Cost of living

[jb5]

How would he find an apartment that cheap without a garantia? Sounds like he'd need a furnished tourist rental unless he plans to live with others.

It's just hard for me to see why someone on a limited budget would choose BA, with 25% plus inflation and prices close to those in the states. If the peso devalues after the election, and it should, it might make more sense.

 

[USMCAcosta]

If you can live like a Monk, $250.00 will getter done. Otherwise, one night of Honky-Tonkin will about wipe you out.

Semper Fi

i ain't no monk haha. i plan to be knee deep in some....you get the point

what's the veteran community like down there? heard of anyone from iraq/afghanistan?

semper fi

 

[USMCAcosta]

USD 250 is like 1050 pesos a week, and you said AFTER rent? You can live very well with that. I would. In fact, it is a lot of money, cinema cost 17-35 pesos, an entire meal in a restaurant at midday 35-80 pesos, with 30 pesos you will buy an acceptable wine bottle (or is it 20?), a normal taxi trip can cost you 20 pesos, etc. Per week? Welcome to BA, my friend.

This makes me very happy.

 

[USMCAcosta]

One of my sisters did two tours in Afghanistan and my other sister did one tour in Iraq. I just wanted to say thank you!
Now, with respect to your budget, maybe it would help if I gave you info about ours and how much we spend etc.
We live in Caballito - it's not that close to Palermo but a 20 min subte ride will get you to Centro. We pay $2850 pesos rent plus $1200 pesos for expenses - granted we have a two bedroom apartment with a cochera. If we go out to dinner, we can look to be spending anywhere from $150 to $375 pesos for the two of us - including shared appetizer, bottle of wine, dinner and shared dessert. If you don't go out for sushi, you can expect to spend about that much (speaking of sushi - tuna here is usually from the can but the salmon is generally okay). Going to the supermarket and shopping for food for about a week and a half runs us about $500 - $700 pesos but we are two, I buy a lot of cleaning supplies for laundry (dry cleaning is expensive here) and I also buy dog food. So maybe you would be looking to spend closer to $300 pesos a week on groceries. If I were to take a taxi from Congresso to Caballito I am looking to spend about $30 pesos - depending on traffic of course. A subte ride is cheap - 1.10 pesos and buses cost around 1.25 (depending on the line and where you need to go). Also, we pay for private insurance - about $500 pesos a month (each).
Best of luck! Also - you are going to be hearing "vos" down here ;o)

Hey, thank so much for the advice. I'll probably be in Palermo Soho or Las Canitas and if I decide on bringing my motorcycle down I'll live Recoleta. Maybe we'll cross paths at some point. Take care of yourself.

 

[USMCAcosta]

Ohh, you can do fine for much less than $1200 in rent (probably find a nice furnished one bedroom for around $800-900/mo) and if you have an additional $900/mo for spending money you'll do fine here. Again you won't be able to travel too much, but you'll live a decent quality of life for sure Entonces... bienvenidos a la argentina! I hope you enjoy your time.

Yeah, I'm sure I'll have a great time. Thanks again!

 

[USMCAcosta]

How would he find an apartment that cheap without a garantia? Sounds like he'd need a furnished tourist rental unless he plans to live with others.

It's just hard for me to see why someone on a limited budget would choose BA, with 25% plus inflation and prices close to those in the states. If the peso devalues after the election, and it should, it might make more sense.

I have the majority of my savings in Canadian Dollars even though I'm American so I'm not too scared about inflation. Also I've found lofts for less than $US1200 a month and I have zero interest in living in a shared apartment. After all is said and done that still leaves me with over $AR 1000 a week to mess around with. I'll just have to watch my budget. I'm not even counting the $US4000 I'll be getting 2x a year from the US government while I take my college courses online. I have a feeling this will work out for me.

Thanks a lot man

 

[marksoc]

That said, I would live life even in Paris with that kind of money. In Thailand you could be an eternal tourist with the same.

 

[TheBlackHand]

I'm not going to sugar coat this.

Being realistic, if you want to have an active social life in Buenos Aires and be knee deep in " poon " you will need to hit the clubs regularly. Argentinian girls love going to clubs and like drinking. A decent bottle of champagne at a club costs around $ 150 pesos. $ 1000 pesos wouldn't last a night or barely that. Factor in food costs, miscellaneous expenses, transportation and other entertainment, and I think you can see that $ 1000 pesos won't really cut it. Especially if you factor in inflation, the Canadian Dollar won't shield you from that. If you can get accustomed to the lower middle class lifestyle, you might get by. But if you want to have a good time and want to be knee deep in " ........ " you might want to double what you're working with.

i ain't no monk haha. i plan to be knee deep in some....you get the point

 

[USMCAcosta]

I'm not going to sugar coat this.

Being realistic, if you want to have an active social life in Buenos Aires and be knee deep in " poon " you will need to hit the clubs regularly. Argentinian girls love going to clubs and like drinking. A decent bottle of champagne at a club costs around $ 150 pesos. $ 1000 pesos wouldn't last a night or barely that. Factor in food costs, miscellaneous expenses, transportation and other entertainment, and I think you can see that $ 1000 pesos won't really cut it. Especially if you factor in inflation, the Canadian Dollar won't shield you from that. If you can get accustomed to the lower middle class lifestyle, you might get by. But if you want to have a good time and want to be knee deep in " ........ " you might want to double what you're working with.

Seeing as how bottle service in here NYC is about $US 150 on a good night and upwards of $US 300 on a bad night I am very happy that I will be getting champagne for 150 pesos. Does this mean that cocktails are like 30 pesos or something? I come from a place where rent is $US 1300 for a crappy studio in a bad neighborhood. Nothing so far about BsAs seems expensive. (imports and electronics being the noticeable exceptions) I could easily double my budget but I don't see a real reason..maybe once I get down there I can see for myself...but judging from the prices on Coto's online shopping center and the prices on buenosairesdelivery.com as well as the dozen or so random online menus I've seen..not to mention what other people have mentioned on the forum..I should be just fine...and in all honesty I'm not trying to bang the girl looking for the rich gringo popping bottles in the club. + don't professionals make like 10,000 pesos a month there if they're lucky? I don't know why they would spend 1/10th of that in a club...if they go out 4x a month that's like half of their income gone.

Thank you for your advice I will definitely take it into consideration

 

[USMCAcosta]

That said, I would live life even in Paris with that kind of money. In Thailand you could be an eternal tourist with the same.

I''ll definitely live in Thailand before I settle down and lead a normal, boring, working life.