I'm an American who would like to live in Argentina for three months from September 2009 - October 2009. I would like to rent an apartment in the Buenos Aires Region. I would like to live on a realistic shoe string budget (I can be very thrifty when I'm determined). How much money will I need? Who has done this before? Any tips? Thank you!

Yo soy una Norteamericana. Tengo ganas de vivir en Argentina por tres meses desde Septiembre a Octubre del año en curso. Quiero vivir segun un presupuesto estricto. ¿Cuanto dinero necesito para un viaje de esta duración? Hay aluguien norteamericano que ha hecho lo mismo? Sugerencias! Muchas gracias!

We spent a month in BA in December last year. We rented an apartment from www.bytargentina.com and paid $1200 US but it is possble to rent for a lot less.

As for day to day living costs, I am from London so just about anywhere in the world seems cheap by comparison but I have to say that I did not find BA as inexpensive as I had been led to believe, which is probably down to the relatively high rate of inflation (and to a certain degree sterling's fall against most major currencies). Food generally seemed cheap as did eating out ( v.good meal can easily be found found for 20 pesos) and we did save a lot by cooking in the apartment most days. Good wine was not that cheap. Public transport i.e. buses and the Subte is both cheap (c. 1peso per trip) and reasonable efficient. Entrance to museums is expensive for foreigners and internal flights around Argentina are extortionate (use long distance buses are both comfortable and cheap).

Buenas tardes, meadow_zephyr!

Being by yourself, on a budget and staying for three months, you should be able to get a rather cheap apartment, particularly if you don't need to stay in the most touristy parts of our town.

Since you know Spanish, try this search engine:
http://www.topinmobiliario.com/

You need to select deptos, ciudad de Buenos Aires, Capital Federal, one or several areas, 1 Ambiente, alq. turístico and click on BUSCAR.

Food and public transportation are quite cheap, compared to the US.

If you need any further help, let us know.

Hola meadow_zephyr:

We found entrance fees to museums to be very low to reasonable & there was always good wine to be found in the 'cheap' row. Example: 8 pesos for a respectable red Malbec (Colony) - not Luigi Bosca,Reserva, of course, but tasty, full bodied and NO headache. And so much of what is great in Buenos Aires is free - the walking, the watching; and inner-city transportation is a steal. So, look around for a cheap place to stay, and you will probably be pleased with the distance your dollars will go.

Have a great stay... ~MarnieWDC

You can rent a cute apartment in a nice part of town for around $500-700 a month.. browse craigslist and some of the apartment rental sites for BA.
www.bytargentina.com
www.buenosaireshabitat.com


As Marnie says, there is so much that is free here, concerts , dance, getting around is very inexpensive.. groceries are inexpensive as are a lot of restaurants..

I suggest you get a current Time Out Buenos Aires and a map and a Rough Guides BA.. you can find a lot of answers to your questions that way ..

We just rented an apartment for a month too and found groceries compared to Canada to be slightly cheaper. It was possible to live and eat there for a month cheaper than living here for a month including eating out and drinking wine almost every day!

We stayed for a month in Buenos Aires from the 25th Oct to 24th November and spent roughly US$ 700.00 renting an apartment from www.alsolbaires.com.ar

You will find a lot of apartments being offered by this company. Made downpayment (I believe it is the commission charged by alsolbaires) using Paypal.

Recoleta is the most centralized fashionable distric, the micro-centro is the very heart of Buenos Aires, but not as fashionable as Recoleta. Palermo is also fashionable, but it is more distant from the city center and usually will have larger apartments, which, if you are alone, will probably be meaningless.

We stayed at a small apartment located at Reconquista with Tucuman, this is the link to it:

http://www.alsolbaires.com.ar/depart...sp?codigo=mic8

It is in an old building, initial impression was not the greatest, but since our daughter was to stay with us for one week (we stayed the remaining three weeks) we chose this apartment because it had a separate couch with some privacy.

As time passed, we got used to the apartment and actually enjoyed a lot the superb location.

It is rather noisy during the day, but late in the night it quiets down considerably.

Would go back to it again if happened to go to BAires for more than a few days.

Thank you everyone. You've been most helpful!

Gracias a todos. Me han dado mucha ayuda.