How We Spent Two Months in Buenos Aires on a $5,200 Budget: Full Breakdown of Costs and Daily Life
We started our second year of fulltime travel in late 2024. We headed to Buenos Aires, Argentina – part of our experiment to see if comfortable, full-time travel was possible on a modest retirement budget. What we discovered in this vibrant city over two months might surprise you. From colorful Argentine pesos to surprising museum finds, here’s our unfiltered look at the real costs and daily life and how we spent two months in Buenos Aires, Argentina for under $5,200 .
But First, the set up — how did we get here?
At the end of 2022 we reached a certain point in our lives. The easiest way to sum up our feelings at that point would be ‘This is stupid, we need to go’.
Letting Go of the Past: Downsizing and Selling 98% of Our Belongings
We mathed out a budget for early retirement and committed to it. We sold and gave away 98% of our worldly goods— no small feat after 40 years of marriage and a lifetime of collecting things that we thought were interesting (our kids, however, didn’t share our enthusiasm). We owned a 5-acre property with an almost 1,800 sf house, a old 1,000 sf old house converted to storage and shop space, plus two 40′ Conex containers full of shelves and piles of stuff. Oh, and the project cars, daily drivers, a tractor and the ATV we were gonna get around to fixing, plus, plus, plus…..
Then in November of 2023, we hit the road, embracing what I now describe as being “homeless but in a socially acceptable way.”
Documenting Our Journey: First-Year Expenses and Lessons Learned
We made a video documenting our first year expenses (Nov 15, 2023 to Nov 15, 2024) along with some lessons learned from our first year of full-time travel. Going forward, we’ll break down our expenses by destination, especially for places we stay longer than a month.
The Reality Behind Full-Time Travel: What People Don’t See
One of our primary goals as we travel is to provide a glimpse behind the curtain into the life of a full-time travelers. We’re all familiar with the idyllic images of retirees lying on the beach or sipping cocktails on a cruise ship or the stunning scenery at the end of the hike through the Alps, but those moments are just snapshots. What’s often missing is the behind-the-scenes story: what does everyday life look like for retirees living the nomadic lifestyle?
The Financial Breakdown: A Glimpse Behind the Curtain of How We Spent Two Months in Buenos Aires on a $5,200 Budget
We arrived in Buneos Aires, from Oregon, on Oct 18th 2024 and left for Chile on Dec 19th 2024
We set a budget of US$2,700 per month for living expenses. Buenos Aires came in just under that even with some irregular expenses —several annual things come due this time of year because, well, that’s how annual works. ‘Budget’ is also not a totally accurate term here; ‘target’ would be more accurate. We aren’t committed to the number, we’re trying for the number.
Why We Chose the Nomadic Life: Comfort, Convenience, and Flexibility
We originally set out to see if a full-time nomadic lifestyle was possible at $40,000 annually without making too many compromises on comfort, convenience and locations. We weren’t enthused about SE Asia because hot and humid isn’t our jam. Cheaper to live is NOT our be-all/end-all driving motivator. We don’t do shared bathrooms with strangers, we avoid shared living spaces if we can, so hostels or renting a room in someone’s house is way down our list of desired accommodation. We also are not big fans of winter weather. If it’s going to routinely be below 10C (50F), we’ll pass on that destination.
Adjusting Our Budget: Travel vs. Daily Expenses
In order to stay on target, we need to balance travel expenses with day-to-day expense. We decided to try US$7,200 per year for travel expenses and US$32,400 for living expenses. We didn’t hit those numbers in our first year, LOL. The video linked above goes into some detail on what we spent our first 12 months as well as discussing why we went over in certain categories.
Breaking Down Our Living Expenses in Buenos Aires Argentina
We track our expenditures using eight fairly loosely defined categories. This is not a travel budget, this is our entire life budget as nomads. Unless otherwise specified, when I use “$”, I mean “US$”
Housing ($1,766.33 total)
- San Nicolas neighborhood: $870.20 for 32 nights
- Centrally located
- Close to Avenida Corrientes, Teatro Colon, and Ateneo Grand Splendid
- Vicente Lopez: $896.11 for 30 nights
- Challenges included airplane noise, construction noise, traffic noise
- Issues with single-pane windows, poorly equipped kitchen, and bathroom mold
- Listed as “Impeccable Apt” but fell short of that description
The San Nicolas neighborhood was close to the theater district part of Avenida Corrientes with lots of shops and restaurants. The apartment we chose was conveniently located within walking distance to Teatro Colon and Ateneo Grand Splendid which were two of the several sights we were interested in checking out in Buenos Aires.
