As a Tunisian I feel obliged to put my 2 cents.
The cost of life is pretty cheap around here ($500/month is the average salary for a teacher, the minimum income is around $200/m), and its getting cheaper with the decline of the tunisian dinar Vs $ & €
I live near the cities of Sousse & Monastir, and i can share few thoughts:
- rent for a decent apartement is about $300/m in the city and less than $200 outside
- food is relatively cheap around here, with a wide variety of fresh fish
- Monastir is a beatiful city, good climate, excellent beaches, the travel to the aeroport cost less than15 min and 50 cent , with weekly/biweekly flights to major european cities.
- Tunisia is actually very safe and stable, major touristic destinations(hammamat, sousse, monastir, djerba (which btw is a very decent destination) are given more attention by the Interior minister.
- internet quality is not on par with the 1st world, 8Mb cost around $40/ m
- french is widely spoken, english is understood especially by youth
- wikitravel have some good ( and accurate) articles about tunisia & tunisian cities