Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Kiddirts]

More about the water...if you go to a gym regularly, always fill your 2 liter bottle up before you leave and take it home with you. I've never had to buy water this way.

[mithridates]

And even more about water: if you live next to a mountain they might have a spring there. We used to live next to a mountain that had stone turtles with taps in the mouths and people would always be there filling up the various bottles and whatnot they brought up. This was the mountain called ������.

[JongnoGuru]

It's always good to be careful with your money, and I'm enjoying reading the ideas and tricks that posters have offered here. I like this thread, but the only thing I've read that pertains to me, or I can see myself doing, is item 12 on Dazed and Confused's list: "We both take on extra jobs."

Rather than schlepping drinking water across town, learning to make yoghurt at home, yakking for hours with relatives over the Internet, or chasing down restaurants that will give me a discount -- I've always preferred to spend that time & energy taking on a new project, finding ways to make myself more profitable, looking into opportunities to increase my income. Do that -- and do that just once -- and you dwarf the savings from your TGIF dinners discounts, and you can pay for your own flight without having to jump through airlines' frequent-flyer hoops.

Sure, it looks new and so very 21st century -- high-tech mobile communications, trendy foreign chain restaurants, mileage points to jet you off to exotic, oh-so-hip destinations around the globe. But to me, it's all just the latest edition of Clipping Coupons for Fun & Profit -- with plump lady author on the cover, in her bathrobe, seated at her kitchen table, scissors in hand, big fat grin, and a pile of cut-out newspaper coupons in front of her.

I guess Shawner's views about not sweating the pennies come closest to my own. And my views came from my paternal grandfather, who single-handedly reversed a centuries-long decline in our family's fortunes. He told me, when I was still too young to understand, that people who, having secured a modicum of comfort and security, spend their time counting pennies -- those people will tend to miss the opportunities to amass pounds and will have nothing but pennies with which to enjoy their final years or pass along to their children.

[mindmetoo]

[eamo]

You go Shawner!!! A truly decadent lifestyle.....Wine, cheese and apples......and a bit of hide the sausage.

Wow! "Caligula would have blushed!!!"

[JongnoGuru]

[Swiss James]

mate whilst you're there- can I have my DVDs back too? I've only watched one of them!

[JongnoGuru]

[peppermint]

There's a way to save some won!

Some of the tips on here are pretty scrimpy, I agree, but hey- if you've got bills to pay. . .

[The Bobster]

[shawner88]

I almost forgot to check this thread again. I'm glad I did.

JongroGuru, just because you asked me to pick you up some cheap DVDs at Walmart, doesn't mean they belong to you yet. Have you paid for them? No. If you want them, get on your scooter and moped yourself across the city to get them.

SwissJames: Did you forget you also have one of my DVDs...one of my favorite movies? Slingblade! And why is it my responsibility to come track you down to return them? You know where I live too. If you don't come quick, I'm going to sell them on Ebay.

So I came up with some real ways to save money.

1.
Start a blog. Write honestly and attract a following. Then write a book about living and teaching here. Sell them on your site. I'm up to 400 copies sold (though maybe just 30 were actually sold to people in Korea...thank God for Australia and NewZealanders who like to read apparently). And that's without a proper publisher.

2.
Eat rice/sides at home. Buy side dishes at one of the local places that sell them (for example, there's one right next to our place...just look around a bit) 10,000 won worth should make you 3-4 good, healthy dinners.

3.
Actually return your empty beer bottles and shopping bags. I never do either of these, so I'm a poor example. I always leave them outside my door and sooner or later an old guy takes them.

4.
Don't buy wine, cheese, or apples. Buy soju, seaweed and puffed rice.

5.
Don't make love - this always costs you money no matter what way you look at it. Stay single.


Finally follow all of these rules while your at it:

Fitter, happier, more productive
Comfortable
Not drinking too much
Regular exercise at the gym
(3 days a week)
Getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries
At ease
Eating well
(No more microwave dinners and saturated fats)
A patient better driver
A safer car
(Baby smiling in back seat)
Sleeping well
(No bad dreams)
No paranoia
Careful to all animals
(Never washing spiders down the plughole)
Keep in contact with old friends
(Enjoy a drink now and then)
Will frequently check credit at (moral) bank (hole in the wall)
Favours for favours
Fond but not in love
Charity standing orders
On Sundays ring road supermarket
(No killing moths or putting boiling water on the ants)
Car wash
(Also on Sundays)
No longer afraid of the dark or midday shadows
Nothing so ridiculously teenage and desperate
Nothing so childish - at a better pace
Slower and more calculated
No chance of escape
Now self-employed
Concerned (but powerless)
An empowered and informed member of society
(Pragmatism not idealism)
Will not cry in public
Less chance of illness
Tires that grip in the wet
(Shot of baby strapped in back seat)
A good memory
Still cries at a good film
Still kisses with saliva
No longer empty and frantic like a cat tied to a stick
That's driven into frozen winter shit
(The ability to laugh at weakness)
Calm
Fitter
Healthier and more productive
A pig in a cage on antibiotics

[mithridates]

I used that song in one of my classes before...

[Saxiif]

My biggest source of savings is probably shopping at the more ghetto grocery stores and street markets, even in Seoul you probably have a street market close to you, they're so much cheaper than the big marts its ridiculous, especially when you're buying stuff in season and have a Korean along to help haggle. The veggie trucks may be annoying as all hell but they're generally also damn cheap.

My biggest two expenses are easily food and alcohol and I save on both by shopping at cheap places, making my own curry (get the mixes in my care packages) instead of paying for the overpriced crap at itaewon and getting my non-Korean restaurant fix damn cheap at Chili Chili in itaewon. For alcohol, when you buy your imported booze its insane to buy it at a bar, WalMart usually has a decent enough selections (they've got Finlandia vodka and Guiness and Duvel beer which is all I really need), while they're not cheap they're vastly cheaper than in a bar.

Also for women's clothing, check out the underground shopping mall attached to Express Bus subway station, the clothing is just insanely cheap there, so much for 5,000 and 10,000.

[mithridates]

[kangnamdragon]