The Vicente Lopez area was a pretty good location but the apartment itself had some issues — airplane noise due to being under the approach path for the international airport, construction noise due to the building next door (with which we shared a wall) undergoing massive renovations including a lot of hammerdrill work on the concrete, traffic noise since the single-pane windows were maybe 20 feet from a relatively busy street, a poorly equipped kitchen and some black mold in the bathroom. The AirBnB description said ‘Impeccable Apt’ and it was not that.
Food Expenses
Dining Out ($438.47)
- 27 meals-out over two months
- Range: $2 for empanadas to $44.39 for pizza and beer
- Highlight: Excellent sushi at SushiPop for $23.71
- Well under our $450 monthly dining budget
Our most expensive meal was, believe it or not, pizza, a beer and a single empanada at $44.39 our first night in the country. It was fine (and we had leftover pizza for lunch the next day so it was kind of two meals) but compared to the next to most expensive meals — one of which was hella good sushi — it was kind of a rip off. Our budget for meals out is $450 per month so we came in under 50% of that
Groceries ($946.16)
Groceries were a bigger expense, no surprise since we eat most of our meals in. We don’t track it but we usually eat 2 or 3 times per day so it’s safe to assume we had at least 125 meals at home over 62 days. Our Groceries budget is also $450 per month so we just missed it. To be frank, our groceries budget includes all the things we buy in the grocery store so the roll of aluminum foil, dish soap, paper towels, toilet paper and all that sort of thing is included. It also includes, on average, one bottle of wine each week. We do eat fairly simple meals — a lot of wraps and some basic rice or pasta concoctions. It’s not about the dining experience, it’s about a physiological need to refuel
We also took advantage of the great beef available in Argentina. We picked up steaks at the grocery store a couple times. They were really good and very inexpensive compared to what we are used to paying in the US. We aren’t Michelin Star diners so we didn’t visit any of the many nice steak houses. Paying $25 or $30 and up for a possibly slightly better steak than we could buy at the grocery store for less than $10 is not our thing.
- Approximately 125 home-cooked meals
- Includes household items bought in a grocery store (aluminum foil, dish soap, paper products)
- Weekly wine purchase
- Simple meals: wraps, pasta, rice dishes
- Took advantage of Argentina’s excellent beef prices
- Grocery store steaks under $10 versus $25-30 at restaurants
Technology ($391.76)
- Includes 12-month cell phone bill
- 20GB data package lasting 12 months
This category can be a little misleading; Sandra’s cell phone bill and my data package was due while we were in Buenos Aires and since we pay these annually, the cost went in this category BUT we’ll have zero expense for these items until next fall.
Healthcare ($866.88)
- US doctor visit payment ($185 of $299 bill)
- Monthly insurance premium: $283
- Prescription refills (higher than Portugal/Spain)
- Minor illness treatment
Most of the costs included in this expense category is recurring premiums, our insurance costs $283 per month — we pay our international insurance annually but for budgeting purposes it shows up at 1/12 each month. It’s just easier for me to think of it that way rather than $2,400 in November and then zero for the other 11 months. Prescription refills were high in Argentina compared to what we paid last year in Portugal or Spain and we had to deal with some minor illness during this visit. Plus, I finally paid for the office visit that happened while we were back in the states. I’m still a little salty about paying $185 out of the $299 billed for a 15 minute visit.
👋 New Here? We’re Jeff and Sandra, American expats, living abroad, on a budget, one country at at time. Most days, we’re just doing what we’ve always done— making ourselves a home, working on projects, cooking, and running errands, wherever home might be at the moment. Sometimes that means checking out local activities and visiting museums and historical sites; other times, it means finding out which local restaurant has the best pizza or empanadas and which grocery store sells peanut butter.
