With the amount that you are being offered, and if you are planning to share your acco (lots of options available), you would definitely be able to live off the money. However, Im sure you are heading to QA to save something for yourself to take back to Canada? In that case it becomes a wee bit tight. If you get around 12k, you would be happy if you save 4-5k (1-1.2k CD$) .... This would be tight, IMHO ... Cheers :)