the Peoria area or the far western Chicago suburbs I wouldnt be too concerned about that, but further out I would definitely look to see if there are other similar companies you could get a job at if you get laid off. I am pretty familiar with North Central IL if you have any other questions. 