Mushy, let me tell you about what I did, and I landed in Toronto late December, one of the colder months. I wanted to keep it super thrifty but not painfully cheap like getting a bed in a hostel/house with
@navinball like LLs.
For the first week, I booked the cheapest room on booking.com, for about I wanna say 70cad a night. This was important due to Jetlag and stuff. Then I got onto kijiji, started looking for rooms in the city and checked a few of them out by travelling in a bus (very very slow), I was not successful in finding a room so I spoke to the manager of the property I was in and he offered a cash deal of 55 a night. And this was a massive bedroom, size of some living rooms with a shared bathroom.
Then on Kijiji I came across some owners who instead of letting their rooms out long term, were doing it short term on day to day basis. I visited a Chinese guy's place, it was 30 a night for a private room and 35 or for a private room with private bathroom. And owner lived in the house so all that came with a functional kitchen and laundry machines. Just wanted 2-3 days worth of rent upfront and I was good to go.
My tip to you is come without family at first. Second, TTC. Third, only have airline luggage worth of stuff with you. I was mentally prepared to move a few times because finding that homely place can and probably will take time.