Posted by Lisa La Nasa
July 1st, 2009 
3 Comments
Feria Vegetables
There’s been recent talk in the Uruguay blog community about cost of food and I agree wholeheartedly with everything that has been said. Go to the many the ferias around town for great, inexpensive produce, fish, eggs and cheese. I might add, go to any of the ferias outside of Pocitos, Punta Carretas or other “upscale areas” of Montevideo for even cheaper prices.
I found what I believe to be the ultimate frugal feria score: approx 2 kilos of Soup starter vegetables for just over $1 US.
It included:
1 leek
1 large potato
1 large sweet potato
2 small celery stalks
2 small zuchinni
1 onion
1/4 head of cabbage
1/4 squash
1 small turnip
1/2 ear of corn
large bunch of parsley
2 carrots
1 red pepper
All the produce was in great condition. I expected “soup-grade” vegetables and was pleasantly surprised. The turnip was the only exception. It was pretty small with wilty greens, but we used it anyway.
You can imagine what we had for dinner: An amazing fresh vegetable soup full of all the wonderful produce from the feria this morning. Along with a fresh loaf of crusty bread from the bakery down the street for another $26 pesos, you wouldn’t know we had only spent $2 US on dinner that will last us a few days.
You don’t know how thrilled I am to find your blog! My family (husband, 4 year old son and 10 month old daughter) may be moving to Montevideo in a few months and I am totally overwhelmed! I was wondering if I’m insane thinking I can move with my kids, but I see you are making it work. So far what I have read on your blog is so helpful and entertaining. Is there a way I can send you an e-mail? What I really need to find now are some specifics on price for utilities, cell phone, internet etc. I’ve found lots of useful info on the Sociedad Southron but can’t find the specifics that I need. Thanks!
Yeah, the food is definitely a lot less expensive here than in the US. We calculated from our blog (What U$S 15.75 Will Buy You) That it would cost between U$S 40-50 to purchase everything in Albertsons in San Diego
Inga, Thanks for the note! You CAN move abroad with kids. You’d be surprised how many of us there are here, with kids of varying ages. We can get into more specifics, but here are the basics for our little house. Electricity is expensive. It was U$ 3113 last month ($130 USD. Mostly in heating right now). Internet for us is U$ 1402 ($58.41 USD) for the 4 MB service but will be at about $100 USD/month after the four month promo that we got. Most people could probably get by with the get the 2 MB service for approx $50 month (with the 4 month at approx $25 USD promo). We don’t have cell phones yet but they seem to be on par with the prices in the US. It seems like a lot of people also just use prepay cell service. Hope this helps a bit!