Moving A Family To Buenos Aires?

[PeterAustin]

For another estimate on cost of living and the the groceries front - for two of us (+2cats and 1dog), after the monthly cost of $2300 (pesos) for bills and taxes and expenses and building rents and stuff, we have about $150 per day left over for food, clothing and entertainment.
"Excess" varies depending on job earnings and how busy stuff is, I guess, but "basic" is $2300 + food.

This isn't counting for medicines (~$200 p/m), anti-conceptivos ($130 p/m), tobacco (35g is $50 and lasts 3-4 weeks), public transport ($3.50 for bus, $4.50 for tube, per journey), repairs and stuff - that all comes out of the $150 a day, and is really the big drain.
Some days we don't spend any money at all, and another day might spend $500 - like, the other day I bought a metal file that cost $250, which is over a day's money, but the tool is decent and will last for years.

Today, we only spent ~$100 on fruit and veg, milk and yummy things, and we had sweet breakfast, good pasta for lunch and light dinner with snacks for playing the Walking Dead video game. So that means tomorrow we have $200, so can afford to charge both the SUBE cards (travel cards for public transport in the city) and have $100 for eggs and cheese and stuff/saving tomorrow.

What does suck, is that a 2gb stick of RAM died in a computer today - we had an old 1gb stick, but a new 2gb stick would be >$300 for a 2nd hand kingston stick. It will take a while to replace it, but it's not so necessary.

And the bloody building caretaker wants $1500 for christmas ($10k in total for the building) for idk what... getting a woman to sweep the floor every now and then. (building caretaker is a good job for life, it seems... Iron rice bowl).

But, the other day I did find $5 that was stuck together with tape on the floor of the tube station, so... Subte journey paid for itself

For me, the job market seems easier and less pressured than the UK and the internet has no nationality (but does pay $100 per hour for conversations with a patient English accent) and pays in paypal. The official / blue exchange might change, but it's always better than nothing - budget on the official and make do and mend.

So, for the cost of sending one child to international school in Belgrano - it is possible to live a fairly comfortable life (not in a shack) with change to spare for helados.

For the cost of sending two children, you could afford to live in a nicer apartment or invest some money to avoid devaluation of your efforts in... foreign currency (like russians or portenos), or nazi gold, or forbidden artwork, or sheep, camels, or land or whatever your idea of "stable" or investment wealth might be (I speculate and day trade in Jorqitos and manage Cindor slush funds, but I'm a gambling man).

If you drink at starbucks every day, you'll need about $700 a week for a latte and cookie - that's almost as much as 2 people can live off after expenses are met.

I am not sure what standard of living you are used to in Calcutta, or wherever else you have lived - but I feel happier and more relaxed here than in London, where I had to earn £1200 to merely cover the rent each month, in an apartment I'd spend less than 10 hours a day inside... Less money for more time is better than less time for more money, in my opinion

 

[delancepants]

Yes, that's my concern about BA, that he won't find a job there. It's the top of the list for us in terms of interest. Neither of us have ever been to South America despite being drawn to it. I'm just not sure if the job side of things will work out. I guess we'll see what happens in the next few weeks/months.

 

[delancepants]

Peter that's interesting to know about the building maintenance...are there many 'hidden' costs like that, unexpected things that I might not foresee? (Here in india you have to give tips for every religious holiday and often contribute to communal events even if you don't attend).

Are you saying that you make money over the internet because you have an english accent? Tell me more...I could do with some extra cash!

Well this is exactly why we left the uk/ireland, because the cost of living is getting out of hand. We went from having a very comfortable life to having to budget every penny in the space of a couple of years when the financial crisis hit in Dublin.

 

[steveinbsas]

To Delance pants: You can find a great deal of useful information if you use the advance search feature of this site.

Click on the sprocket next to the magnifying glass near the top of the page. Then (in separate searches) enter the words "family" and "moving" and search "only in titles" and display the results as a list of topics.

 

[delancepants]

Thanks steveinbsas, I am familiar with the search function! I am aware from previous experience though that when one is not resident in a country that one wants to find out about, it's often best to get up to date info. Often one has no way of knowing whether the info on forums is still current without asking and this seems to be particularly important with BA as some things seem to change rapidly. Forgive me (as a homeschooling expat mother of two small kids and definitely not enough support or sleep!!!) for taking the easy route!

