Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Latvietis]

I'm going to be living in Daejeon, which is generally understood to be cheaper than Seoul, Busan, and the other heavy hitters so to speak, but...
Generally, is it more affordable to grab a quick bite at local restaurants throughout the day, or is it cheaper to do all your own cooking? Any opinions?

[northway]

It's understood to be cheaper if you believe everything recruiters say...

[Underwaterbob]

It depends on what you will be eating out, and what you will be cooking.

The cheapest way to eat decently here would be cooking at home with ingredients from local markets. Just keep an eye on the news, sometimes a drought, foot and mouth disease or cabbage shortage will all of a sudden drive some food prices through the roof. If you want to save time, you could eat out at bunshik places (kimbap, bibimbap, ramyun, mandu) for nearly as cheap.

[young_clinton]

It's cheaper to buy groceries. I used to be asked by the teachers why I ate out all the time. You can supplement your meals with ramen which is very cheap.

[northway]

The problem with buying groceries from supermarkets is that things are quite often packaged for families, not individuals, making it kind of tough to shop for yourself without wasting food. Old school markets will actually count/weigh stuff out for you though.

[Joe Boxer]

[tardisrider]

Everyone is saying that it's cheaper to cook at home, and they're correct. That being said, it's easy to spend a lot of money on ingredients to cook at home (especially if you want certain imported products) and it's still pretty cheap to get a kimchi chiggae at a mom-n-pop bunshik if you're talking about a quick lunch during your break now and then.

[ktkates87]

cook at home! I saved so much by making the decision to stop eating out. It helps if you're a good cook or if you try to mix it up with new recipes so you dont get too bored.

I think the thing I learned in my first round of living in Korea was that the big supermarkets are not cheaper than the markets or mom and pop shops.... at least for groceries anyways. I buy nearly all my produce from the ladies outside of my building and often they have a better selection than homeplus at half the price.

If you've got a big freezer use it to your advantage.....when certain stuff is in season I buy lots and freeze it. I also make sure I buy huge quantities of chicken and fish from Costco. Buying it fresh from homeplus can make it alot more expensive! I dont really feel the urge to go out to eat when I've got so much food at home to get through

[Steelrails]

Less expensive is the choice that doesnt lead to a bunch of medical bills when youre 65 from a lifetime of bad diet and eating habits.

[Otherside]

While I agree that cooking is cheaper than eating out in theory, my experience has shown this isn't always the case, especially as a single individual.

1. As mentioned earlier, foods are packaged for families rather than singles. This means you're either paying a premium or wasting some food.

2. Waste. My biggest problem. This is especially the case with fresh produce, but also things like bread. Just yesterday I bought a bunch of bananas, (they usually come in bunches of about 10). Usually they only last about 4 days. So unless I'm eating 2-3 a day, there will be waste. I like to eat 1-2 a day.. so I'll probably throw away 30% of the bunch.

3. Opportunity cost. I hate cooking, so it's a chore. The time spent shopping, cooking and cleaning, is all wasted time for me... Heck I'd rather be at work. Obviously if there are 2 of you, this cost drops by half.

4. Poor cooking ability. I don't cook very well, the food I make is usually of a sub-par standard to what I can purchase cheaply (at least taste wise). To compensate, I find myself buying expensive Western ingredients (i.e. Cheese) This pushes up the prices of cooking at home.

In conclusion, it's not hard at all to find decent meals in the 5-6000won bracket. (even ~4000won is very much doable). For me, cooking at home doesn't provide that much of an incentive, that I'm willing to make the change. For someone who enjoys cooking it may different. I suppose once I get married, and the costs/opportunity costs, of eating at home go down, i'll make the move.

[Steelrails]

The key to cooking at home is menu planning and scheduling and sticking to it. Obviously that's hard when you have a social life, but it can be done.

Find dishes where the ingredients cross over and you only have to change the sauces, prep method, and perhaps the meat involved (if any). Example- Vegetarian curry with potatoes, carrots, and onions served on rice or ramen. Next day, with the leftover vegetables, get some chicken and one day roast the chicken with the vegetables on the side, off course you need a whole chicken (use gravy for sauce and minimal seasoning), so you take the leftovers from that meal and put them into a seasoned rice casserole with an "ethnic" flavor distinct from a more "homestyle chicken and rice dish. 3 meals, same ingredients, minimal cost, 3 distinct "tastes".

