<i>Can you give examples.</i><p>Back in 2004, when I was living in St. Louis, two guys in a 3 room apartment near the Wash U shuttle line in a neighborhood which was 20-something friendly was $400 a month each.  If you were content with the college kid lifestyle you could easily do it on $800 ~ $1,000 a month total.<p>Another option is doing the startup part time while working, which tends to make the difference between $800 and $1,200 pretty immaterial.