It's all relative, I scrimp in the US and manage to spend under $20 a day and I think altogether you can make your way through BA for less.
The deals are if you're on a budget you can find great deals, places to frequent to satisfy a humble lifestyle. Everyone has their own standard, for me I like to pinch my money, but I also enjoy the simple things and can have a great time with good people drinking mate in the park.
My favorite spots were:
- Lito's on Lavalle (There used to be two along the stretch between Florida and Julio) I would get a bife de caudril, fries, and a super tanque of beer for about $5 american.
- Cigarettes were an incredible discount from the US (if I remember right it was roughly a buck pack)
- Liter of Quilmes always seemed to be around a dollar
- Also the McDonalds didn't seem unreasonable something to the tune of 3 or 4 dollars.
- As far as the supermercados go, I would go gro shopping basically a months worth of food would run me a $100 which is about what I've spent on flowers on a few occassions, speaking of which flowers are damn cheap too.
- I used to live off empenadas for a stint and at the time they were .7 pesos from Ugi's who also had pizzas for 3 pesos... anyone know if this is still what they're pricing at?
Bottom line, I think if you have 1000$ a month you should be just fine.
Not all events have to be a significant expenses, each time I went to Creamfields I my ticket has only run me 100 pesos, I'd have paid a $100 for that party.
If you're living in Buenos Aires you don't need to live pedal to the metal and go out every night, you can spend a little one, two, three days to go to something primo because you have the advantage of time and during those days you can hang loose, explore, read, work, drink mate in the park, play futbol, for relatively little expense.
My goal in moving to BsAs is sustainability so I think in terms of what I can afford on average each day after rent and health insurance. Set myself a daily allowance within my means and stay within that range, if there is something I want to do I can set aside funds from certain days for a day where I know I'm going to go over my daily allowance.
From there you can learn, grow, and live.
