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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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cobright
Joined: 10 Oct 2008
Location: Rochester Hills, MI
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 Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 6:50 pm Post subject: Cheap Living in RoK? |
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Any tips or advise on how to live as frugal as possible? Where is it smart to spend a little money? Best entertainment values? Things like that.
I'm going to be in country around the end of the month in Masan. I plan of living a boring life while there but ya gotta fill the time somehow right? I'm not a terribly social person to begin with so clubbing and such is out. I would like to learn the language, are classes in Korean expensive?
Any pointers would be a great help, and maybe useful to others as well. |
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Thunndarr
Joined: 30 Sep 2003
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| Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 7:09 pm Post subject: Re: Cheap Living in RoK? |
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| cobright wrote: |
Any tips or advise on how to live as frugal as possible? Where is it smart to spend a little money? Best entertainment values? Things like that.
I'm going to be in country around the end of the month in Masan. I plan of living a boring life while there but ya gotta fill the time somehow right? I'm not a terribly social person to begin with so clubbing and such is out. I would like to learn the language, are classes in Korean expensive?
Any pointers would be a great help, and maybe useful to others as well. |
Get a cheap rice cooker, eat lots of rice.
Get a cheap computer, download movies and tv shows for free.
Drink soju (or my personal white trash cocktail of choice, soju Coke Zero)
Pick up a cheap/free hobby. (Hiking, for example.)
If you are into reading, you can download e-books for free from torrent sites.
Eat out as little as you handle.
If you must go out, skip the western chain restaurants.
Most importantly, however, is not to deprive yourself for so long that you have the inevitable binge weekend. Living a frugal but sustainable lifestyle is better than living like a monk for 2 weeks and then going on a spending spree for 2 days. |
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VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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| Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 8:15 pm Post subject: Re: Cheap Living in RoK? |
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| Thunndarr wrote: |
| Get a cheap rice cooker, eat lots of rice. |
Sorry. I think THE OPPOSITE! Eat Korean food in Korean restaurants three or four times a week (half their dishes have rice). This may sound like an odd way to live frugally but IT IS !!! Try a different Korean dish every time you go out and it'll take you six months to sample the huge variety of Korean food restaurants out there! at 4000-7000 won the average price of a full meal! Seriously, it gets you out of your apartment, so it's got entertainment value, it is very cheap, and there's quite a variety.
Cook at home the WESTERN foods you love! Buy that "expensive" beef steak (5000-7000 won a decent size for your meal) and imported canned foods because the fact is it's so much cheaper to do that than to splurge once or twice a month in the overpriced western style restaurants. You could easily drop 20,000-50,000 on a night western style... dang hard to do that korean style without a singing room and/or prostitutes.
| Quote: |
| Get a cheap computer, download movies and tv shows for free. |
Great suggestion. Though a DVD player sets you back only 80,000 won and easily attainable pirated DVDs only 1000-2000 won each.... still, download is the way to go. Invest in a 24" high quality 1000+ dpi monitor to get theatre like quality picture and you'll never be tempted to splurge on theatre entrance tickets ever again!!
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| Drink soju (or my personal white trash cocktail of choice, soju Coke Zero) |
Drink any Korean alcohol and it'll be cheap. In fact, imported whiskey and the like cost less here than back home because here the taxes on them aren't so high. I like rum so I buy a 12,000 won bottle that lasts me all winter rather than splurge on a foreigner bar and drop twice that in a night or two!
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| Pick up a cheap/free hobby. (Hiking, for example.) |
Hiking, biking, even travelling by intercity bus to nearby big city Busan or beautiful east coast Geoje Island is dirt cheap from Masan. Just return by the evening or stay in a cheap love motel for 15,000-25,000 won a night, even less if you use the word 'minbak' at bus stations and watch ajumma come out of the woodwork to give you even cheaper accommodation (this is a great cheap weekend at the beach town getway idea).
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| If you are into reading, you can download e-books for free from torrent sites. |
Ugh. I choose to buy used books online from Seoul's whatthebook? store, with free delivery, it's about 4000-7000 won a book with half that back in returns. Though if you really wanna be frugal, surfing the 'net might be your best bet for reading.
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| Eat out as little as you handle. |
Again, eat out as much as possible as long as it's just Korean food restaurants. It'll really stifle the impulse to slurge on Western eatouts.
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| Most importantly, however, is not to deprive yourself for so long that you have the inevitable binge weekend. Living a frugal but sustainable lifestyle is better than living like a monk for 2 weeks and then going on a spending spree for 2 days. |
We agree!!!!!!!!!! In fact, my advice in this thread is predicated on a sustainable frugal lifestyle. I've done it for years, and having half one's paycheque at the end of the month without even trying is easy if one follows some basic guidelines which minimize the impulse for a spending spree.
Good luck whatever. |
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Knucklehead
Joined: 06 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 8:55 pm Post subject: |
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Give yourself a budget, but nothing too complicated or unsustainable.
When I'm trying to save I do this:
50,000 won for the week.
100,000 won for the weekend.
Any money left over goes to pay the bills or buy something you want but don't really need - for me it's books. Quite simple really. You'll be saving 1.3 or 1.4 million won per month on an average salary.
