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Ok, i ve been reading this forums for a while now (couple of months) and of all the things I learned (lots) the one that surprised me the most was knowing prices on food and general cost of living in USA.
Example: i read excersise and fitness/diet forums to find out tips and recipes for a healthy lifestyle that im living, and, since i like to buy all food organic and natural, i ve been reading a lot about this issue (here and in the internet in general, and also watched the movie Food inc. for that). Anyway, i learned that FOOD is VERY unexpensive there. Like you can have a menu in a mc donalds for 5 dollars or less (maybe 1 dollar??) and maybe you can eat out in a restuarant for 10 or 20 dollars? I cant believe how unexpensive that is.
In Buenos Aires, the city i live in Argentina, eating out or buying food is so so much more expensive than that. Lets imagine this in dollars for a second:
*eating out in mc donalds costs 40 dollars
*eating a fancy dinner in a fancy restuarant cost 150-200 dollars
*movie tickets cost 30 dollars the cheapest one
*going to the supermarket and buying food for one person for only a week costs at least 400 dollars.
Also, this is in REAL dollars (i mean the prizes im gonna post are in dollars, if you buy them here you have to buy them in dollars) a 1 bedroom appartment in a nice neighbourhood (but not a fancy one) costs arounf 120.000 DOLLARS (it would be like 600.000 pesos or so). A 1 bedroom appartment in a very fancy neighbourhood could cost 300.000 dollars (wich is, well, a lot in pesos). How much does a house cost there?? I wont be shocked if i knew it cost much less than here.
Anyway, can an American tell me how the cost of living is there?
and how is it compared to european countries?
I have a feeling than USA is very cheap, then it comes BA (expensive) and Europe wich is more expensive. But maybe im wrong and Europe is unexpensive too, compared to the overpriced Buenos Aires (i dont put the whole Argentina as an example since Buenos Aires is much much expensive than the rest of Argentina. Like 100 times more expensive).
of course, if you translate the pesos cost to dollars cost, BA suddenly turns out to be very cheap.
But i was talking about the cost of living for a person living here and earning in pesos, not for a person that cames here with dollars and multiplies all their money by 4.
Those prices i posted are the prices that everything costs here.
If you wanna go to the supermarket and buy a pack of hamburgers or some chicken breast, you have to spent at least 30 dollars in each item. and i mean pesos, but you know what i mean.
Of course, BA "translated" to dollars is a cheap city, BA if you have to live with an average payment as a local, is very very expensive and much expensive that any city in USA, or at least that was my question.
How are the prices in USA compared to the ones i posted??
I think our poster means costs are very low relative to incomes. I get the same message the poster is getting from reading this forum, that the USA is an absolute bargin compared to say Western Europe , Japan or Australia, where incomes are quite similar to the USA.
Edit: Sorry to the poster I was typing this at the same time you submitted your reply
Last edited by danielsa1775; 09-22-2011 at 12:17 AM..
How much is rent in USA?
Im living in an ugly 1 bedroom tiny appartment in not the best neighbourhood and i pay $1200 a month (think dollars) that not includes the expenses, that are $400 a month. Some people even pays $1000 a month only for expenses.
Like i said, to buy a one bedroom middle sized appartment its about $100.000 dollars, in a decent neighbourhood. Of course it could be $40.000 in a not so decent neighbourhood and up to 1 millon and even more in Puerto Madero.
How are those prizes in USA?
How much does an appartment cost, lets say, in Chicago.
And in NY?
Yeah, but, then again, those comparison are translating pesos to dollars, wich makes BA cheap ONLY for foreingers. I mean the cost of living as if i earn 3000 pesos a month here and can, lets say, go to the movies only one time per month cause thats all i can do with that money, and if i go to New York, and earn 3000 dollars there, i can go to the movies maybe 3 or 4 times.
That same article says it:
For example, to keep the same standard of living that would require $3,000 in New York City you would need to make just about $1,291 (ARS $5,428) in Buenos Aires.
So, basically, to keep the standar of living i would have in new York earning 3000 dollars, i have to earn 5,500 pesos here!! Wich makes BA much more expensive than NY, for people that lives here.
Isnt that insane? And NY is the most expensive city in USA
Anyways, my point is, USA is very cheap.
How much does it cost to go dinner there?
Im thinking if i go there and earn 3000 dollars, i will live SO much better than if i i earn 3000 pesos here.
Here are average sale prices by number of bedrooms for May 2010:
Chicago studio average price = $117,000
Chicago 1 bedroom condo average price = $215,000
Chicago 2 bedroom condo average price = $300,000
Chicago 3 bedroom condo & townhouse average price = $489,000
Chicago 4+ bedroom condo & townhouse average price = $544,000
For Sale Pricing Statistics
Median New York, NY For Sale Price: $439,000
Studio For Sale Median Price: $355,000
1 Bedroom For Sale Median Price: $235,000
2 Bedroom For Sale Median Price: $340,000
3 Bedroom For Sale Median Price: $439,000
4 Bedroom For Sale Median Price: $538,000
Ok, i ve been reading this forums for a while now (couple of months) and of all the things I learned (lots) the one that surprised me the most was knowing prices on food and general cost of living in USA.
Example: i read excersise and fitness/diet forums to find out tips and recipes for a healthy lifestyle that im living, and, since i like to buy all food organic and natural, i ve been reading a lot about this issue (here and in the internet in general, and also watched the movie Food inc. for that). Anyway, i learned that FOOD is VERY unexpensive there. Like you can have a menu in a mc donalds for 5 dollars or less (maybe 1 dollar??) and maybe you can eat out in a restuarant for 10 or 20 dollars? I cant believe how unexpensive that is.
In Buenos Aires, the city i live in Argentina, eating out or buying food is so so much more expensive than that. Lets imagine this in dollars for a second:
*eating out in mc donalds costs 40 dollars
*eating a fancy dinner in a fancy restuarant cost 150-200 dollars
*movie tickets cost 30 dollars the cheapest one
*going to the supermarket and buying food for one person for only a week costs at least 400 dollars.
Let's look at the conversions...
40 pesos is around $9.50...so yeah, MUCH more expensive in Buenos Aires. In the U.S. more like $5 or $6.
150-200 pesos for a fancy restaurant in B.A., is about $35-50. Yep, that's alot of money in the U.S.
movies for 30 pesos...that's around $7 in the U.S. So, it sounds like argentina, your cinema is a lot cheaper.
Supermarkets at 400 pesos...that's around US$95. That's probably about the same.
I don't think many Americans eat in fancy restaurants unless they live in New York City. You could probably save a lot more money by just eating in normal restaurants. Your McDonalds is expensive too. But your supermarket prices are about the same.
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) the one that surprised me the most was knowing prices on food and general cost of living in USA.
Of course this prices are in pesos (so for you if you came here would be like that divided by 4.2, so much cheaper) but i wrote "imagine this in dollars" cause here if you earn, lets say, 3000 pesos a months (imagine 3000 dollars) then this is how much you have to spend if you wanna eat out/go to the cinema, etcétera. I wanted to put in perspective how much the cost of living is here for people that lives here and earns their money here. 
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