Is Buenos Aires Still Cheap With Usd?

[Rich One]

I went to Kansas restaurant last night (US$25 for a full steak meal and pint of beer), high-end Rosa Negra in San Ysidro night before ($25 for nice seafood risotto dish with a glass of wine), filled the gas tank for my fiancée, ($50), paid my basic Cable TV.internet/phone monthly bill (90), bought 30 tabs of 5 mg Cialis (90 - which in US would cost 300)..... I have been coming to Bs As off and on for the past 40 years and bought an apt here 10 years ago.
Gone are the days of the $5 steak dinner and $1/ hour maid that had been prevalent in the past 20 years. Prices now approach but are still somewhat less than prices prevailing in major US and European capitols. You can still eat out well a for a lot less than in NY (where I reside part-time), Bs As taxis are still a heck of a lot cheaper and so is housing (not top end hotels). My NY maid is 25/hour. My Bs As maid is 6 (and I pay top dollar). Imported high end clothes and electro domesticos remain relatively expensive as they always were driven by import duties.
In short, tourists with USD will not find BS As expensive because things tourists spend their money on (rented apts/taxis/restaurant) are still comparatively low priced. However, if you found Spain expensive in the past year even with the very strong USD vs the euro, you might feel otherwise - but then everywhere will be expensive for you.

PRices for meals seem fair including tips?... however my 50 liter tank needs $1000 pesos to fill up with Premium. Your GF `s car has a smaller tank or uses low octane gas??

 

[srtamollygreen]

View attachment 4578 The two white containers have plain ice cream and sherbert, nothing fancy. Cost yesterday $20usd.

$20USD?! You're kidding me! That breaks my heart...

 

[Girino]

Last night in Mar del Plata we went out to see the Boca match on TV. We went to one of the many commercial cafes lining one of the most popular shopping streets.

One sub-par hamburger, one portion of fries, two pints of craft beers 26 USD with tip.
Price breakdown:

• 1 pint of beer 75 ARS (4.71 USD)
• 1 pint of beer 75 ARS (4.71 USD)
• 1 portion of fries 80 ARS (5.02 USD)
• 1 hamburger (no side, double patty) 150 ARS (USD 9.02)
• Tip 10%

Needless to say, someone is gonna skip the game on Saturday.
For reference, one average ticket to the match costs the same (approx. 400 ARS)

 

[Ries]

one of the very interesting things about buenos aires is that low quality, generally, costs about the same as high quality.
its all about where you buy it.
I can find 150 peso burgers all over town.
many suck, are barely edible.
others, for the same price, are amazing.

this is also true with beer- for the same 70 pesos, I can get a fresh pint of micro brewed artesenal beer, or a stale, flat, warm quilmes.

 

[citygirl]

I've never understood saying with pride that it's still cheaper than NYC or Seattle. Yes, it is. I earned approximately a gazillion dollars (not real numbers more when I lived in NYC. If you don't earn a NYC salary in dollars, why would you care that it's (somewhat) cheaper in BsAs? It feels a lot more expensive when you earn locally!

I pop in to this site every now and again so FWIW, my evaluation after living back in the US (caveat, I'm in the South, so not NYC) - food costs are much cheaper here than I was paying in BsAs. Clothing is much, much, much cheaper. Gas is definitely cheaper - to fill up my 2500 pick up truck, I spend 60 USD (in diesel which is more expensive here). When I left BsAs, I was spending 65 USD to fill up my Bora. Private school for the kids is much cheaper than we were paying in Arg. Help (babysitter, lawn service) is slightly more in terms of costs as I paid in BsAs (PS - to the poster who said 6 USD is top dollar - that's pretty average hourly rate actually for Capital. For comparison,I pay 10 here.) On the flip side - utilities are far more expensive than they were back there.

More than anything - for us anyway - life is just easier. Which is priceless right now.

 

[UK Man]

More than anything - for us anyway - life is just easier. Which is priceless right now.

I can well believe it.

Good for you.

 

[Rich One]

I've never understood saying with pride that it's still cheaper than NYC or Seattle. Yes, it is. I earned approximately a gazillion dollars (not real numbers more when I lived in NYC. If you don't earn a NYC salary in dollars, why would you care that it's (somewhat) cheaper in BsAs? It feels a lot more expensive when you earn locally!

I pop in to this site every now and again so FWIW, my evaluation after living back in the US (caveat, I'm in the South, so not NYC) - food costs are much cheaper here than I was paying in BsAs. Clothing is much, much, much cheaper. Gas is definitely cheaper - to fill up my 2500 pick up truck, I spend 60 USD (in diesel which is more expensive here). When I left BsAs, I was spending 65 USD to fill up my Bora. Private school for the kids is much cheaper than we were paying in Arg. Help (babysitter, lawn service) is slightly more in terms of costs as I paid in BsAs (PS - to the poster who said 6 USD is top dollar - that's pretty average hourly rate actually for Capital. For comparison,I pay 10 here.) On the flip side - utilities are far more expensive than they were back there.

More than anything - for us anyway - life is just easier. Which is priceless right now.

Citygir we miss your accurate comments. As far as cleaning/ maid services: . $100 pesos an hour in Palermo with 4 hour minimum plus transportation costs ..Total $500

 

[mmoon]

I've never understood saying with pride that it's still cheaper than NYC or Seattle. Yes, it is. I earned approximately a gazillion dollars (not real numbers more when I lived in NYC. If you don't earn a NYC salary in dollars, why would you care that it's (somewhat) cheaper in BsAs? It feels a lot more expensive when you earn locally!

I pop in to this site every now and again so FWIW, my evaluation after living back in the US (caveat, I'm in the South, so not NYC) - food costs are much cheaper here than I was paying in BsAs. Clothing is much, much, much cheaper. Gas is definitely cheaper - to fill up my 2500 pick up truck, I spend 60 USD (in diesel which is more expensive here). When I left BsAs, I was spending 65 USD to fill up my Bora. Private school for the kids is much cheaper than we were paying in Arg. Help (babysitter, lawn service) is slightly more in terms of costs as I paid in BsAs (PS - to the poster who said 6 USD is top dollar - that's pretty average hourly rate actually for Capital. For comparison,I pay 10 here.) On the flip side - utilities are far more expensive than they were back there.

More than anything - for us anyway - life is just easier. Which is priceless right now.

Agreed all around, and good to hear your "voice" again citygirl.

I do think private schools are the one thing that can be far more expensive in the US, depending on the state you live in and the competition for spots. I'm not sure where you are in the south, but in the coastal cities, tuition is generally insanely pricey. For us, private school in BA was less than half of a comparable school in the States.

 

[on the brink]

From my own experience, private school is a must in Argentina but an option in the US, where public schools can be quite good. Except in the inner cities, that is.

 

[citygirl]

Thanks guys! I keep tabs on what is going on. We still have business stuff in BsAs and the family is there so we'll be back a lot.

Mmoon - definitely true on private school depending where you are. Our twins are in a religious affiliated school here and we pay 228 TOTAL for both of them for half day. Super super cheap. We were paying around 9000 pesos a month for half day in Arg. However they will go to public school starting at 5 because here we have that option- it's ranked very highly. So def will be a huge savings for us.

My better half (who has visited so many times) keeps calling it Disneyland. He can't get over how easy everything is here.