The best way is probably to find an apartment, but that's tough with the housing crisis here. You can browse sites like Craigslist (beware of scams) or Zillow to ascertain rents.

Airbnb sounds expensive for a whole year, but I haven't priced it out.

Living in a camper through the winter will be very uncomfortable and probably downright dangerous unless you have a good heat source (ideally one that doesn't give you CO poisoning). Please remember that our winters are frigid and we get lots of snow. I don't know of any campgrounds that stay open through the winter, but maybe they exist. Be sure to factor in the cost of heat to your utility bills.

Honestly, $30k isn't even close IMO. You might want to read this to get a better idea, but that's two years old and housing prices went up a lot. A home near me that sold for $180,000 about 8 years ago was sold "as-is" last month for $360k. https://www.vermontpublic.org/programs/2020-06-05/is-vermont-really-so-expensive

Most people I know who've bought a home recently have mortgages in the $1,000 range for a basic, smaller home, and that's not including property taxes (Chittenden and the southern part of Franklin counties). Rents in my area for two bedrooms have been at the $1,400 to $1,800 per month area for months. Here's one of the more recent rental listings:

<Renovated 2br | 1ba apartment available for rent as soon as 10.10.

$1,650/m, tenant responsible for electric and heating oil.>

I can't speak for heating oil prices right now, but I know on propane with a new high-efficiency boiler, we go through about 400 gallons a year. We're locked in at $2.69 a gallon. Winters can get frigid, though it's impossible to know how cold it will get. Recent years have been milder than usual, but about six years or so ago, we had an extended January deep freeze that was causing regular frostquakes, and I'd never experienced them in decades of living here.

The electricity bill for our household is around $100 a month. (I work from home so there's always a computer on. Heat pump water heater and energy-efficient appliances. To get to most anywhere, you need a car.

High-speed internet isn't available everywhere. Comcast/Xfinity tends to have a monopoly, and it can be pricey outside of introductory rates. I negotiated this year and got it down to $40 a month but after that, I'll have to negotiate again. I know people who only get DSL and their connections continually go out, making it hard for them to work from home. The closer you are to cities, the higher the odds of having high-speed, but that also means higher rents. Another thing about the city, that's where you'll have public transportation access. In most areas, you need a car and that means gas, yearly inspections, registration, maintenance, snow tires, etc. I've seen a few posts from out-of-staters who are shocked by how strict the inspection rules are, and cars they expected to pass with ease required thousands in repairs first.

I tried to live in VT but couldn't find a house so I had to settle for Upside-down Vermont (New Hampshire). Literally almost everything is backwards here. (Fucking billboards, really!?)

1. Cost of living is expensive in comparison to what people make here. Depends on how much space you need, what town you're in, how luxurious you live, etc. Vermont is small compared to TX, but still, there are differences in the cost of living of Burlington vs. Barre, St. Johnsbury, etc.
2. You'll freeze. We always have stretch of weather in the winter where it's 0 during the day for a high, with lows at -10 or -15 at night. That's here in the Champlain Valley, gets colder the higher you are and up in the northeast kingdom.
3. Apartment is your best bet, but they are expensive. Most of Vermont's rental stock are hacked up century old or older buildings. And they typically are expensive to heat. Even if you get a good deal on rent, you'll pay in heating costs.

I get the desire to have that once in a lifetime experience, but right now would be the toughest time to do it.

Definitely look into a hotel. Call and ask to speak to the person in charge of long-term stays. We did this while we were house-hunting and stayed at Home2Suites in Williston for months. Not only do they allow cats, they have a once-per-month pet fee of only $75.

The way I made this profitable/feasible was to put it on a Hilton credit card I had which gave 7x points for stays, plus signed up for a 3x point promo (future vacation stays paid for!). You also get a huge discount per night depending how long you stay, and then every tenth night is free. Plus no room taxes after 30 days.

When you factor in the free breakfast, cable, wifi, heating, electric, pool, linens, etc., we wound up paying just about what we did in rent in Raleigh, NC.

You won't get the full VT experience of snowy peaks and boundless nature unless you drive a bit, but you'll be surrounded by great shopping and everything worth visiting is within driving distance.

And best of all: you won't be in Texas anymore.

Start with a week's stay in early February, maybe another week in April for mud season, that'll give you a better idea if you're up for taking on a full year.

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City Hall Park in Burlington is an ideal place to camp. Either that or the Pit.