“Travel” Weeks 68-70
It was a “bipolar” month. The first two weeks were spent in a stupor of eating rich food, enjoying alcohol, and manually processing linguistic data. The second two weeks were the start of a new diet with the onset of Lent and long days of coding.
Days 469-496:
| Snacks at Vea | 196 |
| Rent | 10,000 |
| Total: | 10,196 ARS (USD 76.97) |
To start off, the supermarket still had Christmas sweets on the liquidation shelves, and I really enjoyed the slightly hard nougats and a pound of peanuts.
I went a little crazy with the shopping. I was still on my morning muesli kick despite the expense of running through granola and nut mixes so quickly. Beginning to ramp up for the holiday week, I stocked up on whisky and wine. I screwed up a bit with the purchases. Despite priding myself on having a keen memory for which shop has the best price for a particular class of items, I overpaid 20 or 30 pesos on the whisky & milk I picked up at the Atomo, when I should have just bought everything at the Carrefour.
| Coffee & Nut/Dried Fruit Mix | 940 |
| Whisky & Milk | 528 |
| Salad & Fruit | 150 |
| Wine (5 Liter Jug) | 380 |
| Lomoro Gelato (1/2 kilo) | 280 |
| Total: | 2278 ARS (USD 17.20) |
| Produce & fresh noodles @ Vea | 290 ARS |
| Total: | USD 2.19 |
| Chorizo | 235 |
| Helado (1/4 kilo @ Gridos) | 150 |
| Total: | 385 ARS (USD 2.91) |
I wanted to make a big pot of “Italian sausage” spaghetti sauce, but the price of chorizo at the Vea was way too high, so I was able to swing by the butcher shop in the morning for just right amount. In the afternoon, I only bought a 1/4 kilo of gelato because that was literally all I could afford, having spent almost every peso in my pocket.
| Carrefour | 2000 |
| Veggies and Eggs | 280 |
| Total: | 2280 ARS (USD 16.31) |
After getting some money through Western Union at a slightly better rate (139.75), I was able to do some shopping at the Carrefour. Not content to eat leftover spaghetti all week, I picked up ingredients to make pizza, steak fajitas, and chocolate cake. As there were bags of Starbucks coffee on the liquidation shelf for a 20% discount, I grabbed a bag despite having a bought a pound of beans the previous week. I also bought myself a decent-sized, good quality plastic cup. When I moved in to the house, I laid claim to the largest drinking vessel available (by always keeping it with me). However, the ancient plastic was starting to crack and eventually left pools of water on my desk.
| Vea | 840 |
| Zipper Repair | 480 |
| Total: | 1320 ARS (USD 9.45) |
I wasn’t going to eat fajitas or pizza without some beer to accompany it and plenty of junk food–chocolate covered peanuts, medialunas, and pepas (the little cookies with a bit a jam). I can’t believe it has been over two years since I lived in China, and longer than that since I had purchased new clothes. My pants are pretty much all in pretty sorry states, but I had managed to avoid wearing one pair of shorts since I arrived in Argentina because I discovered that the zipper was broken. Between my house and the supermarket is a shoe repair shop that also advertises fixing zippers on pants and jackets, so after putting it off for nearly six months, I finally bought myself a birthday present and handed the shorts over. Now, if I can just find a tailor to patch up my jeans and the other pair of shorts.
| Powdered sugar | 87 |
| Omas Bakery | 430 |
| Total: | 517 ARS (USD 3.70) |
So, I decided that I needed powdered sugar to make a simple butter frosting for my birthday cake and I bought treats at the German bakery for both Chinese New Years Eve and pastries for my birthday breakfast.
| Birthday Lunch | 650 |
| Craft Beer | 700 |
| Total: | 1350 ARS (USD 9.66) |
After a long agonizing decision of which restaurant was offering the tastiest sounding lunch option, I went to one that included a glass of wine and had a matambre a la pizza for the main. Matambre is a thin cut of meat from the underbelly and is the ultimate carb-free pizza crust. That makes three consecutive days of eating “pizza,” except day one was (leftover) fajita pizza and day two was a calzone/giant baked dumpling. Despite some ominous clouds and scattered showers, I was able to visit the bar street again in the evening for a couple drinks at a bar which served full liters in giant glass mugs.
