Hola, hows life in BA?

[citygirl]

Katser - that's some of the most spot-on advice I've read. And for the poster that talks about BsAs and it being cheap. Of course it is still reasonable, if you have dollars/euros. But for those that live on local wages, it's expensive and becoming more so by the day.
And re: pizza. The other night I ordered dinner for a friend and I. Large pizza (nothng fancy), 2empanadas, a 1.5 L bottle of diet coke and 2 chocolate mousses. It came to 80 pesos. I would hardly call that "cheap".

$1100 is doable but that's not extravagent. I'd say more doable if you're sharing an apt. If you're living alone, I would say $1500 USD per month is a safe, non-extravagent amount to budget.

 

[SaraSara]

I'm curious. Could you please post the link?

Sara
--------------

Guys you are buying a 13" pizza to less than £1= 6 pesos? Those pizzas cost at least £10 in London. You pay 1.10 pesos for a metro ticket there, London about 15-20 pesos.
But I understand that it must be a very expensive city by local wages... with all that inflation over the years, checked the current prices of everything including accommodation, it seems very cheap to me, or maybe it is Europe/ London that is so expensive.

Jan 2010 Rank Country, City (Oct 2009 Rank)[Change in Rank]
1 Japan, Tokyo (1) [0]
.
.
268 Uzbekistan, Tashkent (267) [1]
269 Bhutan, Thimphu (262) [7]
270 Argentina, Buenos Aires (266) [4]
271 China, Dalian (271) [0]
272 Yemen, Sanaa (263) [9]
273 Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar (272) [1]
274 China, Guangzhou (273) [1]
275 Zimbabwe, Harare (276) [-1]
276 China, Tianjin (275) [1]

 

[orwellian]

Pretty crap ranking:

8 Venezuela, Caracas (7) [1]
9 Central African Republic, Bangui (4) [5]
10 Chad, N'Djamena (9) [1]
11 Cameroon, Douala (18) [-7]

http://www.xpatulator.com/outside.cfm?aid=240

 

[sesamosinsal]

Katser - that's some of the most spot-on advice I've read. And for the poster that talks about BsAs and it being cheap. Of course it is still reasonable, if you have dollars/euros. But for those that live on local wages, it's expensive and becoming more so by the day.
And re: pizza. The other night I ordered dinner for a friend and I. Large pizza (nothng fancy), 2empanadas, a 1.5 L bottle of diet coke and 2 chocolate mousses. It came to 80 pesos. I would hardly call that "cheap".

$1100 is doable but that's not extravagent. I'd say more doable if you're sharing an apt. If you're living alone, I would say $1500 USD per month is a safe, non-extravagent amount to budget.

Agreed. The $1100 USD quote was for a shared living experience. I would agree with you that if you're living by yourself in a studio, the $1500 USD number is good.

 

[__OJ__]

Thanks for all of the advice everyone. I was planning on staying for about 6 months and bringing $5,000. I was also planning on pre paying a studio for the first 2 months and found a reasonable place in Recoleta for $650 a month where I'll be attending classes the first month I'm there. After the first month I get certified & I was going to try and find work teaching English/Spanish. Am I foolish to think I'll find work and does my budget sound OK?

 

[orwellian]

Why not get a room in a shared apartment?

 

[PhilipDT]

place in Recoleta

Living on a budget usually doesn't mean living in one of the nicer parts of town.

I haven't been here all that long but one thing I've noticed for sure is if you stay out of the area where the Green Line runs you'll notice that a lot of things are noticeably cheaper.

 

[malbec]

US1500 are some 5700 pesos...I know whole families (4-5 people) living for that money.

 

[sesamosinsal]

They also probably aren't foreign and having to rent a shitty studio for $600 USD a month either.

As an individual, you probably won't spend 700 ARG a week, but 700 ARG gives you the option to live a little.

You could easily live off of $1000 ARG..... in a villa. It's better to be safe than sorry.

 

[syngirl]

Finding work as a teacher is really rolling the dice. Look around on the forum and you'll see that 1) you have huge amounts of competition and 2) the wages aren't great (don't look just at the hourly rate, you have to factor in all of your travel time etc, so your hourly rate can easily be halved at the end of the day).

$5000 for 6 months = 800 bucks a month. Be prepared to go home early. Your entry fee alone is around $100 now. Are you planning on travelling at all? On that budget, it's going to be tough. Your pre-paid apartment is on top of the $5000 I hope, otherwise you've only got an extra $150 bucks for those first two months...

If I were you, I'd take the $5000 bucks, stay only 3-4 months, forget teaching english, and travel a tonne around the country. I think you'd have a fantastic trip and get way more experience / memories for your money than living just in BA for 6 months.