“Travel” Weeks 29-34
Days 202-238:
The new place was a bit of a disaster zone, with empty coke bottles mixed into the pile of used sheets and dirty dishes stacked up in the sink. There was also no door handle on the unit, the hot water heater broke after the first use, and I spent the first 5 days showering with cold water until the landlady’s son was able to fix the unit.
| Uber to apartment | USD 1.50 + 10 ARS |
| Laundry | 250 |
| Carrefour | 2060 |
| Don Pedro (vegetables) | 400 |
| Total: | 2710 ARS (USD 25.67) |
I’d been making due with hand washing and rewearing indoor clothes, but I reached the point where I needed to freshen up. The Carrefour bill was especially high because I needed more coffee beans (602 pesos) and I splurged on the second cheapest bottle of whisky (361), plus steaks and cheese.
| Carrefour | 1511.75 ARS |
The Carrefour market is on the same block and easy to get to, so the French retailer gets my money. Highlights include steak, ground beef, and IPAs.
| Carrefour | 1004 |
| Contact lenses | 1100 |
| Total: | 2104 ARS (USD 19.93) |
Despite mostly wearing glasses, it was time to change out my contact lenses again. Fortunately, many shops were opening back up and it was easy to buy a pair. I went to a bigger Carrefour to look at their kitchen utensils, buying a spatula and a new knife (which still turned out to be pretty dull).
| Carrefour | 864 ARS |
Shopping highlights include Quilmes beer on sale, cooking oil and liquid hand soap.
| Laundry | 400 ARS |
I took the pile of dirty sheets that had been left to me to the cleaners… it turned out to be three sets of linens.
| Rent for 15 days | 9000 ARS |
I chickened out of asking for a discount on the next period of rent despite suffering through a lack of hot water, inheriting a dirty apartment, and racking up charges on cleaning supplies.
| Atomo | 710 |
| Carrefour | 1052 |
| Vegetables | 330 |
| Total: | 2092 ARS (USD 19.81) |
When I realized I had loosened the purse strings a bit too much in the first week and a half of living in the apartment, I made myself go a whole week without shopping for more food (and more importantly, alcohol). Atomo is another supermarket, which sells much cheaper spices than anywhere else, but for other items (especially eggs) the Carrefour is cheaper. I dropped 334 on new toothpaste, dental floss and mouth wash.
| Carrefour | 666 ARS |
For some reason, I decided to buy oatmeal (137) and a jar of peanut butter (230). I ended up eating all the peanut butter within three days.
| Carrefour | 412 ARS |
Highlights include chicken breasts and a jar of dulce de leche, which I also basically just ate with a spoon over the next couple of days.
| Atomo | 957 |
| Produce | 200 |
| Chili peppers | 10 |
| Total: | 1167 ARS (USD 11.05) |
I wanted to make chili, which took some work tracking down something picante. The Atomo had a great sale on Patagonia beer, but the discount didn’t come up directly at the cash register, so I had to actually speak more than “si” and “no” for the first time in however long. I also really splurged on the chili, buy ground beef and a big chunk of beef for stewing.
| Carrefour | 700 |
| Rent for 7 more days | 4500 |
| Total: | 5200 ARS (USD 49.24) |
The only exciting purchase was that I decided to invest in a pepper grinder (170). I also decided that I would rather move to a different apartment with nicer furnishings, so I had to pay an extra week to bridge the gap until the next apartment becomes available.
So I spent grand total of US$249.22* over these 37 days, plus the previous expenses for this chunk of time equals 339.28, so I averaged USD$ 9.17 a day in living costs.
*this includes the 19 cents of credit card foreign currency transaction fees for taking the three Uber trips.
Running Total: 4764.36 USD (RMB 33783.1)
Daily Average: 20.02 USD (RMB 141.9)