At $12 per hour, I'd look to spend no more than $600 per month

Thanks! That's what I'd feel more comfortable too.

Especially if you don't have to live in a particular town.

No, we don't have to at all. Though this job is very unusual and nowhere else!

Be a bit choosy, and try to find a place where you can live decently on your wages.

Yeah, that's the ideal! Though tbh we'd actually been searching for a few months, and got close to a cool position a dozen times but everything kept falling apart, and we were just starting to feel a little like we were burning money and having no fun... seems we're just not very good at finding that place! Cheers :)