JaJa,
I can relate to the pain caused by your deteriorating financial condition, specifically, having to tighten your belt because the cost of living has grown so high compared to what it used to be a few years ago. It can be alarming, but as others have stated, the cost of living in BA for expats actually is not very high compared to other world capitols if you have foreign currency income. Of course, it doesn't help a whole hell of a lot if that foreign currency income is US$ as opposed to AU$, Canadian$, British pounds or Euros. The US $ is extremely weak now so those with US $ income may be finding that the cost of living in BA is no longer that cheap even for those things that traditionally were cheap, e.g., food, housing, local transportation (unlike clothes, house furnishings, and electro domesticos which have been more expensive in AR for quite a while now).
I spend a lot of time in Rio de Janeiro. A man's haircut at a decent barber shop in Rio costs R$50 (US$32). What does your husband pay? It costs R$25 (US$15) for a first run movie. Local buses are US$2. The taxi meter drop is US$3.
The cheapest drinkable wine in my local supermarket (from Chile or AR) is US$12. I've seen Toro Y Concho "Resevado" in BA markets for US$3. In Rio it is R$24 or US$14. I like the hot dogs that that the local deli sells - a package of 4 is $R12 or about US$8 - 2 bucks each uncooked and without the bun or a seat in which to eat it. What are they charging for a choripan on the Costa Nero these days? 5 pesos?
The local supermarket offers a decent pizza cooked and served on premises. The dinner plate sized margharita is R$17 or US$10. If you want chorizo expect to pay US$ 14. A steak dinner for 2 with bottle of cheap wine at a decent restaurant will run about US$100 - that's a decent restaurant, not a fancy one and that's s cheap bottle of wine, not a good one.
Are you beginning to get the picture? I used to rent a nice 1 bedroom a few blocks from the beach. Ten years ago my rent was US$ 600. Today that apt rents for US$ 2000. What will 8200 pesos per month get you in BA?
Expats who are looking for bargain places in which to live should be looking to other parts of AR or maybe to greener grass in Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica or even southern US cities...until the next financial upheavel produces a new good cheap place to live.
I can relate to the pain caused by your deteriorating financial condition, specifically, having to tighten your belt because the cost of living has grown so high compared to what it used to be a few years ago. It can be alarming, but as others have stated, the cost of living in BA for expats actually is not very high compared to other world capitols if you have foreign currency income. Of course, it doesn't help a whole hell of a lot if that foreign currency income is US$ as opposed to AU$, Canadian$, British pounds or Euros. The US $ is extremely weak now so those with US $ income may be finding that the cost of living in BA is no longer that cheap even for those things that traditionally were cheap, e.g., food, housing, local transportation (unlike clothes, house furnishings, and electro domesticos which have been more expensive in AR for quite a while now).
I spend a lot of time in Rio de Janeiro. A man's haircut at a decent barber shop in Rio costs R$50 (US$32). What does your husband pay? It costs R$25 (US$15) for a first run movie. Local buses are US$2. The taxi meter drop is US$3.
The cheapest drinkable wine in my local supermarket (from Chile or AR) is US$12. I've seen Toro Y Concho "Resevado" in BA markets for US$3. In Rio it is R$24 or US$14. I like the hot dogs that that the local deli sells - a package of 4 is $R12 or about US$8 - 2 bucks each uncooked and without the bun or a seat in which to eat it. What are they charging for a choripan on the Costa Nero these days? 5 pesos?
The local supermarket offers a decent pizza cooked and served on premises. The dinner plate sized margharita is R$17 or US$10. If you want chorizo expect to pay US$ 14. A steak dinner for 2 with bottle of cheap wine at a decent restaurant will run about US$100 - that's a decent restaurant, not a fancy one and that's s cheap bottle of wine, not a good one.
Are you beginning to get the picture? I used to rent a nice 1 bedroom a few blocks from the beach. Ten years ago my rent was US$ 600. Today that apt rents for US$ 2000. What will 8200 pesos per month get you in BA?
Expats who are looking for bargain places in which to live should be looking to other parts of AR or maybe to greener grass in Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica or even southern US cities...until the next financial upheavel produces a new good cheap place to live.
