Laurennatalie,
Bishop's Stortford is very close to STN and there are buses which run every 15-30 min to the airport and the journey takes about 20-25 minutes.However this is a very expensive town to rent a room expect about 350 sterling/month.
If you drive you can look into Braintree or Chalmsford (about 25-35min drive) where the prices are a little more reasonable.
Other towns around the Airport are Great Dunmow and Stansted both of them like Stortford well connected to the airport but expensive.
If you feel like driving about an hour you can look into Colchester which is cheaper to rent a place than the others mentioned.
I would avoid Harlow,not the safest place.....
Good LOOK