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Morning_Star
Joined: 21 Jan 2009
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 Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 3:59 pm Post subject: How much do things cost in Korea? |
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| For example how much is a fine dinner, clothing costs, etc. |
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ppcg4
Joined: 16 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 5:20 pm Post subject: |
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Depends what you mean by 'fine dinner'. I've had a great meal at a nice place for me and a girl and it cost me about 50,000 won. Not bad if you ask me. It was a Thai dish of lobster, and the other dish was a steak.
I haven't bought clothes here because quite frankly they are revolting. I did have to buy a pair of dress pants and shoes. The pants were about 40,000 and the shoes were about 30,000. They're decent quality. The pants were just black khakis. Nothing special.
A simple meal here is cheap though, and much healthier than at home. For example, a bowl of bibimbap is about 4,500 won, which is a real deal in my books. Also kimbap bought from a restaurant is $1 - $3, depending on what's inside. |
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No_hite_pls
Joined: 05 Mar 2007
Location: Don't hate me because I'm right
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| Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 5:46 pm Post subject: |
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| ppcg4 wrote: |
A simple meal here is cheap though, and much healthier than at home. |
I couldn't disagree more. I am wondering where you are eating at home? Mcdonald's or Pizza Hut everyday.
There are so may more choices back home. You can get whole grain bread, spaghetti, crackers at home try to get any of those things here.
In the west if you want to eat healthy, you have so many more choices.
Fresh vegetables are also hard to come by. Back in the states, I would eat fresh Asparagus, green beans, spinach, etc... You can find Spinach here but it sprayed with pesticides beyond belief.
In America you can get a nice subway sub for only three dollars. Good luck trying to get that here. Nothing is fortified in Korea either. Bring vitamins!
The cost of food is really going up especially for imports do to the low won. |
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Perceptioncheck
Joined: 13 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 6:24 pm Post subject: |
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| No_hite_pls wrote: |
| ppcg4 wrote: |
A simple meal here is cheap though, and much healthier than at home. |
I couldn't disagree more. I am wondering where you are eating at home? Mcdonald's or Pizza Hut everyday.
There are so may more choices back home. You can get whole grain bread, spaghetti, crackers at home try to get any of those things here.
In the west if you want to eat healthy, you have so many more choices.
Fresh vegetables are also hard to come by. Back in the states, I would eat fresh Asparagus, green beans, spinach, etc... You can find Spinach here but it sprayed with pesticides beyond belief.
In America you can get a nice subway sub for only three dollars. Good luck trying to get that here. Nothing is fortified in Korea either. Bring vitamins!
The cost of food is really going up especially for imports do to the low won. |
I guess it really depends where you come from. I'm from New Zealand where food prices are reediculous, so comparatively speaking I find it quite cheap in Korea.
I've got to disagree about the fresh vegetables. In my town, there's an outdoor market once a week with plenty of vegetables and if you're a real penny pincher you can save a few thousand won by shlepping around trying to find the best deal. As I tend towards laziness, I pick all my vegetables up from the supermarket and it's really not too expensive at all; I probably spend about $30-40 (that's including extras like cooking oil, coffee and meat) on my weekly shop and that's more than enough. But if you're set on eating western food, it's obviously going to be more expensive (and the same goes for eating out).
As for clothes, it really depends on what you're buying and where you're shopping. I picked up a pair of sneakers for 7000 won that, so far, have outlasted my $120 trainers from NZ.
The cost of a night out on the town can also vary wildly. If I'm drinking imported beer, I can easily spend $100 but if I'm drinking Korean draft you can cut that down figure to about $30. |
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DCJames
Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 7:25 pm Post subject: |
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| No_hite_pls wrote: |
| ppcg4 wrote: |
A simple meal here is cheap though, and much healthier than at home. |
I couldn't disagree more. I am wondering where you are eating at home? Mcdonald's or Pizza Hut everyday.
There are so may more choices back home. You can get whole grain bread, spaghetti, crackers at home try to get any of those things here.
In the west if you want to eat healthy, you have so many more choices.
Fresh vegetables are also hard to come by. Back in the states, I would eat fresh Asparagus, green beans, spinach, etc... You can find Spinach here but it sprayed with pesticides beyond belief.
In America you can get a nice subway sub for only three dollars. Good luck trying to get that here. Nothing is fortified in Korea either. Bring vitamins!
The cost of food is really going up especially for imports do to the low won. |
Totally agree.
