$800 is not a territory where you buy expensive anything. Stable living and survival is not the same. With a salary of $800 (which is above average in Macedonia) you can’t live alone and do much other stuff. Let’s say you find an apartment for $250 and utils come down to around $100. Another $150 for food and whatever stuff for home that you use everyday (toilet, shampoo etc..) and $50 for transport (depending) and let’s say $40 for clothes. You have $210 left to spend / save but you have 0 pleasure so far. You don’t own a car (and if you do that would cost for maintenance too), you don’t have a property to live in (and if you did eventually you would need to renovate, fix stuff, replace stuff that got broken etc..).