For two days the streets in the heart of downtown Buenos Aires were no longer filled with buses and taxis. Instead, a track had been constructed and race cars circled at record speeds.
The noise was piercing, the speed was thrilling, and the smile on my face wouldn’t go away. I felt like a kid.
In order to finish the month of March on track financially, we’ve decided to limit ourselves to only $100 Argentine pesos for the next 6 days. That’s about $22.88 U.S. dollars. Needless to say, it’s not a lot of money as this city is not cheap.
We’ll give you a daily update on every centavo (cent) we spend and the meals it affords us.
Starting balance: $100
SUNDAY
– Baking soda for making biscuits $2.00
– 6 liter bottle of water (because our tap water tastes horrible) $12.75
– Dinner: Homemade vegetable soup
Balance = $85.25
MONDAY
– Breakfast: Scrambled eggs and kiwi (already in the fridge)
– Two bus rides (Maggie to and from work) $2.50
– Lunch: Homemade biscuits and raspberry Bonne Mamam jam, the best!
– Dinner: Leftover vegetable soup and biscuits
= $83.75
TUESDAY
– Breakfast: 1 egg and bowl of cereal
– Two bus rides $2.50
– Lunch: Sauteed onion and fried eggs with homemade pico de gallo and corn tortillas
– Veggies: Tomatoes, cilantro, lemons, bell peppers, onions, 12 eggs $47.00
– 6 liter bottle of water $13.20
– Dinner: Homemade black beans, rice, salsa and flour tortillas (see story behind the free tortillas)
= $21.05
WEDNESDAY
– Two bus rides (Maggie to and from work) $2.50
– Lunch & Dinner: Leftover black beans, rice, salsa and tortillas
= $18.55
Maggie was paid $100 pesos from a client, which throws us off a bit, positively. We’re not officially counting this income or the expenses paid from it; none of the expenses would have happened without the extra income. We’re putting it down just to be transparent. $100 (income) -$2.50 (buses) -32.50 (coffee with student) -$28 (I played soccer) -22 (taxi) = +$15 pesos
THURSDAY
– Breakfast: Flour tortilla with cinnamon and sugar!
– Lunch: Beans, cabbage and salsa
– Two bus rides (Maggie to and from work) $2.50
– Veggies: Green onion and 2 tomatoes $5.00
– Milk $5.50
– Dinner: Eggs with green onion and tomato (see pic)
= $5.55 (and we still have two days left!)
Our challenge is bringing out a very kind generosity from some of our new friends. Jason, a Canadian who has hired me to help build his company website www.techsalespros.com, let us fill up our 6 liter jugs with his filtered water. That saved us about $25 pesos! Also, Jaco, from South Africa, brought us some traditional, homemade “beskuit” (think biscotti) that his mom makes. His mom’s beskuit is literally the best coffee-dipping food we’ve ever had and will keep us fed.
FRIDAY
– Breakfast: South African Beskuit
– Lunch: The last of the black beans with cabbage and salsa
– Two bus rides (Maggie to and from work) $2.50
– Two bus tickets to our friends’ (Ashley and Scott) place $2.20
– Dinner: Hamburgers and french fries and U.S. sugar candy (think Fun Dip and Fireballs)
= $0.85
SATURDAY
– Breakfast: Cereal
– Subway tickets $5.00
– Medialunas and coffee at a café with out of town friends $37.00
– Two bus tickets back home $2.50
– Dinner: Pasta and tomato sauce donated by Ashley and Scott
= -$43.65
We started Saturday, the last day of this craziness, with 85 cents and ended it way over budget. Here’s what happened.
We headed out to go pick up my friend’s cousin, Daniel, who was on vacation here from Mexico. We quickly learned that the subway line we needed was closed because of the race car event that was hopefully going to be our final destination. We now had to walk across the city to Daniel’s hostel. Our path led us past the racing event, and not knowing the track layout, we thought we should cross to other side of track.
Turned out that was a bad move.
We got stuck inside the loop of the track and weren’t allowed to cross back over. So we waited and decided to enjoy the race. I watched in complete joy as these crazy loud and ridiculously fast cars zipped by on the street where buses and taxis usually plod along in traffic.