| Brunch | 600 |
| Mailho Helado (1/4 kilo) | 300 |
| Jack House Cheeseburger | 890 |
| Total: | 1790 ARS (USD 12.81) |
The birthday weekend truly kicked off with a brunch at a very popular cafe which have been regularly passing by since June. I had to sit outside (a good thing) in the blazing sun (a bad thing) and it was insanely expensive since I went full out on a proper brunch. I, obviously, skipped lunch but had some fancy gelato (“Indian” chocolate and “Turkish” chocolate flavors) for a mid-afternoon meal. One was a dark chocolate with figs and nuts, the other a white chocolate with spices and nuts. It’s crazy to drop 300 pesos on a small container of ice cream, when I could literally walk around the corner, get twice the volume and pocket 50 pesos in change. But there is a remarkable difference in quality. In the evening, I crossed another eatery off the bucket list, scratching the itch for a burger and fries at a distinctly American style brew pub where I spent 30 minutes before hand studying the menu of options for meat, meat, or more meat and settling on a fairly traditional double patty BBQ, bacon cheeseburger topped with onion rings that I washed down with a pint of IPA. Also, insanely expensive, but worth it. Since I went at an American dining hour, I was the only patron there to enjoy the vintage Star Wars posters and rock music. Strangely, I attempted to tip, but the waiter/cashier gave it back to me. Apart from the past couple days, I have not been patronizing any dining establishments, but I have noticed that the waiters just accept my money without counting it to see if it is right.
| Dozen Empanadas | 480 ARS |
| Total: | USD 3.43 |
It’s so much cheaper to make empanadas by hand, but they taste so much better when they come from the shop. The crusts are thinner and crispier, and the fillings just burst with flavor and hot grease.
| Carrefour | 890 ARS |
| Total: | USD 6.37 |
I ended up buying at consuming a large bag of potato chips and a bag of cookies to accompany some salami, cheese, and wine as my dinner on Monday.
| Vino y carne | 1266 |
| Watermelon & Bell peppers | 180 |
| Firewood | 90 |
| Total: | 1536 ARS (USD 10.99) |
For the final day of my insane eating week, I planned to make a barbecue. I had invited the guys who lived in the house, but it ended up being just me, which was fine since I had purchased just about the right amount for one gluttonous person. It’s called Fat Tuesday for a reason. I picked up a kilo of ribs and a half kilo of chorizo. I had no intention of bothering with a salad, corn, or any roasted vegetables, but when I bought some watermelon, I picked up a green and red bell pepper on a whim. Those went on the grill, stuffed with cheese, salami, onion, etc. I managed to eat everything except two chorizo that I wrapped up and threw in the freezer.
| Fruit | 550 ARS |
| Total: | USD 3.94 |
It should come as no surprise that I managed to add about 6 kilos to the scale from my low at the end of January. I started Lent with a 40-hour fast, breaking it with the remainder of the watermelon on Thursday. A day later, I stocked up on fruit, buying 2kg bags of peaches, bananas, and grapes, plus another 3kg+ section of watermelon to last me the weekend and then some.
| Salad | 70 |
| Total: | USD 0.50 |
I added simple salads of lettuce, cherry tomato, cucumber, and green bell pepper (which must be in season since it has gotten so cheap lately) to my diet.
| Fruit and yogurt from Vea | 437 ARS |
| Total: | USD 3.12 |
I started adding carrots to my salads, more watermelon (at 25 pesos per kilo!), reasonably priced apples and two kinds of yogurt to make peach-banana smoothies.
| Contact solution | 800 |
| Nescafe Gold | 428 |
| Salad | 90 |
| Total: | 1318 ARS (USD 9.43) |
I made a special trip to the Carrefour to see if I could grab more coffee on sale before it sold out. I decided to try Nescafe since it is about a dollar less than Starbucks and a different flavor than the half full package of coffee I was still drink. I got even fancier in my salad with some arugula.
| Produce | 360 |
| Watermelon | 60 |
| Total: | 420 ARS (USD 3.00) |
I picked up some green onion and celery to make a soup stock over the weekend, and a dozen eggs to start enjoying tomato egg drop soup. On my afternoon walk, I decided I didn’t have enough fruit and bought more watermelon. I also started putting lentils on my salads.
| Fruit and yogurt @ Vea | 562 ARS |
| Total: | USD 4.02 |
Apples, bananas, and my timing was good to stock up on yogurt cups at a discount. The main dairy brand tends to go on sale (buy one, get one half off) not quite every other week, but pretty regularly. As a treat, I also picked up a bottle of soda water and some packs of sugar free drink mix. In 11 days, I managed to lose all of the weight I had packed on since the start of the month. Too bad it isn’t as easy to make up the difference with the budget.
Despite being the shortest month of the year and having one of the best exchange rates to date, this was the most expensive month since I moved into the shared house, costing me an even $196.
Running Total: 6,710.08 USD (RMB 43,594)
Daily Average: 13.53 USD (RMB 87.9)