Cost of living

[sesamosinsal]

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.

What clubs are you going to? People buy a few drinks here in clubs on average. Most of the drinking is done at the previa. With that said, Argentine women are notoriously difficult. Spending lots of money on them probably won't change that unless she's known you since you were in elementary school.

 

[TheBlackHand]

How old are you ?

What clubs are you going to? People buy a few drinks here in clubs on average.

You clearly aren't " knee deep in some ........ ".

Argentine women are notoriously difficult.

 

[jb5]

Have you found an apartment you know they'd rent to you? I can tell you first hand you'll have to be really creative without a garantia. It's a whole different rental market without one.

As said above, Canadian dollars are not a hedge against Argentine inflation. If you want to live well, go to Thailand or the Phillipines. While you can certainly live here on your budget, it won't even come close to living well IMO.

I'd say a nice--and I'm talking Argentine nice not American or Canadian--Apartment starts at about $3K in Soho or Las Canitas without a garantia. A nice dinner out that will impress women? $300 minimum. American style nice over $400 for 2. Quality groceries for 1, plan on $1500/mo.

Just a counterpoint to the many who will tell you you can live well. It totally depends on what you think living well is. 3 years ago you could have lived well, but 25% per year inflation has made that history. For now anyway.

 

[MizzMarr]

Renting a temporary, furnished apartment shouldn't be a problem for him. Rents will be higher than with a garantia, but shouldn't be out of line. To get an idea of what's out there check out bytargentina.com or enbuenosaires.com or even craigslist. To find something good you have to dig and hunt a bit, but there are good places to be found. I hope that the prices jb5 is quoting are in pesos! Otherwise I think we live in different cities...

ETA: to the OP, you should know that you will have a 180 day max. rental in a furnished apartment, but in almost all cases you can coordinate with the owners and/or company to extend your lease every six months. Just watch out for them trying to jack the rent up on you.

 

[jb5]

I guess we do. I've just spent 3 months searching in those areas and others for housing. Good housing by American standards. Maybe things have gone up?

 

[PhilipDT]

$300 minimum. American style nice over $400 for 2. Quality groceries for 1, plan on $1500/mo.

I hope that the prices jb5 is quoting are in pesos! Otherwise I think we live in different cities...

I guess we do. I

$300 dollars minimum for a meal that will impress a girl?

I hope thats for two people but even so.... that's your minimum number? What kind of girls are you trying to impress?

$400 for an american nice dinner? I've eaten at almost all of the nice restaurants in the city and have never spent that much. Then again, I'm not starting with the krug and finishing with the louis XIII.

 

[nolonelyplanet]

Also, my parents are from the Dominican Republic so I am fluent in the "tu" version of Spanish.

tú is not a prob at all, sometimes argentines try to speak in tú when they notice you dont speak in "vos", it's the same thou.

 

[SingForAbsolution]

OP: I think you'll be just fine with the amount of money that you have. Once you get your feet on the ground here you'll have a better idea about how much you'll be able to do.

Be sure to check out the Dominican barrio near Constitución and San Cristóbal. Also, imo Argentine girls aren't worth throwing a lot of money at. Being a hard former marine, who is independent and not still living with his parents and who also speaks fluent Spanish will put you way ahead of the local argie men who tend to be pussies (partly because of the women). All of the dominican guys that I met down here seem to be crazy for Paraguayan girls anyway.

 

[jb5]

Philip, you've eaten at the good restaurants in BA and never spent $400 pesos for 2? Please, tell me where I can do that.

The OP does not sound like a 22 year old willing to live on the cheap. So I'm sharing my opinion as someone who likes American style nice housing with security, kitchens you can actually boil water in and no bugs....for restaurants I like a mix, but he's talking about impressing women (not something I do) and I'm saying that the swank restaurants in BA are not cheap. When I want to impress my significant other, a night out would cost at least that.

 

[MizzMarr]

Philip, you've eaten at the good restaurants in BA and never spent $400 pesos for 2? Please, tell me where I can do that.

The OP does not sound like a 22 year old willing to live on the cheap. So I'm sharing my opinion as someone who likes American style nice housing with security, kitchens you can actually boil water in and no bugs....for restaurants I like a mix, but he's talking about impressing women (not something I do) and I'm saying that the swank restaurants in BA are not cheap. When I want to impress my significant other, a night out would cost at least that.

jb5, I think the general impression was that you were saying a good meal at a nice restaurant was $400 DOLLARS not pesos. In my post I wanted to clarify that you were talking pesos, as your figures if in dollars are astronomical.

Also, I disagree that you can't find a nice apartment with a decent kitchen (yes with stove, oven, etc.) and no bugs without paying an arm and a leg. Furnished, temporary rentals can be found with relative ease and without a garantor. The amenities that a building has certainly drives up the price, but personally I'm a PH kind of girl (though my last apartment was a torre with portero and pool kind of place, and the portero was useless in spite of his free apartment and 5k salary per month).