How many of you want to leave Bs As?

[El chabon]

I have no idea about Glasgow and leave it with that, but BA and Glascow are not comparable, Glasgow would be Rosario or Bahia Blanca and London would be BA.

Buenos Aires:

Rent (in a nicer part of town): I don't pay rent so someone help me out here.

- Must be somewhere between 2500/3000, eventhough GS probally sticks to his guns and says Belvanera is a nice area and a 2 br appartment can be head for 1800 peso, which is offcourse not true

Council Tax: Someone help me out here too.

-ABL? Probally somewhere like 150/200 peso a month

Electric/Gas (this is the average, and with subsidies; last time I paid 20 pesos for electric): 100+30 = 130 pesos (Approx. 18 pounds);

- Thinking it's going to 300/400 peso for most areas in BA

Apartment Expenses + Water (we pay it all together): 800 pesos (Approx. 111 pounds);

- Sounds about right

Eating Out (if we go out once a week): 600 pesos (Approx. 83 pounds);

- 8 times a month, or 70 peso a meal for 2, should be atleast double.

Groceries (this varies from month to month but not considering groceries bought for guests etc.): 2000 pesos (Approx. 279 pounds);

- What I hear this is about right, probally nothing fancy though

Public Transport (since we don't have full day pass here, I am going to use 2 subte trips for this calculation. Calculated for 22 days a month): 110 pesos (Approx. 15 pounds).

Guess with 2 persons, 2 trips a month for 22 days your already spending over 250 peso.

Total: 3640 without rent and council tax (Approx. 508 pounds). Like I rounded off for Glasgow, I will do the same here and round it up to ~4000 pesos.

- I am getting at 7000/8000 peso which doesnt include any pleasure other then eating out 2 times a week

 

[nicoenarg]

I have no idea about Glasgow and leave it with that, but BA and Glascow are not comparable, Glasgow would be Rosario or Bahia Blanca and London would be BA.

I have no idea about Rosario or Bahia Blanca either. I do know London is more expensive than Glasgow. You might have missed my point but I lean toward agreeing with you that BsAs is pretty darn expensive, almost as expensive (if not more) than Glasgow where you earn 3 times more than Buenos Aires for the same job post. In London the starting salary for a junior auditor at the same firm is GBP35000, however, the expenses are higher as well.

 

[El chabon]

Wow - my expensas are 800-900 per month. I must be getting ripped!

Anyway, I agree with most of what you say in your assessment. And if we talk in a year, I'm sure there wil most likely be a 50% rise on much of it.

Mine are 1800 peso, but an average 2 br appartment without luxury and doormen should be around 200-300, with those probally 800-1200 peso. Then if you get pools, elevator, 24 hours security, much more

 

[GS_Dirtboy]

As for this debate about whether Argentina is expensive or not, I posted the following numbers on another post. They describe in real terms the expenses one has to pay put side to side between BsAs and Glasgow. The starting salary for a junior auditor at an audit firm in Argentina is 55200 pesos (pre-tax) and the same position in the same audit firm in Glasgow pays a starting salary of (pre-tax) 22,000 GBPounds which is roughly 154,000 pesos (multiplied by 7, the rate today is 7.144). Anyway, let's see the numbers: ...

Yes, I think this is the math one needs to do. For me, I just prefer to keep everything in it's original currency and look at percentages - it seems to reduce the Expat Exchange Euphoria.

The point is that this will be different for everyone depending not only from which country they come from, but which part of the country, your comparable job income, and how you are living -or planning on living- here.

 

[El chabon]

I have no idea about Rosario or Bahia Blanca either. I do know London is more expensive than Glasgow. You might have missed my point but I lean toward agreeing with you that BsAs is pretty darn expensive, almost as expensive (if not more) than Glasgow where you earn 3 times more than Buenos Aires for the same job post. In London the starting salary for a junior auditor at the same firm is GBP35000, however, the expenses are higher as well.

I know BA is expensive, but you were calculating on the low side. Quite hard nowadays to have a decent life as a single or pair for less then 8000/10000 peso a month, with a family your looking to 15000/20000

That most Argentines make less and get by is besides the point because we are comparing a decent first world lifestyle, most Argentines in Argentina are very far away from that

 

[nicoenarg]

Yes, I think this is the math one needs to do. For me, I just prefer to keep everything in it's original currency and look at percentages - it seems to reduce the Expat Exchange Euphoria.

The point is that this will be different for everyone depending not only from which country they come from, but which part of the country, your comparable job income, and how you are living -or planning on living- here.

I agree with that. I am sorry I thought we were talking about how expensive these places were in objective terms. But yes, if you think subjectively, there can't be an argument made black and white as to what city is better and less expensive to live in.

 

[El chabon]

Yes, I think this is the math one needs to do. For me, I just prefer to keep everything in it's original currency and look at percentages - it seems to reduce the Expat Exchange Euphoria.

The point is that this will be different for everyone depending not only from which country they come from, but which part of the country, your comparable job income, and how you are living -or planning on living- here.

You were saying that Argentina was cheap because the ratio's were right, which clearly is not true

If you can spend 40k in dollar or 30k in Euro's as a single your life is probally of a higher quality then anywhere else, but most people don't even come close in BA.

 

[nicoenarg]

El chabon, thanks for providing the rent numbers (and other revised numbers), I didn't see them before because they are all wrapped together as my quote.

 

[El chabon]

El chabon, thanks for providing the rent numbers (and other revised numbers), I didn't see them before because they are all
wrapped together as my quote.

I am thinking that as an estimate they are quite decent.

Most long term expats I know have Argentine partner and don't pay rent, then your number look different especially if both work and are getting in 4000/6000 peso each.

 

[GS_Dirtboy]

Rent (in a nicer part of town): I don't pay rent so someone help me out here.

- Must be somewhere between 2500/3000, eventhough GS probally sticks to his guns and says Belvanera [sic] is a nice area and a 2 br appartment can be head for 1800 peso, which is offcourse not true


I don't live in Balvarena. I live in a gated complex in Colegiales, 5 blocks from Santa Fe and 3 blocks from Palermo Hollywood, and I know what I pay in rent for our apartment.

We can go back and forth all day on who has the "correct" numbers and what they mean but I think the key point is knowing how to construct the equation correctly so expats can get an objective comparison of their individual financial situation in each country - as close to a Salary Parity Index and Consumer Price Index as possible. For us, BsAs is cheaper. I'll leave it at that.