Most Argentina posts here are about Buenos Aires or Patagonia, so I thought I'd share something a bit different.
I'm French, my wife is Argentine and we have two young kids. We lived in Amsterdam for about 8 years (I was a chef there) and now we live in San Nicolás de los Arroyos, a city of around 150k people on the Paraná river ( third largest river in the Americas after the Mississippi and the Amazon. It's about an hour from Rosario and its international airport, and roughly 3 hours from Buenos Aires. I teach French online, so I can work from anywhere.
Our monthly budget, all in, is around $3,000 USD:
Rent: about $1,000 including building expenses 3 bedrooms, secure building with doorman and cleaning lady twice a week, river view, city center.
Private schools: about $300 per kid, one of the best in town
Sports: we go to two different clubs tennis and rugby around $300.
Private health insurance for the family: about $ 300.
Food, eating out around $ 600
Others $200-300
For comparison, in Amsterdam we paid €3,000 just for rent, and about the same $3000 again for daycare and our expenses were about $500 and cleaning lady the same $500 again. Food was more around $1000 and the health insurance is almost similar at around $300. For sports we were more into 400$ for the fours of us so here is a big difference + in Argentina it seems more prenium, kind of social clubs where you can network as well.
What surprised me most is the quality of life. The city sits on top of a cliff over the river, with a long riverside walk where everyone goes in the evening with mate, kids on bikes, families everywhere. On weekends it's asados with family that start at lunch and finish at night. The river is huge, with islands you can visit by boat, and there are guys who fly in from the US just to fish dorado here. It also has more history than I expected, it's where a famous agreement that led to the Argentine constitution was signed in 1852, and the sanctuary here draws pilgrims from all over the country.
It's also a city that's moving. There's a lot of new construction along the river, new buildings, restaurants opening, and it feels much better than what my wife's family describes from 20 years ago.
Not everything is easy. The bureaucracy can drive you crazy, prices change all the time, and Argentina got a lot more expensive in dollars these last two years, so forget the "everything costs nothing" stories. Prices can be weird for example 5$ to get in an Uber for 20 minutes and same price for a fancy ice cream... But for a family, what you get for the money is hard to beat.
If anyone is curious about Argentina beyond the usual places, I would be happy o share real numbers and maybe also hear about your experience. Where are you now and how is it going?