Also, be careful of your heating(gas) and electricity bill. I believe (but I'm not positive) after a certain point of usage there is a steep rise in the cost.
In reality it is super easy to save here and that's Korea's saving grace.
Oh, and there are free Korean language classes at some of the universities and lots of Korean self study books at Kyobo bookstore in Seoul. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 10:16 pm Post subject: |
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There's a free Korean language class in Changwon, which is just a cheap bus ride and a few minutes from Masan. Sorry, can't remember exactly where it is...maybe someone from Changwon can chime in with exact details.
Consider other free-to-cheap hobbies...painting, photography once you have the camera/lens...gym memberships. |
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losing_touch
Joined: 26 Jun 2008
Location: Ulsan - I think!
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| Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 12:37 am Post subject: |
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| Knucklehead wrote: |
Give yourself a budget, but nothing too complicated or unsustainable.
When I'm trying to save I do this:
50,000 won for the week.
100,000 won for the weekend. |
That is my budget too! Except, the extra goes to food which is 100,000 every 2 weeks at HomePlus. |
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John_ESL_White
Joined: 12 Nov 2008
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| Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 8:53 am Post subject: |
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| Knucklehead wrote: |
Also, be careful of your heating(gas) and electricity bill. I believe (but I'm not positive) after a certain point of usage there is a steep rise in the cost.
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There is a step system in Korea for electricity usage. And, it's pretty significant. I don't know about gas because we only use gas for cooking.
-make friends who like to hang out at a your home or theirs and not at a bar/ restaurant. you'll save tons. |
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DCJames
Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 9:49 am Post subject: Re: Cheap Living in RoK? |
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| VanIslander wrote: |
| Thunndarr wrote: |
| Get a cheap rice cooker, eat lots of rice. |
Sorry. I think THE OPPOSITE! Eat Korean food in Korean restaurants three or four times a week (half their dishes have rice). This may sound like an odd way to live frugally but IT IS !!! Try a different Korean dish every time you go out and it'll take you six months to sample the huge variety of Korean food restaurants out there! at 4000-7000 won the average price of a full meal! Seriously, it gets you out of your apartment, so it's got entertainment value, it is very cheap, and there's quite a variety.
Cook at home the WESTERN foods you love! Buy that "expensive" beef steak (5000-7000 won a decent size for your meal) and imported canned foods because the fact is it's so much cheaper to do that than to splurge once or twice a month in the overpriced western style restaurants. You could easily drop 20,000-50,000 on a night western style... dang hard to do that korean style without a singing room and/or prostitutes.
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If you eat white rice often you will gain weight eventually. Also, white rice is "empty calories" with little nutritional benefits. If you can get your hands on whole grain / multigrain rice that will be quite a bit better than eating overprocessed white rice.
Also, restaurants here use ALOT of fatty meats (mostly pork), grease, and salt in their cooking. That's why it tastes so good and is so cheap.
If you eat out as often as you do your health (high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, heart disease) will suffer. It's no joke.
If you cook at home and want to eat healthy, you will pay quite a bit. Good quality fresh vegetables and fruits are quite expensive. Onions and cabbage might be cheap, but you cant eat that everyday. |
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Underwaterbob
Joined: 08 Jan 2005
Location: In Cognito
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| Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 1:06 pm Post subject: |
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| Local markets. If you eat seasonally and learn how to cook up the offerings in a variety of ways, it's the cheapest and likely the healthiest way to live. My friends who were here for a year made some amazing dishes for next to nothing. I think it helped that they were vegetarian. |
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Harpeau
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Location: Coquitlam, BC
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| Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 4:07 pm Post subject: |
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Bookstores are great! One other option though are E-books.
The Burgomeister's Books are free and you can download them and read them on your computer, or even your i-pod:
http://www.truly-free.org/
I would also suggest having friends over for a pot-luck meal and music. You save money by not going to the bars. One of my friend's used to throw parties at the local 7-11 at an outdoor table and they would buy beer/soju. sqid/chips and bring the guitars out and play some tunes. Of course, that only works when you have nice weather. |
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Ukon
Joined: 29 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 6:51 pm Post subject: |
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| Unless you have an economic crisis on your hands, don't worry about it....save the frugal living for when you go back to the states. |
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mole
Joined: 06 Feb 2003
Location: Act III
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| Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 10:17 pm Post subject: |
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| Ukon wrote: |
| Unless you have an economic crisis on your hands, don't worry about it....save the frugal living for when you go back to the states. |
Do we laugh or cry now?
In case you didn't get the headline, we've got a global economic crisis.
Honestly, I always found it easy to live cheap on Planet K.
Learn to mooch, but rotate the stock as it were.
Line up classes where you will be fed. ie. Moms often bring food or send it with their kiddlings.
About the graduated utilities, I got slammed once and HARD.
I had an apt. with the bathroom/shower as an afterthought on the balcony.
Glass enclosed, but freezing in winter, so I bought an electric space heater.
It was so bad, an electric co. rep. came to my door to find out and explain to me.
Apparently my little heater used more power than the whole city block.
Oops.
One of many expensive life lessons from K-land. |
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