Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mararowan]

Hi,
Is it possible to save on 2.2m with some traveling as well. I was hoping to save 1000-1100/month.
Thanks

[ttompatz]

[decolyon]

[Adobe]

That whould be why ttompatz prefaced his response with 'Depending on...'.

Just because you can't save any cash(as you mentioned in your thread, 'Frustrated') doesn't mean the rest of us can't.

I save more than $1100 a month. I have a fridge stocked with good food(steak,smoked salmon, avocado...). I buy clothes twice a year(nothing excessive, a new winter coat or a pair of jeans). I drink the local swill with my friends twice a week and have been known to splurge on champers(Moet/Veuve) occasianaly(sp?).

I've travelled twice this year and one of those times was with my gf.

Budgeting is key. My salary may be higher than 2.2 but i've understated my savings per month to take that into account. This isn't meant to brag mearly to show that not all of us live on kimbap and save nothing.

Adobe

[Poker]

OP, it also depends on which city/town you end up in.

[the ireland]

I find it impossible not to save living here. I'm not in to living frugally to be honest. For me the saving money is easy enough due to my lifestyle.

My first time here, over an 18 month period I went to:
japan twice,
china once,
jeju,
weekend trips too seoul abot 8-9 times,
did the dmz tour,
went on weekends to busan often enough
also travelled to loads of other cities and towns around the country.

On top of all of these I also went home to Ireland for my brothers wedding which set me back about �3000 (5million won at the time) on round trip tickets, lost income for a week not working, presents for everyone, and what I spent at home.

I also ate out regularly in western restaurants about 4-5 times a month, and had korean food quite regularly. I even took tae kwon do classes (90k a month).

at the end of my 18 months I had saved 17milllion won, which is pretty close to a million a month (and I don't get pension back either).

This time around I lived easily for my first 7 months, did what i wanted, when I wanted and took a 9 day holiday in the philippines in july/august and rented a car and took a road trip up the east coast at chuseok. Though from october onwards I have set myself a budget of approx 400k a month to live on (not minding if I got to 450k or so and will spend more over christmas- I decided I wanted to go back home with a bit of money after travelling so I'm gonna be a bit wiser with my money).

My g.f is also spending 400k a month. I budgeted 200k on groceries, 100k bills and 100k for whatever the hell i wanted to spend money on. She has the same budget (we live together)

400k for groceries allows us to buy some nice food for the month and if it worked out that it wasn't enough (which it is) I would spend more, as I'd prefer ot be happy and less well off, than hungry with money in the bank.

I have seen most of korea and don't fancy going back to view it again and I have a load of winter clothes etc over here so I don't need to buy any.

I have worked out that I will have saved about 25-26million this time around, for my 12 month contract.

Things that must be considered though:

- I don't drink
- I don't smoke
- I don't live in or near seoul ( i live in geoje)
- I play sports and go running so that stops me spending money on crap i don't need.
- I have a g.f but she's irish and she earns her own money
- we are both trying to save so it's easy with 2 of us not wanting to blow cash.
- My xmas hols are cr*p so I won't be spending anything on them
- I have been in Korea before so I have previously travelled it.

[jzrossef]

[DeMayonnaise]

I'm not nearly as miserable as a lot of the other people on here, so I'd like to say, yes, you can save around a mil won a month (but then if you go on vacation it'll take a chunk out.)

If you make 2.2, realistically you should have around 1.8 - 2.0 left after you take care of your cell phone, electricity, gas, etc, depending of course on how much you use.

So if you can stick to 200,000 a week, which is super easy to do, you'll save 1 mil a month. That still lets you go out on the weekends, have friends and do lots of normal things.

If you're trying to save money, who cares about wearing the same clothes all the time, not chasing girls, and not getting drunk? Work out a lot, find some free things to do (hiking...takes up an entire day and costs nothing), and find some other friends who want to save money.

So ignore Decolyn. He's probably terrible with money and does way too much stuff. I know a guy who lives off 100,000 won a week and is a pretty happy guy. If your goal is to save money, and you succeed in that, you'll be happy. You'll understand you don't have much money to do things, but make do with what you have, and at the end of the year, when you have 10,000,000 won (plus pension, plus severance) to convert to your home currency, it'll feel pretty damn nice.

That said, today is payday! My budget of 200,000 won a week starts today!

[the ireland]