How I moved to Argentina with only 1200USD

There is also a video for this topic, feel free to check it out:

When I was 20 years old I decided to move to an entirely different country without knowing anybody there, without finishing University, to live by myself for the first time in my life, with only 1200USD to my name.

Today, I am going to be sharing a bit about how I moved to Argentina by myself when I was 20 years old with only 1200 USD and how that money helped me when it came to living arrangements, transportation, and possible leisure activities, and also how I went about finding a job.

The first thing that I want to talk about is that those 1200 USD represent the money that I had AFTER I had already purchased my plane ticket to come to Argentina, the plane ticket alone was a little over 800 USD and that was the biggest expense that I had when I moved here. Right after that, it was my living arrangements, because I actually had 1400 USD until I had to pay 200 USD for a deposit on a room that I rented before getting to the country and then 200 USD extra when I actually got to Argentina for the month of rent, so after paying all of that I actually had 1000 USD to cover for my expenses until I found a job.

At the moment I estimated that would last me for about 3 months in the worst-case scenario that it would take me that long to find a job, but it was the first time that I lived by myself and was responsible for buying my own groceries and move around the city, plus all of the migration paperwork, so you can guess that my estimate was a bit off.

So moving on to the specifics of what you might want to know:

Living arrangements: So the first thing that I will be talking about is living arrangements. I believe that the first thing I need to clarify about this is that there is a big difference between The Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, also known as Capital Federal, and the Province of Buenos Aires. I make that distinction because I had no idea what the difference was when I came here. The Province of Buenos Aires comprehends a much larger territory and I will only be referring to the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires as it is where I have lived for the entire 4 years that I have been in Argentina.

When I moved to Argentina I always thought about moving to the capital of the country because I honestly... never thought about moving anywhere else. That and also everyone I knew who lived in Argentina lived in the capital. So I moved there too.

Different neighborhoods: When it comes to the neighborhoods in the city and choosing where to live, it really depends on your personal needs and what you appreciate the most when it comes to your day-to-day life. When I first came to the city I was new to the country because I had never been here before, I started working as an English teacher in different companies which means that I had to go in and out of the apartment several times a day and it was also the first time that I lived by myself, which means that at the time I prioritized living in a neighborhood that felt safe, and having easy access to means of transportation.

If maybe you want something more residential your best choices for that would be something like Belgrano, Caballito, Villa Crespo, or Almagro, even though those neighborhoods have a wide variety of local shops and maybe even Recoleta? Although that would be the most expensive of those choices being one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city and having built a reputation for the very old and beautiful architecture as well as the touristic site to visit like the Recoleta Cemetery and the Recoleta Cultural Center.

If you are looking for something more active when it comes to nightlife and all that stuff for youngsters you would be better off at any of the variations of Palermo. And if you want something more historic maybe you would enjoy the experience of living in San Telmo where you might find lots of nice restaurants and random tango shows. Maybe.

Right now I work from home so my priorities have changed, even though access to transportation is relatively easy all over the capital, I no longer need to live right next to one of the subway stations like I used to do, but I definitely really appreciate having a supermarket 3 blocks away from my house, and a pharmacy 2 blocks away, so on and so forth. It's just part of the advantages of living in the capital, to have everything close to you.

So, let's recap. Renting an apartment can be expensive AF, whether that is a temporary rental or a long-term lease, and I was an unemployed 20-year-old immigrant who had just gotten to the country with barely 1000 dollars left in her pocket after paying for her first month of rent. So running the numbers, I estimated that I would have enough money to live three months off of my savings if it took me that long to find a job. Two more months of rent for 400 dollars total would be that out of the thousand dollars I have 600 dollars left for all expenses. Including my migration paperwork, food, transportation, and leisure. That would amount to 200 dollars for all expenses each month.

I think it's safe to say that when I first got to Argentina and started living by myself, I was not really aware of the cost of living or how to really manage my money, seeing as to how it was the first time in my life that I actually had to pay for all of my living expenses, even if I've paid for my personal expenses and leisure activities since I was like 16, I had always lived with my parents not having to worry about living expenses because they owned our house and would pay for food and services and transportation.

• Transportation: I honestly feel like owning a car in Buenos Aires is the most pointless expense that you could burden yourself with when transportation in this city is incredibly accessible. Even if you don't have a subway station right across the street distances are easily walkable and you'll find a subway station or bus stop that takes you where you want to go.
• Subway - Every place that has a subway station close by is more expensive to rent
• Buses - There is a wide variety of buses everywhere, if there is one place that you can't get to in the subway you will get there by connecting buses
• Train - You can get almost anywhere in the province of Buenos Aires if you take the train, which also has connections to the subway, which means that you can get to the train very easily.
• Finding a job in Argentina: Finding a job can be tricky and it depends on the type of job that you are looking for at that moment.
• Talk about my experience finding a job as a teacher
• Talk a little bit about my experience working in the concessionaire

For more tips on how to find a job, you can feel free to check out this video where I talk about all my tips and tricks on what I do to find a remote job online, so you can work from the comfort of your home.

All of these expenses like transportation, food, and leisure are very hard to track to be completely honest, but I can safely say that I did not manage my money properly so I was honestly not the best example to follow when it came to managing your budget. I severely underestimated how much I was spending and couple that with the emotional low that I hit due to migrating in the first place I was doing a lot of emotional eating as a way to cope with my feelings, which was honestly really expensive.

In reality, even though I arrived in Argentina on December 5th, 2017, and I was already teaching by January 2018 (meaning I found a job very fast), it was still the middle of summer which is historically low season for teaching. I was barely making enough to cover my rent by the time I had run out of my savings. I had actually rejected some classes because, knowing that teaching was a seasonal job, I took on a part-time job at a car concessionary but I ended up working in that place for nearly two months when they claimed that the bank had frozen their accounts and they would not be able to pay me. And then I actually struggled to get classes.

Taking all of this into account, I can confidently say that 1200usd is not enough for anyone to move to any country, regardless of how cheap or easy they tell you it might be. Especially if it's the first time that you decide to live by yourself. You'll find that we REALLY underestimate how expensive it is to pay for ourselves.

This was really though, just my personal experience. So feel free to share with me your own experience moving countries and how you like to prepare when you're traveling around. One thing that I have always told anyone who asks me if moving to Argentina is worth it or not, is that they can't really base their decisions on someone else's opinion.

For me, moving to Argentina is one of the best single decisions that I have made in my life. For many other people, it hasn't been, and they have decided to move out of the country looking for different opportunities. So really, it depends on your personal circumstances and the attitude that you have in the face of those circumstances. I think.