 

[garryl]

Sorry It's not my business where you like to move. Bangkok is hot like hell, full of tourists(and old pervert European males looking for cheap Thai hookers) , does not have any of the sophistication that BA provides, it does have great (better) food than BA. It's a place for vacation. To compare Toronto and Berlin, you will do better as an expat in Toronto, there are more opportunities, and people are more diversified and welcoming in Toronto.
Now it's down to BA and Toronto, it will be so much easier to find some decent paying jobs in Toronto. In BA, you get to see a French building in Recoleta, in Canada, you get to see a French city/country in Quebec. If you have to worry about taking care of expenses in BA, it will take a lot of the fun away from staying in Argentina. It's much easier( and fun) to make a living in Canada and visit Argentina.

There are many expats here, the most common reasons are: having an Argie spouse/partner, interested in Tango, due to job relocation, Interested in culture, wanting to run away as far as possible from your friends = going South America, retired in Argentina and doing nothing ..

 

[PeterAustin]

@Delancepants - always expect the unexpected / Spanish Inquision.

This turned into a mini-rant about something seemingly unrelated, as a way of explaining about how the hidden costs can appear - so please bear with me.

Regarding the "hidden costs" - There's not so many, but it helps to understand why they might occour so you can account for them:

Some people haven't paid last month's money to the building caretaker/administration, so they must pay more this month (it accumulates) - xmas is a bit more, because it's xmas and those guys need presents more than we do. They don't even give you a christmas card to say, happy xmas to all residents...

Soon, they will replace the gutters and downpipes for the building. They seem fine to me, but one on the other side might be busted (everyone owns a share of responsibiliy for all the parts of the building and its needs).
When this happens - even though there is a monthly building administration fee, and "tips" for xmas - we'll have to pay extra money for them to change the gutters. If someone doesn't pay, it will accrue per month.

However, this can also work in your favour, because if your gutters break - you don't have to foot the bill entirely yourself.

If there's an infestation, the bug guy will sort it - if the elevator breaks, or a window is broken, or the door is rotting - everyone pays, even if it's not in your part of the building.

Everything is detailed.

It's unions / syndicates, similar to the recent problems with UFO (flight attendants union) and Lufthansa in Germany, where they were extorting the company for millions a day in lost business because they want more money. Also similar to England in the olde days before maggie sorted it out.

I consider it mafia-like activity, the tips thing, and if I were Lufthansa bosses - I'd've sacked all the strikers and hired new staff who appreciate the steady work and wages.
Systems like this are what keep a people divided into classes and castes, rich and poor, not governments - People are too quick to blame the leaders, because it is easier than taking personal responsibility for the land in which they live.

For example, the guy across the street has just had a new terrace and balcony built. He has been out there for three days cleaning it with a high pressure hose. Must be using hundreds of litres of potable water per hour, just spraying the floor, the walls and the woodwork.
Not only is he damaging the surfaces, eroding them - he is wasting more water per hour than we use in a week. Water is a limited commodity.

It's ok, though, "because he can afford to". It doesn't matter that he could clean it in an hour using a brush and then washing it with the pressure hose (which is better) - he is doing it millimeter by millimeter... It will rain tonight, maybe, so it will be all dusty again tomorrow... Guy's a nob, (nobility / penis / both) and probably doesn't know what manual work is... His sons hit their dog too. They have such a nice terrace and asado and a pizza oven up there... I am just jealous... But whatever - he is displaying a lack of caring about anything but himself, his things and what he wants for himself and his things (ie, family).

He can afford the water so he can afford to waste it, without moral or civic responsibility. Even though he is conscious that water is a commodity, like when people would wash the streets outside their buildings by standing there with a hose (they stopped that because water prices went up, not because of the waste) - he doesn't care.
The gutters and downpipes are gonna get more clogged because he is flushing so much stuff down them.
Then the building guys will have more reason to replace the gutters and down-pipes (which are fine...).
He broke them, he has the money to replace them himself but he doesn't want to pay...
We must pay extra to have this done, despite being less wasteful and more "responsible" with things, because some guys who can afford to have no civic responsibility don't want to pick up a brush.

This same guy will blame the govt. for rising water prices and low sanitation, and will decry the energy and water subsidies being slowly retracted, etc..., and the other residents will not approach civic officials in order to try and prevent such things to save their expenses.

Hmmm, I've digressed a lot... But this made me mad today, and it's a good example to illustrate how unexpected costs can crop up for someone and how this is often as a result of people (rich or poor) being greedy, lazy, not caring, whatever...

Anyway - it's my personal opinion and I guess I shouldn't share too much about it, because I don't really want to get into discussions... I'd rather do something about it...
Maybe I will form a committee, but more likely I would post a letter telling him *I* will clean his terrace in 1hour for $100.

But he's just washing it cos it's new and he is admiring what he has managed to afford.
Baby have his bottle, etc...

Anyway - If you don't live in apartment, the building costs like this are more transparent. You break it, you fix it. Not, they broke it, we all gotta pay.

