For those thinking of coming

[AkBill]

by the way i find something sick of living in the cheapest place available

Find somewhere you love, then find a way to live there, cheap or not cheap

 

[davonz]

Part of the attraction for me to stay in BA was that i could live here ok, with a drop in worked hours.. The amount i have earned has stayed pretty constant around US$1000 to US$1200 a month in the last 4 years working part time over the net, and when i first arrived in BA from St Maarten in Jan 2007 i found it cheap..

My 30sqm studio was around US$350, food cooking at home was around US$30 a week, plus i would be out 2 or 3 nights a week for dinner, disco, movies etc.. that was another US$100 or so a week, so i was living a pretty good life on the US$1000 +, plus i had money left over for running away to the country and visiting othe parts of arg every few months for a few weeks at a time, and trips around other south american countries...

But after 4 year this is no longer the case.. that US$1000 is nothing now.. the 30sqm studio is now US$550 a month (with alot of bargining), food is closer to US$80 a week, and the going out has dropped off alot, due to it becoming too expensive - even the 1/4 kg tub of ice cream 4 or 5 times a week at AR$3.50 a time is now once or twice a month treat... and as for the running away every few months to escape BA, well thats still happening, but using savings..

I have spent 2 months in Belgium each year for the last 2 years, and i find its cheaper to live there living a similar life to what i do in BA.. well Ghent is anyways (second biggest city).. I also go back to NZ every year, which i find cheaper... alot cheaper..

But of course there are the exceptions, eg: going to a restaurant for a steak dinner in BA is still alot cheaper compared to most of europe, and public transport, but the filp side to that is prices at supermarkets are more expensive in BA, electronics, flights, clothes (quality clothes - and not designer) - plus it is easy to buy stuff off the net in europe from other countries and get a bargin and get it delivered - books and electronic being the main items.. and birkenstocks..

So to stay in BA i am having to spend more time out of the country working to save to pay for the extras.. which wasnt the case 4 years ago..

So my dilemer now is do i stay or do i go.. I like my work/life balance i have at the moment (sod working 9 to5 5 days a week again), i am living a semi retired life but still young enough to want to travel/backpack, try new stuff.. which maybe if i was in my 50's or 60's i wouldnt want to do the other stuff and be just happy to live like a local in BA, having a long term lease on an apt at 1/2 the price i pay now, and not taking off every few months somewhere for a break..
And as like any place BA has its good points and bad points.. but are the bad points becoming more than the good points...

 

[LAtoBA]

JaJa,

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.

Not really a complete or accurate picture of the cost of living in Brazil because Rio de Janeiro just so happens to be one of the most expensive cities in Brazil. Sao Paulo & Rio, and much of the south, say Flori are pretty expensive. If you go further north the prices are drastically cheaper. I would say rent in Salvador, Bahia is half what it costs in Rio. Of course....jobs are scarce, although there aren't that many jobs in Rio to begin with.

By the way, pizza in Rio happens to be much better than any pizza I've tasted here in BsAs so I'd be willing to pay a few dollars more for it. A six dollar pizza isn't really a bargain when you end up throwing half of it out because it tastes like chewy leather and axel grease.

 

[steveinbsas]

by the way i find something sick of living in the cheapest place available

Find somewhere you love, then find a way to live there, cheap or not cheap

This is the BEST post of the year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Hache]

This is the BEST post of the year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is beyond post. It's a MAXIM.

 

[chicago_karl]

quick update on my cheap wine segment: Ill soon have a blog of cheap wine hits and misses: For now I have two big recommendations: Vasco Viejo (yellow label) 2010 Vino Tinto 8 pesos and La Linda La Catedra Malbec 9 pesos. Oh I have hit some bad ones too.

Jayjane and I have met up and ya its a long discussion but it comes down to type. A its been hard not having a grasp of spanish yet but the difficulty of city expands to personality types.

I'm not the ideal type but I came with a fair amount of savings. I have a TESOL cert and 5 months experience, which has me doing interviews and a regular basis. But its going to take some time to get started which is where you will need the savings to get started until you can AND WILL need to be doing some private lessons on your own for like 50-70 pesos.
Now I'm also 30 and have a good background in Marketing so I'm seeing other opportunities pop up.
So you can patch together lots of jobs and you will have too live cheaper and your bills back home won't get paid off soon.

 

[Barney]

For me personally it has been a long time(probally 2,3 years ago) I have known expats who came here and stayed here a long time. All the people I know and consider long-term expats have basically come during the 2005-2008 period.

There have been many who have spend a summer here or have stayed 6-9 months but very few make it past 18 months.

Seems the me the golden age is long gone

 

[Nicole_Ramirez]

For me personally it has been a long time(probally 2,3 years ago) I have known expats who came here and stayed here a long time. All the people I know and consider long-term expats have basically come during the 2005-2008 period.

There have been many who have spend a summer here or have stayed 6-9 months but very few make it past 18 months.

Seems the me the golden age is long gone

We've only been here 1 & 1/2 years. We are in Bariloche though. I remember my husband always complaining about how expensive the grocery's were in the States. He was always saying how great it was to live in Argentina. But he was away from here for 12 years. Now he has days he thinks his own country is screwed up & wants to get out again. Who knows what the future holds, but everyone has to figure out what makes them happy & do it.

 

[Sockhopper]

I wonder would anybody move to some place with 25% inflation, bland and boring food, high crime, lots of red tape, and bad government? My guess is most people wouldn't all things being equal.

No one depends upon restaurants where they live. They cook. That deals with the bland food problem. Errr, do expats not cook? I can’t imagine why not. In BA, you can buy almost everything you need to make almost every cuisine unlike, say, in India or Southeast Asia. So you can double recipes, freeze them and so have on hand cheap meals.

 

[gouchobob]

No one depends upon restaurants where they live. They cook. That deals with the bland food problem. Errr, do expats not cook? I can’t imagine why not. In BA, you can buy almost everything you need to make almost every cuisine unlike, say, in India or Southeast Asia. So you can double recipes, freeze them and so have on hand cheap meals.

Sure people can cook at home and get around the food problem but the point is most of the local fare is pretty boring and bland. I wrote my short comment asking if anybody would move some place with all these attributes. There are a lot of places worse than Argentina and some better. My point is if people looked at it really objectively then a lot of the people posting here would probably be somewhere else.