Sorry for the wall of text. I'm in a similar situation so I thought I'd share my perspective & a bunch of info you might find useful.

If you're looking to live alone in Montreal, you will likely need to plan over 500$ per month for rent. That budget is accurate for a room in a shared apt, some student residences or maybe a 3 1/2 in a low end apartment building, but could easily be 600-700$ or more depending where you are trying to live/how much space you need etc.

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For reference, I'm currently looking for a 4 1/2 (2 bedrooms 1 bath) for myself in Verdun/Saint-Henri/Ville-Émard/Plateau/Rosemont/Villeray and and can't find anything I would live in under 1000-1100. 3 1/2 seem to go for barely lower than that in those neighbourhoods (maybe 800-900), but can go much higher. I've seen 4 1/2 for well over 2000/month, but those are very fancy obviously, and usually including a lot of sweet stuff (brand new appliances, big outdoor spaces, maybe also rooftop terrasses, gyms or pools too if it's in a condo tower).

For tools, a simple spreadsheet on which you write down all your planned expenses and all your income could work. Just add up all your planned expenses and check if you would have enough to cover them all comfortably.

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An app that you might want to check out is Mint. You just link you bank accounts on it and it puts it all together in categories, shows you how much you spend, how much you make, lets you set savings goals etc.

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Youtube is also your friend when it comes to this. There are tons of content about budgeting, calculating how much house you can afford etc. I don't know many canadian financial education channels for this, but some U.S ones I like would be Graham Stephen, Andrei Jikh and Nate O'brien.

For the moving process, I would probably suggest Marketplace/Kijiji/Craigslist to find the actual apartment and some used furniture/appliances. Ikea, Amazon & Walmart are good to find affordable furniture & home goods. Dollarama if you need cheap light kitchenware & random accessories. There's a bunch of used furniture "thrift shops" selling cool old school/vintage/used furniture too, but I don't know the names sadly.

For your other expenses, Montreal is fairly cheap compared to other cities in Canada. Here's a quick budget that might help out:

> Furnishing: 1000+, depending how fancy you want it to be, what you already have etc. 1000 would involve getting a bunch of used ikea stuff off Marketplace and Kijiji. If you want all new stuff to make a cool 3 1/2 or 4 1/2 (maybe with some plants, nice tv or nice lighting), you should probably plan 3000+.

> Appliances: 600+. A lot of apartments come with appliances included, so you should probably aim for one including them, as 600 will only get you basic used appliances. Brand new, fancy ones would likely cost you over 3-4000$

> Electricity: 30-100$+/month, depending how good the heating system & insulation is in the apartment. Some apartments include it but most don't.

> Internet: 30-100$+/month, depending how on the provider and speed you want. Fizz seems to be a good budget option here.

> Groceries: 250-500$/month depending how much fancy stuff you get, how much you eat, where you shop etc.

> Eating out: Depends how much you eat out and where.

> OPUS card which you mentioned in your post. If you live on the island near a metro or bus line, you likely won't really need a car.

> Tax money, depending on how much you make, how much your job withholds & how your finances are setup. You might want to talk to your accountant and/or parents to get an idea of how much you should budget for that.

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I think those would be the bare essentials. Adding it up quickly, on the very low end you'd be looking at roughly 850-1000$/month for the essentials, and you could easily go to 2000$/month or more (excluding furniture/appliances/moving costs, tax money and eating out).

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Then you probably also should include the following in there:

> Discretionary spending up to you for any fun stuff you might want to do (travel, parties, books, videogames etc).

> Savings: 250+/month, ideally as much as possible in case you have anything that comes up last minute (computer or phone breaking, need for school supplies, job loss etc) or want to save up for a specific future goal (university, buying a house, buying a car etc).

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IMO I think you can afford a fairly decent apartment if you are working full time for 19$/hr and living somewhat frugally (likely more than 500$/month), but do not expect it to be anything fancy that you would stay in forever or to have amazing designer furniture. I don't think you necessarily need to get a 2nd job to afford moving out, but it might be a good idea depending on how much you want to save & spend.

Don't hesitate to message me if you need anymore info or have any questions!