{"id":3748,"date":"2014-09-03T20:22:31","date_gmt":"2014-09-03T20:22:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/?p=3748"},"modified":"2014-09-03T21:01:41","modified_gmt":"2014-09-03T21:01:41","slug":"save-money-working-international-school-teacher-4-stupidly-buy-things-impulsively","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/save-money-working-international-school-teacher-4-stupidly-buy-things-impulsively\/","title":{"rendered":"How NOT to save money when working as an international school teacher #4: Stupidly buy things impulsively"},"content":{"rendered":"

We all hear about the big possibility of saving money while working at international schools, but the reality is that many of us don’t save much of any money. \u00a0So, why aren’t these international school teachers saving money?<\/p>\n

How NOT to save money when working as an international school teacher #4 –\u00a0Stupidly buy things impulsively<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"IMG_6824\"<\/a>When you move somewhere, you typically don’t know where to buy anything. \u00a0You usually need help, and fast! \u00a0But that help isn’t always there for you at every moment and you inevitably find yourself out and about, all alone in your\u00a0new city, making stupid purchases.<\/p>\n

Let’s face it, you are basically a tourist when you first arrive at your new placement, and even the smartest tourist (most veteran international school teacher) can make mistakes. When you go out shopping for the first few times, you don’t know exactly what things should cost. You also don’t know exactly what is available in the whole city\/area\u00a0either.<\/p>\n

Let’s say that you found some cranberries (not many countries have these readily available to buy in stores) and get super excited. \u00a0You think, yes I’ll buy this, I deserve it! You also may think that\u00a0you will not be able to find them again. \u00a0We all know that scenario; the store has a product one week and not (or never again) the next!<\/p>\n

You also many think in your head\u00a0that the cranberries might be costing a crazy high price. However,\u00a0it is sometimes hard to know because you may not completely understand how much money you are actually spending. In the first few\u00a0months,\u00a0you are not so\u00a0familiar with the new currency that you are now dealing with just yet. \u00a0If that is the case, you typically decide to make this impulsive purchase.<\/p>\n

Maybe you buy the cranberries because you think that no other store will have them for sale (even though there might be one right next to your school for \"IMG_0362\"<\/a>example). Maybe you made a special trip to an inconvenient location in the city that day, a place that you wouldn’t normally be going to on a weekly basis, and\u00a0that is the reason you make the purchase. \u00a0All of these scenarios add up to you potentially buying something that could be found cheaper somewhere else and maybe even at a place closer to your house (saving you even more money).<\/p>\n

During the\u00a0first few months, international school teachers find themselves spending money on things that can be found cheaper in another place\/store. Your goal of saving some money is then put on hold, at least during this time of adjusting to your new city.<\/p>\n

You can try and do your research to not let this happen to you; ask around, check out the expat websites for your city, etc. \u00a0Doing this before you go out shopping can help you stop making these impulse purchases at stores you don’t know so well.<\/p>\n

Another way to not stupidly buy things: always go out shopping with a local (they know the best stores and they know the local language as well) or with another international school teacher that has been there a few years already.\"IMG_3905\" <\/a><\/p>\n

Going shopping in another country can be quite exciting. So many\u00a0new stores and new products that might very much interest you. \u00a0Just make sure to do your research as must and you can to stay the wiser, and you will not be wasting so much of your hard-earned money during the first few months!<\/p>\n

****************************<\/p>\n

To save you some money, we do have a comment topic on our website related to this theme. \u00a0It is in the benefits\u00a0section of the comments and information tab on the school profile pages. It is called:\u00a0Places, markets and stores where you can find really good deals.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/span>Carrefour has quite a decent selection of imported products. There are also Metro supermarkets around although quite far from WISS. Smaller grocery stores also have good deals from time to time (nearest on Jinfeng lu). For quality meats and other products it’s also possible to shop online and have groceries delivered<\/span>.”<\/span>\u00a0–\u00a0<\/span>Western International School of Shanghai\u00a0<\/a>(Shanghai, China)<\/span>\u00a0–\u00a093 Comments<\/strong><\/p>\n

“There are different areas of the city where sales items tend to concentrate, so ask a local. E-mart is the dominant local discount chain (a cross between Target and K-mart), with reliably low prices. Costco has several branches in Korea–reportedly they recognize US Costco cards.” –\u00a0<\/span>Yongsan International School of Seoul\u00a0<\/a>(Seoul, South Korea)<\/span>\u00a0–\u00a039 Comments<\/strong><\/p>\n

“There is a flea market that is on Sundays and Wednesdays, Jaku\u0161evac. It is like a bazaar selling everything and you can bargain for the right price. You never know what you will find there, but you will also find something.” –\u00a0<\/span>American International School of Zagreb\u00a0<\/a>(Zagreb, Croatia)<\/span>\u00a0–\u00a029 Comments<\/strong><\/p>\n

“In my experience, the best deals have not been deals at all because the quality is questionable. You get what you pay for in Asuncion. The better quality things are almost always more expensive. If something is too cheap, think twice!” –\u00a0<\/span>American School of Asuncion\u00a0<\/a>(Asuncion, Paraguay)<\/span>\u00a0–\u00a058 Comments<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We all hear about the big possibility of saving money while working at international schools, but the reality is that many of us don’t save much of any money. \u00a0So, why aren’t these international school teachers saving money? How NOT to save money when working as an international school teacher #4 –\u00a0Stupidly buy things impulsively […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1805],"tags":[358,1877,187,186,32,530,989,46,1977,1879,60],"class_list":["post-3748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-how-not-to-save-money","tag-expat-lifestyle","tag-expat-restaurants","tag-international-school-educator","tag-international-school-teacher","tag-international-schools","tag-life-as-an-expat","tag-life-of-an-international-school-teacher","tag-living-abroad","tag-making-purchases","tag-saving-money","tag-teaching-abroad"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/IMG_6824.jpg?fit=1280%2C853&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2flVT-Ys","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3371,"url":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/save-money-working-international-school-teacher-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":3748,"position":0},"title":"How NOT to save money when working as an international school teacher #3: Send money home every month (Mortgage, College Debt, etc.)","author":"ISCommunity","date":"May 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"We all hear about the big possibility of saving money while working at international schools, but the reality is that many of us don't save much of any money. \u00a0So, why aren't these international school teachers saving money? 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