Eating healthy is not cheap here.
If you want to buy fresh fruits and vegetables on a weekly basis you will pay up the ying-yang. Oranges/grapefruits go for 1000 -1500 won EACH. I've seen watermelons going for 12,000 won EACH.
The cheap food in Korea is cheap because they have little to no nutritional value. Often there's little to no meat in these cheap dishes.
Many people get sick in Korea simply because of the diet here. |
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Ukon
Joined: 29 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 8:54 pm Post subject: |
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| No_hite_pls wrote: |
| ppcg4 wrote: |
A simple meal here is cheap though, and much healthier than at home. |
I couldn't disagree more. I am wondering where you are eating at home? Mcdonald's or Pizza Hut everyday.
There are so may more choices back home. You can get whole grain bread, spaghetti, crackers at home try to get any of those things here.
In the west if you want to eat healthy, you have so many more choices.
Fresh vegetables are also hard to come by. Back in the states, I would eat fresh Asparagus, green beans, spinach, etc... You can find Spinach here but it sprayed with pesticides beyond belief.
In America you can get a nice subway sub for only three dollars. Good luck trying to get that here. Nothing is fortified in Korea either. Bring vitamins!
The cost of food is really going up especially for imports do to the low won. |
At you shopping at convience stores? I guess no one told you 7-11 doesn't sell vetagbles.
I can get all those things at any e-mart including organic vegtables....try outdoor markets too. As for whole grain bread, spaghetti, crackers...
*looks at cabinet stocked with those*
Yeah I had a real tough time finding those..it actually took 7 minutes in E-mart...damn them putting signs in korean....in America it took 3 minutes.
They have less vareity of vegtables, I'll give you that...You won't find 10 types of mushrooms like back home.
Foods on the expensive side tend to be imported ones....obviously.... |
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Rusty Shackleford
Joined: 08 May 2008
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| Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 9:00 pm Post subject: |
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Fruit and veg from the market is comparable to back in NZ. Fruit and veg in the supermarket can be hilariously expensive. I saw and 8000won apple in the Lotte boutique mart the other day. The same ones are 10,000 for a big bag from the guys in the trucks.
Overall food clothes etc are the same price but less choice and maybe lower quality. However services are waaaaaaaay cheaper than back home. For instance getting dinner delivered is cheap. Getting clothing mended costs like 5 bucks an hour or something. It cost 1500w to get my pants taken up. |
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DC in Suwon
Joined: 14 Dec 2008
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| Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 10:57 pm Post subject: |
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[quote]In America you can get a nice subway sub for only three dollars. Good luck trying to get that here. quote]
I prob eat at Subway once a year, but I guess you haven't heard the marketing for Subway....
"5...5....5 DOLLAR FOOTLOOOONGS!"
$5 is the cheapest sub at subway in the U.S. Maybe you've been out of the country a while, but yeah, none for $3. |
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MissMaggie
Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Location: Jeju
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| Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 11:17 pm Post subject: |
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[quote="DC in Suwon"]
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In America you can get a nice subway sub for only three dollars. Good luck trying to get that here. quote]
I prob eat at Subway once a year, but I guess you haven't heard the marketing for Subway....
"5...5....5 DOLLAR FOOTLOOOONGS!"
$5 is the cheapest sub at subway in the U.S. Maybe you've been out of the country a while, but yeah, none for $3. |
I do believe the radio ads say that the 6-inch subs are $3. There's a particularly annoying one lately... "If a 6-inch sub is $3, why is a 12-inch sub only $5, which is less than two 6-inches? Answer? $3 is really cheap!" |
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English Matt
Joined: 12 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 7:10 am Post subject: |
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| Ukon wrote: |
| No_hite_pls wrote: |
| ppcg4 wrote: |
A simple meal here is cheap though, and much healthier than at home. |
I couldn't disagree more. I am wondering where you are eating at home? Mcdonald's or Pizza Hut everyday.
There are so may more choices back home. You can get whole grain bread, spaghetti, crackers at home try to get any of those things here.
In the west if you want to eat healthy, you have so many more choices.
Fresh vegetables are also hard to come by. Back in the states, I would eat fresh Asparagus, green beans, spinach, etc... You can find Spinach here but it sprayed with pesticides beyond belief.
In America you can get a nice subway sub for only three dollars. Good luck trying to get that here. Nothing is fortified in Korea either. Bring vitamins!
