Korean Job Discussion Forums

[fozziejr2]

So I am not there yet, but on facebook I saw some cosco in south korea link. It says a 24 pack of water is 37,000 won, kraft mac and cheese (one box) is 5,000 won or 5 bucks, oatmeal 7,000 won, soup 5,000 won, can of carrots 3,500. Is all food really this expensive? Please tell me no. Thanks to ALL that helped me on my 'hurting career' question.

[VanIslander]

5000 won for a home-delivered huge water jug

Kraft dinner is not eaten by locals hence the expense: plenty of cheap Korean options if you want quick noodles

Oatmeal is also a non-Korean food stuff so again the price.

A HUNDRED kinds of fresh soup served in restaurants for 5000 won in Korea, no need or interest here for canned

You can eat out in Korean restaurants every day, and have a different Korean dish each day of the month, and easily easily pay no more than an average supermarket shopping bill back home. Seriously, there is a great variety of Korean restaurants that sadly some posters around here haven't experienced, and the prices are surprisingly low. Forget paying 20 to 40 bucks for dinner. 5 to 10 bucks is the average, drinks inclusive.

Unless you run around the trendy cosmopolitan restaurants and ritzy or foreigner bars in Seoul...

[OiGirl]

Imported and/or foreign foods will be much more expensive at the stores. Korean staples are dirt cheap. Except for rice.

[Underwaterbob]

You can buy six 1.5 liter bottles of water for around 3000원.

If you want western food you pay for it. Korean food is generally dirt cheap, but recently prices have been going up a little.

I make a lot of "fusion" food. Basically pasta, curries and stir fries with Korean vegetables so it seems more like home but my ingredients are cheaper.

[Tarkaan]

[cheeriocookie]

The link you saw was pretty high priced. I've never heard of bottled water costing that much, and who needs canned goods or Kraft when you have cheap Korean restaurants everywhere you look?

[Scouse Mouse]

The link will be a costco delivery service. A guy with a costco card buys the stuff and ships it to you, and you pay a mark-up for the service and delivery. Get off your arse and go yourself and it will be cheaper

[Zaria32]

As others have noted, if you come over here and expect to eat western food, you're going to pay for it. But why on earth would you want to eat western food? One of the joys of living somewhere else is learning about, and eating, the local cuisine.

Meat in Korea IS expensive, but most of us eat "the Korean way," with lots of veggies and a little meat. This makes eating inexpensive.

[air76]

Meat is not expensive....only beef is expensive. Boneless chicken breasts are much much cheaper than at home, and you can buy pork tenderloin for about 1/4 of what it would cost you at home as well. In general the fat-free meat is undesired here so it isn't too expensive.

BUT...if you want REALLY cheap meat, here is a secret....go to Homeplus around 10:30pm (I would imagine that Lotte and E-Mart do the same) and a lot of the meat will be marked down to ridiculously low prices. A good deal of it will be available for 1/2 price, but some of it is even cheaper. We recently got a family pack of chicken breasts for 1900 won down from 9900, and routinely family packs of beef steaks are marked down to 4500...plus you can buy shrimp on their last sale date for around 2000 won as well. We have been going and filling up our freezer because the meat is so cheap at that time...for 20,000 won you can literally fill your freezer. Plus you can get perfectly good veggies at that time for much cheaper as well, albeit they aren't marked down quite as much as the meat is.

I didn't know about this meat markdown until about a month ago when one of the Korean teachers at the hagwon told us about it.....it's definitely worth changing your shopping habits for.

For the OP....most part food is VERY cheap in Korea....you can eat out for $5 or less at a variety of places. Money and the cost of goods will not be an issue in Korea, your financial life will be easier than it's ever been. Of course there will be a multitude of other challenges, but money will not be one of them. Anyone who tells you that they have money issues in Korea are either A. horribly god-awful with their money or B. trying to send a ridiculous percentage of their money home each month. If you plan on saving 1/2 of your salary and spending the other 1/2 you will live very very well and very very easily.

[bogey666]

of course that is because I have very specific requirements now that are protein related and that Korean food can't satisfy.

And though I find many Korean dishes to be "ok", they would not be my first choice given a choice.. so other than the lunch at school and whatever they might be serving at the cafeteria and/or if we go out to lunch... I am sticking to a chicken/tuna regimen.

there are absolutely delicious cans of chicken in soybean oil, but they're expensive.. like 2500 won.. and tuna isn't cheap either.. at about 1800/1900 won.

two pieces of boneless chicken breast at e-mart which constitutes one "dinner" run me 2500 won.

of course.. anything to drink.. god how i MISS diet coke/pepsi.. another 1200 won (say for a Coke Zero, syropy tasting though it may be)

the shit adds up.
some fruit is preposterous (grapes come to mind. SUPER expensive)

it is certainly NOT any cheaper (in fact probably more expensive) to buy things at the supermarket that I like here than at home.

I figure my monthly food bill (and that's counting free lunch at school) to probably average 10,000 won a day. Not expensive, but not cheap either.

[mrsquirrel]

[lohengrin]

I think it all depends where you come from and what you compare it to: food costs 7 to 10 times as much here as back in South Africa (everything else is hellishly expensive here compared to SA).

But I travelled through most of Europe a couple of years ago, and food cost more there (except in rural areas) than it does here. As to cheap Korean food: I've tried it, but I find it doesn't fill me up, I need more protein and don't like white rice. So I do shop around for Western type food.

[OiGirl]

Eggs and tofu?

[poet13]

I feed a family of three very well on about 100,000 a week.
-We go through about 14 bottles of fresh OJ a week.
-5 milk.
-A 500-600 gram pack of 20-25 count shrimp once a week.
-Steak once or twice a month.
-Baby back ribs a couple of times.
-Pork roast a couple of times.
-Dinner out once or twice a week.
-Boneless chicken breasts in this country are a total joy. I put them in a very strong marinade, fry them off, and chill them. We use them for protein in our almost daily greek salads.
-We go through about 6 cans and jars of olives a week and tons of fresh veggies.
-The (3) rabbits get all the carrots and veggie trimmings they can eat.
-We have a watermelon a week, plus whatever other fruit we fancy....except those ridiculous grapes and mangoes.
-Breakfasts are usually ham/sausage and eggs, pancakes, or french toast.
-Snacks during the week for us, and snacks for the night for my pregnant wife.
-I usually fill up on beer on friday or saturday night. (5-7 liters)

Imagine what all that would cost in the US or Canada.

I think food here is cheap.

[PeteJB]

I find even imported products here mostly comparable with what I'd pay back in Europe (UK) so I always consider myself to be getting a fair deal. And Korean food is good and cheap, meals and snacks alike.