Get in touch with ARBound on this board, he is stuck here, wants out, and can't make the money to do so. He's young and |Canadian as well, I think from TO or back east somewhere. I'm from Vancouver, when I came down in 2005 and a set lunch with appetizer/main/coffee/bottle of water cost about 17 pesos, maybe that budget would have worked -- in fact, that's what my boyfriend-now-husband was earning roughly a month back then -- he was an engineer (newly graduated) and living at home. Nowadays the newly graduated engineers at his firm are making about 16,000 a month -- that gives you some idea as to just how much everything has gone up in 9 years.
Whereabouts does your girlfriend live? That might be making a big difference. For instance, a kg of apples in Las Canitas may well cost around 28/30 pesos per kg these days, in Urquiza it's between 18-20/kg (but the quality of the guy's fruit/veg I'm thinking of is so fantastic, compared to my local verduleria that is kind of a blah selection -- though they throw in some surprises every once in awhile -- bok choi for instance, which will have many people on the forum going, ooooh)
A ride on the subte now costs 4.50 each way, on the bus during peak times it's what, 2.50? I don't even know if anything less than that exists these days since I seemingly always have to travel during peak times. We've got three people in our house, one of them only 3 years old, and our grocery bill is exhorbitant compared to what you're listing. 1500 pesos per (edit: month, I had said week) is less than 400 pesos a week. Yesterday I went to the verduleria and I bought 500gr potatoes, 1kg onions, 250gr green beans, 1kg apples, 6 limes (an extravagance! for homemade caipis), one head of garlic, and I spent 80 pesos. Even without crazy things like oooh limes I easily spend 200 pesos a week on fruit and veg and that's buying all the boring in season stuff ie pears,oranges, apples, bananas right now). A loaf of bread on average is 20 pesos, a multi-grain loaf is nearing 40 pesos, or you can possibly find the precio cuidado whte bread rolls/"baguette" for 16 pesos a kg. Milk the cheapest litre is 8 pesos, but since it's often hard to find it's more like 11-13pesos.
The prices are changing rapidly, even the silly precios cuidados site won't list the prices on foods because they've had to increase some of them 30% since the programme began earlier this year.
And honestly, do not take this as criticism, it is both a reality check AND a whole bunch of people on this site are keen to find out your girlfriend's secrets! We know about Makro, we know about the supposed savings at mercado central but a visit there is a headache and a half. We know about using our bank credit cards on their special day, cashing in on Jumbocheck / Carrefour check deals, buying the right products on the right days (ie lacteos have a discount day etc).
