Job Offer in Buenos Aires

[Xeneizes]

Alright, I've got to decide soon so I made a budget.

Just to reiterate, the job pays ARS 5000 gross, and 4150 net after taxes.

The salary will be inflation adjusted every August, and there are opportunities for raises every 4-6 months.

I plan to stay for 1-3 years.

Here is budget I came up with. This would be for renting a room in a multiple bedroom apartment outside of el centro but within 30 minutes of the city center.

I would be making food maybe 70% of the time and eating out 30% of the time.

Rent (with internet and utilities): 1450 (365 per week)
Groceries: 800 (200 per week)
Transportation: 300 (75 per week)
Dining Out: 450 (112 per week)
Phone: 100
Weekend Entertainment: 800 (200 per week)
Misc: 250 (62 per week)

Total: 4150

Does this sound reasonable?

 

[Davidglen77]

One item that stands out for me is your projection of grocery costs. I know you mentioned you will be buying staple ingredients and eating a lot of natural foods, but there are certain things like good cooking oil, seeds / nuts, spices, etc that can get VERY expensive. $200 per week for groceries is doable, but tight. I bought some dried figs, banana chips, a small bag of cashews, sesame seeds and raisins yesterday at a health food store and it cost me $75 pesos.

 

[jb5]

I think food and entertainment are low. That's about $25 US/week for eating out 30% of the time? That's one good (not great) restaurant meal in the popular Palermo restaurants, 2 very modest meals or lots of Empanadas.

$50US, or $200 pesos for weekend entertainment is also probably not realistic unless you just plan to Just drink local beer. At many places expats go, drinks are $40 pesos. There are covers at the clubs kids your age like. You'll probably want a taxi home nights.

I think you need to live lean for awhile and work to get the salary up $1000, then you'll live like you're hoping. A raise of $2000 will really be needed to not feel poor in my opinion.

 

[steveinbsas]

Alright, I've got to decide soon so I made a budget.

Just to reiterate, the job pays ARS 5000 gross, and 4150 net after taxes.

The salary will be inflation adjusted every August, and there are opportunities for raises every 4-6 months.

I plan to stay for 1-3 years.

Here is budget I came up with. This would be for renting a room in a multiple bedroom apartment outside of el centro but within 30 minutes of the city center.

I would be making food maybe 70% of the time and eating out 30% of the time.

Rent (with internet and utilities): 1450 (365 per week)
Groceries: 800 (200 per week)
Transportation: 300 (75 per week)
Dining Out: 450 (112 per week)
Phone: 100
Weekend Entertainment: 800 (200 per week)
Misc: 250 (62 per week)

Total: 4150

Does this sound reasonable?

You probably won't need to spend $75 per week on transportation and you can use phone cards instead of buying a phone.

$200 is really low for groceries per week and $112 for dining out isn't very much, either.

What about personal grooming (haircuts, toothpaste, deodorant)?

If you share an apartment (as your budget demands) will you also be expected to pay a fair share for things like dish soap, paper towels, toilet paper?

PS: I love the expression "making food" (though I still call it cooking).

 

[philamote]

I'm curious to know where everyone goes to pay 40 pesos for a drink. From my experience, the average price for a decent beer (NOT Quilmes, although I have nothing against it) is around 20-22 pesos for a pint (15-18 happy hour), and I've never paid more than 30 pesos for a Fernet con Coca. Other cocktails may well be higher.

Charging a prepaid phone should be no more than 60-70 pesos per month (that is, if you're down with the SMS culture here). Public transportation should be 80-90 pesos MAX per month (not weekly), unless you're factoring in taxis. If you're fond of walking it will be lower.

 

[Xeneizes]

I think food and entertainment are low. That's about $25 US/week for eating out 30% of the time? That's one good (not great) restaurant meal in the popular Palermo restaurants, 2 very modest meals or lots of Empanadas.

a modest restaurant meal costs ARS 50? I have seen so much variability on this. I have heard you get can steak and wine for ARS 10.

$50US, or $200 pesos for weekend entertainment is also probably not realistic unless you just plan to Just drink local beer. At many places expats go, drinks are $40 pesos. There are covers at the clubs kids your age like. You'll probably want a taxi home nights.

Taxi rides home included in overestimated 300 ARS transportation estimate. I am a beer guy, and would like to go to clubs but I like to buy my own stuff rather than shelling out a ton of money for club drinks.

I think you need to live lean for awhile and work to get the salary up $1000, then you'll live like you're hoping. A raise of $2000 will really be needed to not feel poor in my opinion.

