Well you’re in luck because I am here to help! You can in fact afford to live in Tennessee, if you can afford to live anywhere, because rents are as low as $200 a month for a crappy trailer in TN!

Just look at this long-ass link from Zillow that shows all the real estate available for rent in TN sorted by lowest price. Rent starts at $200 and a decent apartment is probably at least $450/mo.

https://www.zillow.com/tn/rentals/?searchQueryState={"pagination"%3A{}%2C"isMapVisible"%3Atrue%2C"mapBounds"%3A{"west"%3A-91.01308386328125%2C"east"%3A-80.94411413671875%2C"south"%3A33.634606731356804%2C"north"%3A37.97611597302191}%2C"usersSearchTerm"%3A"TN"%2C"regionSelection"%3A[{"regionId"%3A53%2C"regionType"%3A2}]%2C"filterState"%3A{"ah"%3A{"value"%3Atrue}%2C"fr"%3A{"value"%3Atrue}%2C"fsba"%3A{"value"%3Afalse}%2C"fsbo"%3A{"value"%3Afalse}%2C"nc"%3A{"value"%3Afalse}%2C"cmsn"%3A{"value"%3Afalse}%2C"auc"%3A{"value"%3Afalse}%2C"fore"%3A{"value"%3Afalse}%2C"sort"%3A{"value"%3A"paymenta"}}%2C"isListVisible"%3Atrue%2C"mapZoom"%3A8}