This life isn’t always glamorous; but it’s ours—and we’re here to share with you what we learn.
Activities and Local Travel ($199.78)
Over half of the cost in this Activities and Local Travel expense included the 72 hour hop on/hop-off bus passes. Which we don’t even regret. The bus is a good way to see what the city is all about. We used the heck out of it all 3 days.
This category also includes all of our local transportation — like when we walked a mile to the big grocery store and then spent $5 for a rideshare back to the apartment, or transportation down to La Boca neighborhood and back.
Our nomadic day-to-day life involves the same routines you have: work, errands, cooking meals, doing laundry. We usually plan one “tourist” activity per week, which is probably more than most locals do! In Buenos Aires, we visited the Japanese Gardens, toured Teatro Colon and the Colón Fábrica. We really like to check out things that are a little less popular; ‘Museo del Agua y de la Historia Sanitaria’ (water and sewer museum) doesn’t show up on a lot of Top Ten list of things to do in Buenos Aires but we found it fascinating. But the rest of our time? We were hanging out at the apartment, grocery shopping, cooking at home, exploring our neighborhood on foot, and living our normal lives – just in a different city.
- 72-hour tourist bus passes (over half the budget)
- Visited:
- Japanese Garden
- Water and Sewer Museum
- El Ateneo Grand Splendid
- Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes
- Teatro Colon
- Tigre
- Plaza de Mayo and La Casa Rosada
- Puerto Madero
- Colón Fábrica
- Self guided walking tours
- Local transportation including rideshares
Looking for fun things to do in Argentina?
Miscellaneous ($558.25)
- Life and disability insurance
- Clothing
- Annual Duolingo subscription
- Amazon Prime yearly subscription (we keep it so we can watch tv and movies in english)
- Ancestry.com subscription
This stuff doesn’t fit in most travelers budget categories but we’re trying our best to be transparent in what it costs us to live this nomad lifestyle so we include it for all to see.
The Real Cost of Living in Buenos Aires for Two Months
Keep in mind that some of that was things we pay annually that just happen to pop up this time of year and some of it is expenses unique to our life — you may not be carrying disability insurance or whole life policies for your grands or have an Ancestry.com subscription.
Monthly average: $2,585 (under our $2,700 target)
Total two-month spend: $5,167.63
Since our monthly ‘living expense’ budget is $2,700 we feel pretty good about averaging $2,585 over the two months. Our experience suggests that a comfortable lifestyle in Buenos Aires is feasible on $2,500 monthly for those planning to stay long-term.
Those are our actual living expenses in Buenos Aires – the real day-to-day costs of calling this city home for two months. But of course, we had to get there first. While these next costs aren’t part of our monthly living expenses, we believe in full transparency about our travel costs too. Just keep in mind that your costs to reach Buenos Aires could be drastically different depending on your starting point and travel preferences. Here’s what it cost us to make the move:
Relocation Expenses ($2,636.33)
Airfare for our flight from Portland, Oregon to Buenos Aires, Argentina included some choices that reflect our travel style: we added travel insurance (though we don’t always) and upgraded for extra legroom (at 6’2″ tall, I’m not squeezing into a regular seat for 6+ hours). The upgrade included checked bags, though we didn’t use them – we’re carry-on only travelers.
We’ve learned which comfort compromises we’re willing to make and which we aren’t. Extra legroom on long flights? Worth every penny at our age.
Included in this category was the ride from the airport to our accommodation and the ride when moving across town while we were in Buenos Aires.
- Airfare from Portland to Buenos Aires: $2,541.88
- Includes travel insurance
- Extra legroom upgrades
- Checked bag allowance (unused – we travel carry-on only)
- Mid-stay move transportation
We really account for relocation expenses based on the annual number. On the ‘budget’ it says $600 per month but the reality is that it’s very volatile — it was $2,500 in Oct, zero in Nov then $327 in Dec to move to Chile…
Looking Forward
We moved on to Vina del Mar, Chile, with a relocation cost of $327 in December. Watch for our six-week in Chile budget breakdown in February, updates and videos on our South America Trip Report!