I think a raise of around 800 ARS could happen as early as 3-4 months based on what I've heard from them. Also, if they adjust for inflation in August like they say, that will be another bump.

I realize it will be tight but to be honest that challenge is sort of exciting to me.

Besides transportation, is anything overestimated?

 

[Xeneizes]

You probably won't need to spend $75 per week on transportation and you can use phone cards instead of buying a phone.

$200 is really low for groceries per week and $112 for dining out isn't very much, either.

What about personal grooming (haircuts, toothpaste, deodorant)?

If you share an apartment (as your budget demands) will you also be expected to pay a fair share for things like dish soap, paper towels, toilet paper?

PS: I love the expression "making food" (though I still call it cooking).

A guy at the company says his roomate and him purchase about 200 ARS a week between the two of them, so I thought my estimate was more than fair. I have been told so many conflicting things it's hard to know what is right.

I budgeted 1250 a month on food total. On some percentage of eating out/cooking, is that enough?

 

[MizzMarr]

a modest restaurant meal costs ARS 50? I have seen so much variability on this. I have heard you get can steak and wine for ARS 10.

I was near the Botanical gardens today and decided to go into a typical grocery store (chinos) to buy some bread (two small 'baguette' type, called pebete) cheese, basil, and tomato to make 2 caprese sandwiches, then decided to throw in a tiny coke bottle and a bag of potato chips. The whole thing cost nearly $30 pesos. Steak and wine for ARS 10? Not unless you have a time machine. Most *lunch* specials you'll see in restaurants will cost you 30-40 pesos, and a hamburger in a halfway decent restaurant will cost you 30 pesos. The days of the 10 peso steak are dead and done.

I think it's easy to breeze through $200/week in food, and I almost *never* eat out. I think you can eat out a couple of times a month at nicer restaurants for $450 a month.

as to transportation, buy a cheap bicycle. It will pay for itself within a few months, and you can save some money for cab rides home if you don't want to wait for the bus when you're out on the town.

 

[Xeneizes]

I was near the Botanical gardens today and decided to go into a typical grocery store (chinos) to buy some bread (two small 'baguette' type, called pebete) cheese, basil, and tomato to make 2 caprese sandwiches, then decided to throw in a tiny coke bottle and a bag of potato chips. The whole thing cost nearly $30 pesos. Steak and wine for ARS 10? Not unless you have a time machine. Most *lunch* specials you'll see in restaurants will cost you 30-40 pesos, and a hamburger in a halfway decent restaurant will cost you 30 pesos. The days of the 10 peso steak are dead and done.

I think it's easy to breeze through $200/week in food, and I almost *never* eat out. I think you can eat out a couple of times a month at nicer restaurants for $450 a month.

as to transportation, buy a cheap bicycle. It will pay for itself within a few months, and you can save some money for cab rides home if you don't want to wait for the bus when you're out on the town.

Maybe I had misheard and it was 10$ US. I would only get a taxi if I was out late at night and trying to get home by myself. Otherwhile I plan on walking and using the subte all the time.

So, with 450 pesos I can eat out around 11 times with that, or about 2 times a week if I stretch it.

 

[jb5]

Steak and wine for $10 ( pesos) was over long ago. It can probably still be done for $10US, but both would be less than average.

As someone who only discovered Argentina 3 years ago and just arrived to live here in April, I can tell you that costs have gone up astronomically in the past few years. 3 years ago having US dollars was still lots of fun-- you could get a great dinner for 2 with wine for $25US. Now those same dinners are running us $75US. Still good value and much cheaper than NY or SF, but not cheap.

We've eaten out 90% of meals for the last 2 months all around BA. The really good with a good but not great bottle of wine run $50 US each. The typical parilla or pasta meals with a $15 bottle of wine, 1 shared appetizer and 2 mains run about $30 per person. 3 empanadas and a bottle of beer, probably the cheapest sit down meal will be a bargain $5. These are all US
prices.

Groceries are US prices!! Many things are more than US prices and very little
is less. If you eat a healthy diet, you will likely spend more here. Chicken and fish cost way more than beef, nuts and grains cost more than in the US.

You are reading old stuff if you're thinking this is still the land of 10 peso steak and wine. If
that's what you're hoping for you'll be sorely disappointed.

There are still bargains. Great houses cost less. The $50 per head meal here would cost double or more in US cities. Taxis cost $5 where they would cost
$15 in NY (and you'll need the because the subte stops early). A great steak is $20 (again US) and would be $60 in a major US city.

But all the bargains are bargains if you come with money and/ or earn dollars or Euro. On $5K pesos, life will be very modest by US standards.