I’d recommend St. Louis to anyone looking to do a lot with a little. I’ve had friends with 1 bedrooms as low as like $450, although the way to go is to rent a house with some friends.
Great skate scene, very affordable, and there is some cool history to the city. There is also a lot of fun stuff to do for free, and it’s one of those cities where you can be skating downtown all day and then drive a little ways out of the city and go swimming in a lake or a river.
The only knock on it for me was there wasn’t a lot of exciting job opportunities.