Travel Weeks 46-47
Days 315-329
| Rent (1 month, 30 days) | 10,000 |
| Vea Supermarket | 1242 |
| Broccoli, salad, garlic | 150 |
| Total: | 11392 ARS (USD 97.45) |
I moved into a new house with roommates to expand my quarantine bubble and recuperate my sanity. The cost of rent is less than half what I was paying and the house is located about a ten minute walk south from the last apartment. I get to explore a new supermarket, where I have a membership card (gifted from the German) and I invest in laundry detergent because I have finally have access to a washing machine!
| Tomato, eggs, chili peppers | 300 |
| Vea | 900 |
| Total: | 1200 ARS (USD 10.27) |
The produce shop next to the Vea turns out to be a little expensive. I definitely overpaid on the eggs and tomatoes, but I am otherwise excited to make chili over the weekend after stocking up on dried beans and popcorn that were on sale.
| Starbucks Coffee | 650 |
| Contact lenses | 1500 |
| Kitchen stuff | 490 |
| Soy sauce | 110 |
| Produce | 120 |
| Total: | 2870 ARS (USD 24.55) |
It has been nearly four months since my last purchase of contacts lenses, which only lasted so long because I only wore them for a couple hours every other day. While looking for a postcard in the tourist shops of the main shopping street, I stumble across a store with reasonably priced kitchen stuff. I would love to buy a wok or a medium size sauce pan, but settle for impulse purchases of a salt shaker, a plastic colander, and a liquid soap dispenser. I’m saving so much money on rent, that I don’t mind investing small amounts here and there to improve the environment.
| Post card | 60 |
| Atomo | 716 |
| Bakery | 90 |
| Lettuce | 50 |
| Total: | 916 ARS (USD 7.84) |
The old Atomo hasn’t updated their stash of spices in a while, so they are lacking the ones I really need (curry and cumin). Also, they seem to have figured out that the hummus was under priced (I swear it cost 70 pesos when I bought it last Sunday), and upped the price to 135. So, unfortunately, that will not become a regular purchase. I get a fancy hand soap refill at the Atomo so I can start using the soap dispenser and kick myself hard for wasting money. Over the various homes I’ve stayed, many have lacked hand soap at the kitchen, so I’ve sometimes kept my eyes open at the supermarkets for a soap+dispenser. I only ever saw the refill pouches, so when I saw the dispenser at the kitchen store, I snatch it up (because I’m realizing I don’t want to have to walk to the bathroom to wash my hands after doing any cleaning in the kitchen). However, lo and behold, the Atomo has a selection of soap+dispensers available for less than I spent on the dispenser. So, I basically flushed 199 pesos down the sink.
I swing by a local bakery to get some flat bread to enjoy the hummus and a collection of “masa” (little cookies). It was quite a bit of money just for lettuce, which tends to run 40 pesos per kilo. The tendency to just round up is a bit severe when you are buying just a little.
| Vea | 1070 |
| Vegetables (Onion, carrot, potato, tomato) | 180 |
| Carrefour Hypermarket | 1114 |
| Cucumber, bell pepper, cherry tomatoes | 50 |
| Total: | 2414 ARS (USD 20.65) |
Neither the Atomo nor the Vea had any curry spice, so I had to make an additional trip to the Carrefour Hypermarket as well. The vegetable stand I visited didn’t have any ginger either, so I needed that as well. I make chicken curry over the weekend. I do some more shopping to improve the house by buying a toilet tank drop-in (because without a definite cleaning schedule, god knows how often the toilet gets scrubbed), air freshening gel (for obvious reasons), and a floor rag. While I would love a cushy bath mat for when I step out of the shower, I’ll settle for something cheap (99 pesos) to stomp my wet feet on.
This is also the beginning of my quest to find garbage bags. It’s rather complicated to explain, but the trash liners for the kitchen bin are way too big (like double the size of the wastebasket) and it annoys me, so I grab a roll of them at the Vea (125 pesos). They turn out to be too big still. At the Carrefour, I grab another roll (139 pesos), which turn out to be too small.
| Carrefour Market | 550 |
| Total: | USD 4.70 |
After a futile attempt to go to the post office, I pass the Carrefour on the way back. I don’t need much, other than I am looking for a balsamic vinegar reduction. I swear I had bought one at this Carrefour back in May, but despite keeping my eyes open since last week, I can’t find any anywhere. I need olive oil too, but I pass because there is only Carrefour brand available and it is quite expensive too. What I do spend money on is paper towels (another lavish expense for the shared house at 64 pesos), a third attempt to buy the right garbage bags (129 pesos and still too small!), and a bunch of yogurt because I thought it was on sale, but I didn’t notice the club membership logo (and I have yet to actually sign up for the Mi Carrefour Tarjeta). I give up on the quest for the right size garbage bag for that damn waste bin. At least I have bags the right size for the bathrooms and stored in the bathrooms for when I discover way too late that someone threw out the garbage but didn’t replace the bag.
| International Postage | 270 |
| Atomo | 600 |
| Pomelo and salad veggies | 140 |
| Total: | 1010 ARS (USD 8.64) |
The line at the post office was more reasonable to send the post card. Argentina is apparently not processing international parcels, but they accepted the postcard, warning me that there are no guarantees as to when (or if) it will ever arrive. Boy, that was expensive. I could have bought two decent bottles of wine for that. I swing by an Atomo in the city center on a whim, and find good olive oil at a price I can accept (209 pesos). They don’t have reduced balsamic, so I give up on that and settle for a regular liquidy typo modeno.
Update (9/17): As if to confirm the theme of throwing money away, that bottle of olive oil turned out to be a bottle of balsamic vinegar. I was familiar with the brand/packaging so I didn’t look closely at the words on the label which said “Aceto” (Italian for vinegar) when I was expecting “Aceite” (Spanish for oil).
It was a rather expensive two weeks (11.60 a day) with lots of splurging on various high cost items, however that includes the entire month’s rent and since I am not drinking alcohol for the month of September, the next period should be pretty cheap (I’m guessing about 4 dollars a day). I understand it is not my responsibility to be buying cleaning supplies or whatnot for a house that I am sharing, but it is easier to drop 100 pesos here and 100 pesos there.
Running Total: 5753.89 USD (RMB 38866.4)
Daily Average: 17.49 USD (RMB 118.1)