So, onto the work thing:

I speak some French, German and Russian. I don't get to use it much, so I forget it. Some words are mixed up, some are being replaced by Castellano... Ich gusta la pomedor soup...
This is true of everyone who speaks other languages. Use it or lose it.

English is an international language of business. People like/need to be good at it and some people will pay for a native speaker's time, to sit and converse. Whether this is for practice, for maintenance, for fun or unexpected lessons, to gain or lose an accent, or just because it turns them on (like my gf).

British accent is considered to be "higher class" than American by lots of people. Idk why - it's the same to me.

If you look on mercadolibre (Argentine version of ebay, kinda) - you can find some people offering their time to sit and converse in English for up to $150 per hour.
This is a good deal for the native speaker... But - how busy can you be? Maybe it will be 1 hour in a week. Maybe you will have to reschedule to fit people in!

While it may be free to make contacts on the internet to practise speaking other languages (wespeke, mylanguageexchange.com) - some people don't like to do it over skype, or don't know of these services, or just want the personal touch and to sit with a book.

I'm not a teacher, but if someone has a work book - I can sit and patiently explain in ways they can understand (in English) to help them complete their lessons or workbook for whatever purpose.

This isn't over the internet from home - if you want to do that, it'd probably be topless and with a webcam if you wanted to earn the same money...
Plus, I've always found it very hard to learn languages from teachers online - I've always found a native speaker to help (esp. Russian, as my English Russian teacher's accent was terrible...), so I am biased

I wouldn't say it's a career - more of a pocket filler - but if you had 4 students a week @ $150, that's a decent amount of cheddar for talking about the weather and drinking tea.
It's not exactly "en blanco", but as a second job/activity - it's ok.
It's not really a high demand, but it's more than just speaking - it's cultural education and an insight into another world - something people pay for at the cinema.

Perhaps I am aggrandising a little, but... you know...

It's an option you could consider (I'll fight you for the clients), but we still rely on other professions to put bread on the table.

 

[delancepants]

Thanks Peter, you gave me a giggle first thing in the morning! Yes the 'hidden costs' side of things sounds similar to India in some ways, basically if they can find a reason they will ask for more. I can understand sometimes a little rant slips out....don't get me started on my neighbours using the roof (the only safe space for kids to play in my apartment complex) as a toilet for their little doggies that they love so much they keep them inside the apartment all day and delay them going to the toilet until sometimes they're so desperate they s**t in the lift or outside my front door so that it's right there ready for my babies (who are real live children) to fall in it... Tried to take that battle on, failed miserably as Indian people don't listen (yes this is a gross generalisation).

Anyway.... The english conversation thing sounds interesting, might be interesting for a bit of pocket money, but i'll probably be too busy with my kids to actually do it, so don't worry I probably wouldn't steal your clients!

Garryl - you've made me even more interested in BA now! Thanks for your little comparison. Bangkok is hot as hell, but luckily it's AC everywhere. For the last 3 years in India we've only had AC at night in our apartment so I'm used to it. Full AC will seem like heaven even if it is hotter outside! And we have contacts there, plus there's a chance my husband could get transferred there with his current job. There is a question mark over the air quality in Bangkok though as they don't routinely measure pm2.5 so it's hard to get a handle on it and then there's the forest fires in Indonesia, not sure how much Bangkok is affected by that. Yes it is crawling with tourists, not sure how i would feel about that yet. So far I've only been there as a respite from India, I haven't been outside India, apart from Bangkok, in the last 2.5 years so Bangkok seems like a paradise right now!

We also have a friend in Germany and several friends who've lived there over the years so we have help in setting up there. Berlin is quite a cool place and Germans can be quite cool too but you're right society is probably less diversified than other places. That's what my German friend told me too. I have one expat friend in Canada who moved there recently so I'm sure she'd be of help, but it seems so cold there....just don't know if I could do it after 3 years in India. I spent my whole life wanting to move somewhere warm! BA, you guys are my only contacts so far! The food side of things doesn't bother me too much, I have a million allergies so I have to cook all my own food anyway. BA appears to have a lot of positives, if we can find a job there and the finances look good, I think we'll be there like a shot, even with the accommodation issue.

 

[Ceviche]

One good thing about BA - you will struggle to find a informative and extremely helpful forum like this in any other world city. I guarantee you this.

This forum and the people here rock!

This could be one big reason for you to choose this city.

 

[garryl]

Bankok and Buenos Aires are very different. It's like you are going to a car dealership and tell the sales guy that you are very interested in a Mercedes, a Hyundai, a Honda and a Subaru. The sales guy will look at you totally confused .
If you choose the country you like, you can always find your new friends there, I would not let the presence of my friends dictate where I want to live.