## Shopping for Steem Dollars
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<sub> new blue jacket - isn't it nice? </sub> 
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The highlight of the day was to go shopping with my partner @willeusz and buy him a winter jacket. The days are getting colder, which we are not prepared for. Two years ago we didn't have any home - we were travelling, sleeping mostly in a tent, somewhere into the wild. As our backpacks couldn't hold much stuff and we were travelling in subtropical climate mostly, my boyfriend didn't have any jacket, only a warm poncho. 

Last year, when we settled in Rosario, we realized that without jackets in this climate it would be extremely hard to survive the winter, but… we couldn't afford them. These were the first days in a new place, we had absolutely nothing and therefore there were a lot of more urgent expenses, such as the purchase of basic things in the kitchen (cutlery, a few plates) or a mattress to sleep (for the first month we slept on the floor in sleeping bags).

Today we are in a completely different place. A large part of the apartment has been furnished, and the additional earnings I get when writing for steemit allow us to spend the money more effectively.

We went to falabella - this is a large, international net of stores that has been announcing they are moving out from Argentina due to the crisis and pandemic. Currently, they are at the stage of selling off their assortment, so they offer significant discounts. We were not the only ones who tried to catch these discounts - the queue of customers waiting to enter the store was huge. It was 400 meters long, stretching for a few blocks. Long wait but worth it.

After spending half the day on the street waiting for our turn, we finally made it. We quickly looked around at the shelves and… here it is! We found a beautiful jacket in a favorite blue colour. It was discounted from 8,000 pesos to 2,300 (which is from $ 56 to $ 16). Very low price, considering that in the nearby stores we did not find any interesting jacket for less than $ 80.

I paid for my purchases with the money I earned from Steemit. Thank you to all of you, especially steemcurator01 (intentionally not tagging - remember not to tag this profile in your posts. This makes the curators' job much more difficult) for making it happen. I really appreciate your support. It is thanks to you that I was able to give a gift to my partner. I am very grateful to you for that.

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## More and more empty
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<sub> more and more shops are to sale or for rent </sub>
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The sad part of this adventure - Falabella is moving out of Argentina and it is not the only store that has made a similar decision. The streets are more and more often filled with signboards announcing an offer to sell or rent premises, and more shops and small businesses go bankrupt every day. 

Before the global pandemic, Argentina had a severe financial crisis and the third highest inflation in the world, reaching almost 50% annually. Currently, with a pandemic, closed country borders and difficult movement between regions, the middle class is shrinking at an alarming rate and society is sliding towards poverty.

The only new stores that are created are verdulerias, greengrocers. I suppose it's the cheapest business you can open, so people are trying to make any money that way. Unfortunately, low start-up costs do not guarantee success. New stores are often created in not so smart way, one next to another. There are already four greengrocers within a hundred meters from my house. How many of them will bankrupt, if the competition is so great and they sell basically the same things?

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## Almost late
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<sub> almost late. In the elevator, on the way back home </sub>
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After shopping, I went to my other family to visit my partners. It was already quite late and I was tired of standing in line for half a day so my plan was to say hello, look into their beautiful eyes, exchange hugs and come back, but I felt so good with them that I stayed a little longer. The boys cooked a delicious chicken soup, we talked for a while and ... I realized that it was already 19.45. The curfew starts at eight, so I hurriedly gathered my things and ran home.

It would be okay if I spent the night in the second house, but I wanted to come back so I could do some more work on the steemit articles. Besides, I always try to distribute my time more or less evenly between all partners, and I did not see Will and Krzys all the time when I was suffering from covid (I wrote about it in previous posts, i.e. <a href="https://steemit.com/hive-172186/@papi.mati/the-diary-game-or-or-2-05-otro-dia-con-covid-next-day-with-covid"> here </a> )

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## Will was cooking
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<sub> Polish salad - nice surprise from my boyfriend </sub>
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@Willeusz was responsible for dinner today. He made rice, vegetarian lentil cutlets and a Polish tomato salad that I once told him about.
This salad reminds me of the flavors from my childhood when my grandmother was preparing it for me. At that time, she was using tomatoes from her own greenhouse in the garden - sweet, juicy, completely different in taste than the store ones. Or maybe my taste buds were just different back then?

Dinner was very tasty and brought me a lot of joy. My boyfriend <a href="https://steemit.com/hive-193637/@willeusz/martes-de-cocina-13-05-2021-ensalada-polaca-solo-3-ingredientes-rica-rapida-y-facil"> posted a steemit recipe, </a> so you can all read how to make a salad, and since it is a very simple and cheap meal that basically requires three ingredients, I recommend you all to test it at home.

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## Steemit activity
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<sub> newest post I published was about <a href="https://steemit.com/hive-184437/@papi.mati/salar-de-uyuni-basic-information"> my trip to Bolivia </a> </sub>
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I've been on Steemit for about a month, I get to know the portal better and better and many things that were mystery to me are now obvious. I still have a few things to learn though.

I am waiting for my <a href="https://steemit.com/hive-172186/@papi.mati/achievement-5-task-2-by-papi-mati-review-steemscan-com"> Achievement 5.2 </a> to be verified, and then I am going to continue the tutorial and write more Achievements. I am looking for ideal communities in which I could fully find myself and I am looking for an idea for myself.

Speaking about the ideas, today was a turning point for me. I think I know how I would like my activity on the portal to look like. 

I plan to write in several communities - at least three times a week in each:
- on <a href="https://steemit.com/trending/hive-148497"> steemfoods </a> I would like to publish recipes for meals, but most of all for all the semi-finished products I make (ketchup, jams, vinegars, mayonnaise etc.)
- I'm going to publish travel posts on <a href="https://steemit.com/trending/hive-184437">
Travelfeed </a> or <a href="https://steemit.com/trending/hive-177276"> 
Around the world. </a> I have yet to decide which of these two communities is better for me. For now, I am testing both
- Three times a week I would like to make posts with deeper thoughts, let's call it "philosophical": about life and values or about polyamory. I still have no idea what group to do this in. These posts are very important to me, I have written them so far in several communities, but in any of them users do not seem to be particularly interested in their content, and I expect some discussion. Maybe you would recommend me something? 
- I'm going to continue writing the Diary Game regularly, but here too I have a problem finding a suitable community. For now I'm staying in a Nursery but I have only one month more to figure out where to move. The closest to me is <a href="https://steemit.com/trending/hive-118052"> 
SteemArgentina </a> or <a href="https://steemit.com/trending/hive-193637">
SteemVenezuela, </a> but I would like to write in English as it is much easier for me. My Spanish is at a lower level. It has to be in the community which allows me to use English and where majority of the users will be able to read and understand it. I'd be grateful for any suggestions. 
- in addition, from time to time I would like to participate in the contests, regularly visit and comment on other people's entries, maybe in the future to become a Greeter.
- I had high hopes for the Steem Men's Club community. I had some ideas for writing something like "gentleman articles" with tips on caring for your own beard, how to bow a tie, how to choose shirts, and so on. However, it seems that Steem Men's Club is not working any more and the administrators have left their own project. Maybe in the future I will create a similar community myself and make sure it is managed in a better way, but before that happens, I need to learn a few more things. I don't want to go out into deep water too quickly so as not to drown.

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That would be all. I hope you liked my post. If you want to talk about anything related to the things I've described above, feel free to leave the comment. 

All the photos included in the post belongs to me. 
If you want to know me better, here is my <a href="https://steemit.com/hive-172186/@papi.mati/achievement-1-my-introduction-to-steemit-by-papi-mati"> achievement 1 </a> 

Thank you for reading,
@papi.mati