The cost of food is really going up especially for imports do to the low won. |
At you shopping at convience stores? I guess no one told you 7-11 doesn't sell vetagbles.
I can get all those things at any e-mart including organic vegtables....try outdoor markets too. As for whole grain bread, spaghetti, crackers...
*looks at cabinet stocked with those*
Yeah I had a real tough time finding those..it actually took 7 minutes in E-mart...damn them putting signs in korean....in America it took 3 minutes.
They have less vareity of vegtables, I'll give you that...You won't find 10 types of mushrooms like back home.
Foods on the expensive side tend to be imported ones....obviously.... |
Ukon, you live in Seoul so you will obviously find it easier to get ahold of things like wholegrain bread, wholegrain spaghetti, wholegrain rice, wholegrain crackers, etc, and a wider selection of vegetables and food stuffs generally. I can get ahold of some of those types of food from Bundang (a wealthy suburb area of Seoul), but good luck trying to find them in Suwon (where I live). I have found wholegrain bread locally but only from Tous Les Jour and there are not many of those near me. It is also almost impossible for me to find good cheese and there is a real lack of choice when it comes to veg in my local area.
It is definitely more expensive to eat healthily here and generally if you want to do so you will have to cook for yourself. It is very easy (and relatively inexpensive) to eat out most of the time...however if you do so you will be eating a diet high in fat, salt and sugar (over time you will put on weight and begin to feel like crap). I now cook at home most of the time, and I'm lucky that my girlfriend lives in Bundang so I get to shop there sometimes. I normally spend about 50,000 - 70,000 won a week on food at the supermarket and I'll eat out at least once a week which will cost me another 10,000 - 20,000 won. So in my most expensive weeks I normally spend about the same on food as I would have done in the UK.
As regards decent clothing, I agree with ppcg4, most of the clothes here are awful. However, clothes are one of my biggest weaknesses so I end up shelling out a lot of cash on western brands at department stores and Apgujeong-dong in Seoul. In such places you can find good jeans and shirts, t-shirts and everything else you could want....to give you an idea, it costs me 100,000 - 120,000 won for a shirt, 100,000 - 150,000 for jeans and sneakers, and 30,000 - 60,000 won for t-shirts. In Itaewon you can find knock-off designer clothes but they are usually not good quality. Obviously I don't shop for clothes often (because of the cost). If you don't want to be shelling out a lot of money (and are not willing to make do with Korean clothes or designer knock-offs) then make sure you bring a full wardrobe with you.
Haircuts....if you are white, don't have straight hair, and like to have your hair styled rather than just cut very short, then you will have to pay around 30,000 - 50,000 for a good hairdresser who knows what he is doing when it comes to cutting caucasian hair. Coming from the UK, this is actually cheap for me. |
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Ilsanman
Joined: 15 Aug 2003
Location: Bucheon, Korea
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| Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 7:45 am Post subject: |
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I agree that eating healthy here is really hard. Some good vegetables exist, but they're overpriced. There are a lot of vegetables that are also priced their weight in gold or unavailable. For example, I have never seen green beans ever.
Eating in a restaurant is worse. They use tons of bean sprouts and onions (the cheapest vegetables) and oversalt and overgrease the food. Sesame oil may taste good, but it's also carcinogenic.
Eating the recommended amount of fruit per day could run you up to 5,000 a day, depending on season. |
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bobbybigfoot
Joined: 05 May 2007
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 8:02 am Post subject: |
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You gotta be smart when you shop. Especially now as prices have shot up dramatically. I buy what is cheap and forego the rest.
* bag of spinach - 1000 Won (Korean kind)
* bag of onions - 3600 won (was 2000 in the summer)
* Big head of cabbage - 2600 Won
* Superlong green onions - 1500 Won
* I buy mushrooms slightly old, 2-1 deals - 750 won (then I wash em, use em, and freeze the rest)
* I try and get my potatoes and sweet potatoes on sale
* 20Kg white rice = 37,000 Won on sale in the summer. (ashame Koreans prefer white rice to brown)
* 30 eggs for 5000 Won
* 2 squid for 3000 Won (wash em and freeze em).
If you live alone, as most of us do, you gotta use your freezer, otherwise you'll let food go to waste. Stock up on sale items and you'll be ok. It's quite easy to have a food budget of 200,000 a month providing you eat at home. Minimum needed, per month, is 120,000 but you really gotta be crafty in the kitchen and bargain hunt for your groceries. |
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