Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ross_Plus]

Greetings all,

I am looking to move out to South Korea next year and was wondering what everyone's living costs are and how much people manage to save per month.

Are living expenses that much higher in Seoul compared to other areas?

Cheers

[RJjr]

Since your airfare, apartment, and home furnishings are supplied by your employer and transportation is cheap, it's hard not to save money.

If you only wear the clothing you pack, cook most of your own food (with rice and ramen being staple foods), stay out of bars, and don't get screwed over on your pay, you're looking at saving over 20,000,000 won. That's even if you drink 100-150 ounces of beer per week (if it's bought at a grocer, not a bar), have seven or eight commercial dates along the way, spend a hefty sum in PC cafes, and only pay around half the expenses on non-commercial dates.

If you go to bars, go to cathouses every weekend, buy a lot of clothing, pamper princess girlfriends, and waste a lot of money in general, you'll save less.

[newton kabiddles]

[jjk]

The amount you can save will really depend on a-salary, and b-lifestyle choices.

Food can be cheap, depending on what you eat. My wife and eat at home during the week, and spend about 70000won a week at the supermarket for the two of us. We buy a mix of imported and local products. Fruit and vegetables are from the market most of the time. Buying meat/fish/sushi after 8 or 9pm at the supermarket means it is greatly marked down.

Rice can be expensive, but we now but it from a 'foreign' store, and a 10kg bag of Thai rice is 20000won.

Utilities depend on you of course. We run the air conditioning when it is needed, same with heat in winter, but try not to waste power or gas to reduce our carbon footprint. We use either Skype or a phonecard to call overseas, and have two ceelphones on a plan (9700 a month each with LG). We have a 'basic' Skylife (satellite TV) package to get CNN, BBC and a few other english channels.

With internet, all of our utilities run to about 130000 a month, though the a/c will push this up in summer. Our school pays our gas bill, so we don't worry about that.

If you take buses and the subway instead of a taxi, especially in Seoul, you will save a lot.

You should be able to save about 1.6-18 a month without depriving yourself of a good time a few times a month and some travel.

[DCJames]

[aka Dave]

12,000 to 15,000 dollars a year for me. I buy a new computer every two years (or at least a new video card). I buy dvds, computer games, pay for internet. I eat cheaply (vegetables and basic proteins), go to a cheap gym, I don't travel much. Beer? Yeah, but usually at home. I do spend a lot of air conditioning/energy in the summer, probably one of my biggest expenses.

I'm from So Cal, I can't handle the hot/humid thing. I also had a really, really expensive Tokyo visa run a few months back. But I'm teaching intensive courses at my Uni this semester, as well as a writing workshop, and helping my boss on her linguistics research project, all of which I'm getting paid for. So after like 4 months at my current job I sent home 4.5k or so, with nearly 2k still in the bank. And I should do better over the next 2 months. I'm on a year salary now, but teaching at a Uni isn't much more remunerative than a good hagwon, less so sometimes.


on edit: if you're motivated to do private lessons, you can make a ton of money. It's illegal (for me at least), and personally I couldn't be bothered, as I have other things going on, but it really is where the money's at.

[Thunndarr]

[jvalmer]

Close to $1000 can be saved with almost no effort. More if you try.

[machellebelle]

This is only my third month here, but I'm going to estimate that I'll be saving about $1,000/month on a basic Hagwon salary. Next month will be the exception, as I'm going to Japan for the holiday, but I've traveled in Korea (East Coast and Busan a few times) not to mention I do go out on weekends.
My cell phone and utilities were about $50 each month. I live in Cheongdam, by myself, and I buy my groceries in very small quantities because I don't eat the fresh foods quickly enough, so I'll guess that I probably spend about $150/month on food? Mmmm kimbap nara!

[livinseoul]

[UberJRI]

[livinseoul]

Even at that. If the OP has a PS job he/she is gonna have to live like a nun. Or maybe none. None today, none tomorrow and none the next .

[DCJames]