Cost of living in Uruguay is higher than in Argentina at the moment, mostly due to rent being close to twice as much. I pay U$ 700 in rent+expenses and it's no

Cost of living in Uruguay is higher than in Argentina at the moment, mostly due to rent being close to twice as much. I pay U$ 700 in rent+expenses and it's not uncommon in a "good" neighbourhood (I was paying close to U$ 1000 before, including very high apartment expenses, in one of the better neighbourhoods called Punta Carretas, think Palermo, before I had to downsize). If you own your own home, living becomes much cheaper, but I don't :( and they're incredibly expensive right now (the housing bubble never burst here, though it has slowed down). Food is more expensive here as well, but not as much as housing. I pay U$ 700 for food and going out for 2 people (We do eat takeaway and go out a lot, so it's definitely not normal. But I get paid U$ 300 in meal vouchers which suck). So I have U$ 400 for the rest (including gas, insurance, medicine, any extra expenses...), so I basically can't save (I could if I cut down on the eating and going out part). "Real" salaries are higher I think, so it makes up for a bit of the difference between Uruguay and Argentina. But still, I'll never be able to afford a house unless the housing bubble bursts or I start working abroad. I'm including social security and healthcare in the "taxes" part (that's why I said take home pay could be 60%), I get deducted 17.5% of my nominal salary for social security, 20% for taxes, and 5% for healthcare. To make it worse, I actually get paid a part of the remainder in "meal vouchers" called Tickets Alimentación. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meal_voucher http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meal_voucher