Cost of Living in Argentina for a Family

As many of you know, my wife and daughter and I are getting close to our move down to Mendoza, Argentina.  We are excited about it and planning constantly.  One of the things we are planning is an estimated monthly budget for our family in Mendoza.  The following is our estimated budget.  I am posting it here as a reference for folks not aware of the cost of living in Argentina, and also so the experienced expats out there can help us out.  Of course everyone is accustomed to their own standards, like eating out a lot (or not), having a maid (or not), having your own car (or just taking taxis), etc.  You can see from our budget we are planning for private school for our daughter, to own a mid size 4 passenger car, to have some budget for local travel every month, and to have a full time live in helper taking care of our cooking and cleaning. 

Estimated Monthly Family Budget in Mendoza (USD)
Rent (2 or 3 BR + Depend.)	$800.00
Electric / Water / Vonage	$100.00
Cable / Internet	$60.00
Cell Phones	$40.00
Child School & Activities	$200.00
FT Domestic worker	$450.00
Groceries	$150.00
Family Entertainment	$200.00
Pocket Money / Discretionary	$200.00
Local Travel / Major Expenses	$300.00
Savings	$0.00
Car – Gas / Insurance	$150.00
Health & life Insurance	$200.00
Other – in the USA expenses	$200.00
MINIMUM Mo. Budget	$3,050.00

So, what do you think?  Doable or not...too conservative...or are we missing something important?  Please help me vet out these numbers, not only will we appreciate it, but your fellow readers will appreciate it too, cost of living in Argentina is one of the more popular topics for this blog (in terms of the questions people send in).

New Domestic Flights in Argentina Coming Soon...

Those travelling Argentina's skies will soon have more choices. AirPampas is a new airline started by the former leader of Aerolineas Argentinas, Antonio Mata. AirPampas is expected to take a part of Aerolineas' 85% share of the domestic air travel market in Argentina. I expect it will be good to have a little more competition in this area.

When we were visiting Argentina last summer, we flew on Aerolineas Argentinas four times. Each time we had a pretty good experience. However, I've read on some message boards that many people have had numerous bad experiences with the airline. Can anyone share their experiences? I can't help but think that more competition will spur Aerolineas to make some changes in order to remain a major player in Argentina's domestic air travel market.

By the way, I found this article on the Welcome to Mendoza site. It's an english-language guide to those living in, doing business in and relocating to Mendoza. It's an invaluable source of information, and we refer to it often.