Once we were allowed to cross the track, we were more than 2 hours late. Thankfully, Daniel was still at his hostel, so we took him back to the race track, watched the cars again, then headed out to find a place away from the crowds and noise.
I led us to a generic café. After all the walking and frustrating delays of the day it was nice to just sit and relax, so I went for comfort and ordered some croissants (medialunas) and a hot chocolate. The billed turned out to be quite steep. We would have gone over budget just from the public transportation alone, but this last café pit stop at the very end sent us way over.
That’s how it normally goes. If we fail to keep our budget it usually happens in the very end by some unexpected thing.
Later that night we were able to save from going further over budget only by the generous donation of pasta and pasta sauce from our friends, Scott and Ashley. I think this is the first week in my life I’ve eaten food specifically donated to me. Though this was a self-imposed challenge and we have money to buy food, it’s still humbling to receive food from friends. We are so grateful that we already have friends here who support us and help us to live out our goals. We certainly hope to be the same kind of people.
Even though we failed to keep our budget, we’ve learned quite a bit this week. We’ve learned about friendship, food creativity, and that we desperately need a water filter.
First, just visit this website. It goes without saying the site needs a lot of work. So, Gaby and Pablo, the wonderful owners of Pancho Villa Tortillas, have agreed to barter with me. I’ll build them a new and improved website and they’ll deliver us some of their AMAZING food. If you’re in Buenos Aires and miss Mexican food, you seriously have to email them today to get your order. It’s so good!
Today, we’re getting together again with our expat friends who we’d meet soon after arriving in Buenos Aires. I’m excited, because it’s been awhile since we’ve all gotten together.
Learning that I’d be hanging out with our gypsy-footed Darling friends I annoyingly proclaimed, “You’re alive!” Then the Danger Darling explained that the two of them have been transitioning from the early vacation life in Buenos Aires to the reality of daily life here.
I concur wholeheartedly. And that’s why we’ve been silent on the blog since our recent move. We’ve been going through the same transition as the Darlings and find ourselves investing our energies in work, exercise, chores, and eating. You know, normal life.
Maggie and I are both working full-time. Her regular teaching gig from 10am to 2pm at the institute is an enjoyable, consistent presence and her mobile, sometimes unpredictable, better paying private tutoring world keeps her moving around from the hours of 2pm to 8pm most days. My work has blossomed so much that some days taking a shower sounds like a waste of time.
It’s all been great fun and helpful in keeping food on our plate; it just hasn’t left us with the energy to write about our experiences. So disgruntled readers of our world famous blog, just know that the silence from us means everything is golden. We’re working more now than playing, but the playing will return this afternoon at the polo fields.
If you’re left unsatisfied and want some Buenos Aires culture, here’s a cool video that shows what Porteños (that’s Buenos Aires city folk) listen to while walking the streets. The video also gives you a good look at the pace of the streets here. Enjoy!
We love our new Buenos Aires apartment. We have experiences here that make us feel as though we’ve stumbled upon a secret.
On a daily basis, we are stretching out on the couch, getting lost (in thought) on our patio, roaming from front to back through the spacious kitchen, looking awkwardly at the bidet, and resting in something called a bedroom.
You see, as much as we appreciated our first apartment in Buenos Aires (especially our landlord), our new apartment has elevated us to a new realm. We now have seating options! We now have outdoor space. We now have a shower with pressure (too much, in fact) and room to move. We now eat dinner anywhere but in bed. And we now enter and leave without having to go through someone else’s home.
These things seem so normal, but I’m coming to appreciate how significant they are. It took us an extra $350 per month to regain these luxuries. Maggie’s hard work in finding teaching jobs has made it all possible. For a bit of comfort and rest, the $350 is money well spent.
Check out our great studio apartment of luxuries.
We found the apartment on Craigslist after 2-3 days of incessant hunting. We rent directly from the landlord, who is awesome, and were able to talk with the previous tenant before signing the contract. We do have to pay in U.S. dollars, which is difficult until Maggie can get her work visa and DNI process started.
Before We Age 