The worst you can do is blow a bunch of money on ingredients on impulse with no overall vision and end up throwing a bunch of food away.

[soomin]

Like everyone has said, it depends on what you're cooking at home and what you're eating out.

I like to make stews at home~ I especially like that for less than 2,000 won, I can buy a packet of liquid mix and add whatever veggies and such that I like~ I also like buying freeze-dried packets of veggies (1-2 servings per small bag, at around 1,500 won) and add that to water and doenjjang and make soup~ There are also jars of soup enhancers that I like to get that are around 4,000 won but last a while~ add them to water, throw in some random vegetables and tofu and kimchi or whatever you like, done.

I do like buying kimbap though~ it is way too expensive to buy all the ingredients for one (or even two) people unless you're planning on having kimbap all day, every day to eat through all the random little ingredients inside~ Eating a kimbap or two as a meal is also super cheap~ ^.^

My biggest problem is fruit... vegetables are sometimes sold as just one or two in a container, but choosing between the biggest bunch of bananas I've ever seen and knowing half of them are going to go in the trash, or not eating bananas at all... T.T

[Hugo85]

Fruits really have to be bought in markets, not supermarkets. I've been eating plums that I bought for 2000 won a basket... cheap enough.

[Troglodyte]

In the past, there were a few times that I kept a record of how much I spent on food to see if, over a month, it really was cheaper to cook at home. I found that if you plan things very carefully then it's possible. If you were cooking for a family then it would definitely be cheaper. As a single person though, I found that even at the best of times, the difference was not a big one.

If you eat at a small, local restaurant. The regular type that locals workers eat at, then the prices are low. You can recognize them immediately because they are very simple looking and they're usually filled with either office workers or manual laborers. They're also usually small. People go in to eat and then leave. You tend to get them around universities as well. If you're near a university though, you can usually pop in there for a very simple lunch for a few Won. At a local mom-n-pop place a big bowl of noodle soup with a few little side dishes (which always incldudes kimchi) you'll pay 5000 - 6000 Won. Dumplings (mandu) is also a nice choice. Sometimes 4000. Most of those places deliver as well - usually at no extra charge.

Most of the time, I'll eat some fruit for breakfast at home, soup at a restaurant, and when I get home make something simple like a quick light soup (usually NOT ramen) or sandwich. Soup is quite cheap and fast to make. If you're making a seaweed/fish soup with tofu and some veggies, you can pick up most of the ingredients at a market (if there's one nearby) and keep them for a few weeks.

I find that the time that it takes to go shopping, cook and clear aren't worth the little bit that I'd save from eating out. Even if you only spend an hour a day on food related activities (other than actually eating it) that's still 30 hours a month. How much is your time worth? Even if you saved 300,000 Won a month (which is liberal) that's only 10,000 Won per hour. To prepare your own food, you're basically making 10,000 Won per hour (at best). Would you work for 10,000 Won per hour? If you need the money, you're better off using the extra time to work a few more hours (which will pay a LOT more than 10,000 Won/hour).

If on the other hand you enjoy cooking, then by all means cook for yourself. In that case though, it's not a matter of saving money. It's a matter of doing something that you enjoy.

[sbp59]

If you just want to eat cheap, it's no problem. With all the kimbab nara's, fast food type places it's real quick and easy. Heck, if you lived off a diet of rice and ramyon it would cost you less than 5 bucks per day. But, lets face it, that food has almost no nutritional value, it's all carbs and sodium with very little protein.

Eating healthy meals is definitely more expensive. If you're going to buy fruits, vegetables and fresh meat, it's going to be much more expensive.
But, it's like that everywhere in this world.

Eating the high carbohydrate/simple sugar diet is cheap but it can destroy your health in the long run.

My advice is spend a few extra bucks and eat something better than Ramyon or Kimbab for dinner. Your body will thank you as you get older.