Cheap expats

[andebobandy]

Gotta pay to play.

mmm don't agree with respect to quality clothing, especially for kids. If I buy a t-shirt in M&S for 5 pounds I don't expect it to last for life, but perhaps a year without the seams falling apart, the color being washed out or the shape disappearing. Problem is if I buy an equivalent kids t/shirt here for say 50 pesos in Cheeky or Grisino it's a bloody mess in a matter of 4 or 5 washes. That's even true if I buy a kids tshirt from mini akiabara or paula cahen d'anvers where the price is more like 80 pesos plus. [/QUOTE]


5 pounds is like $7 us and you can't buy much of anything that is "quality" for $7 in baby clothes. The GAP charges $25-35 for a pair of jeans for 12 month old. I bought a pair of Friends pants here at a palermo baby boutique for $70 pesos and I've had them for three months, washed about once a week, and beaten up by my crawling maniac and they're fine. Maybe I'm due for a breakdown but I think for $17 US, even if they burst into flame tomorrow they were a deal. I mean 80 pesos is $20 bucks. For $20 bucks you can hardly shop at target. I can't speak for Europe, but I don't have any issue with paying $80 pesos for a pair of baby pants at a nice boutique.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

Well, clothes quality here is low. This is a fact. There are some other things that are better, like food.
Regards

 

[fifs2]

mmm don't agree with respect to quality clothing, especially for kids. If I buy a t-shirt in M&S for 5 pounds I don't expect it to last for life, but perhaps a year without the seams falling apart, the color being washed out or the shape disappearing. Problem is if I buy an equivalent kids t/shirt here for say 50 pesos in Cheeky or Grisino it's a bloody mess in a matter of 4 or 5 washes. That's even true if I buy a kids tshirt from mini akiabara or paula cahen d'anvers where the price is more like 80 pesos plus.

5 pounds is like $7 us and you can't buy much of anything that is "quality" for $7 in baby clothes. The GAP charges $25-35 for a pair of jeans for 12 month old. I bought a pair of Friends pants here at a palermo baby boutique for $70 pesos and I've had them for three months, washed about once a week, and beaten up by my crawling maniac and they're fine. Maybe I'm due for a breakdown but I think for $17 US, even if they burst into flame tomorrow they were a deal. I mean 80 pesos is $20 bucks. For $20 bucks you can hardly shop at target. I can't speak for Europe, but I don't have any issue with paying $80 pesos for a pair of baby pants at a nice boutique.[/quote]

Save your money for the trip to Europe! 3 t-shirts for12 pounds is a typical M&S summer offer and the 100% quality cotton is outstanding..it's thick, soft cotton which is my main gripe with flimsy cotton clothes here. I was in Ireland in July where school uniforms were on offer, Tesco (a supermarket) was offering the complete school uniform of white shirt, trousers or skirt, jumper, outdoor jacket, socks and a pair of black shoes for 40euros. I bought 2 pairs of cotton grey trousers for 6 euros - the current equivalent here for other mums at the shool is 60 pesos per pair, for a 7yr old!.
I want to stress its not like Im always looking for a bargain..Im just looking for fair quality and that is easy to come by in Europe and pretty damn hard here for children and adults alike. Gap quality is like Dior here..

 

[JoeBlow]

People say I'm a cheap person (though I think I'm frugal), but what I never understood is why people bother going to the trouble of putting an ad on here, say, to sell their old shelves, Lonely Planet and dustbin (just to give an example).

 

[artslv]

a very entertaining discussion;-) I really don't understand where the people are buying there clothing and what they are doing with it after the purchase. I've bought quite a lot of things in Plaza Serrano during the last 2 years and almost nothing bad has happened during this time to them (well, I've lost about 20kg, so some of my remeras do not suite me any more).

well, may be I am just from Eastern Europe and over there we really know how to sew on a loose/lost button without the help of a maid and not bringing the item back to the store;-)

regarding Palermo - Ezeiza connection: just take a colectivo down to Plaza del Congreso and then number 8 right to Ezeiza: you will hardly spend more than 5 pesos and less than 2-3 hours on this trip, but it is quite interesting to go through the real city (and not run through it by highway).

 

[citygirl]

Speaking of quality - I have to give huge props to Chrisian Lacroix here. I bought a lined trench coat from them. One of the buttons started to come loose and due to the lining, it was not something I could fix nor would I trust it to most tailors here.

I brought it back to the store (and this was several month after I bought it) & asked them if they had a tailor that could fix it. I was fully expecting to pay but they did it for free! They've also done alterations for me on other purchases for no charge.

Well worth the money IMHO (and weirdly, I think the prices here are better than in the US on their clothes).

 

[jenh]

Yes, Lacroix will do alterations on things when you buy them as well, quickly and nicely.

 

[French jurist]

Speaking of cheap people, yesterday coming back to my house on the highway, I arrive at the toll at 7:55 pm and notice a dozen of cars parked on the right side of the highway before the toll (a bit dangerous).

I was wondering why until I saw that the "high period" (when you pay a bit more for the toll) was ending 5 minutes after.

People were actually waiting to pay 2 pesos less, lol

 

[Bitty Cabrera]

I do understand all the situations, but is really boring! the site has developed into a "nickel and dimming" place

 

[Rabel]

What do you mean with "peso salary"? I guess many mean, as the parity is 1-4 (USD-peso) that if you earn a peso salary you earn a quarter of a USD salary. I am argentine and I know that kind of idea comes from our "domestic culture" and it is just ridiculous. Of course the average salary of a US citizen is much higher than the argentinecounterpart, but come on!! don’t think that who earns USD 2000 in USA here the same earns 2000 pesos (USD 500) someone who works on a Bank the minimum salary is more the 4000 pesos. Don’t play dirty as we local use to do, that is hide profits and show ourselves always as poor people.