{"id":7431,"date":"2019-07-02T19:47:10","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T19:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/?p=7431"},"modified":"2019-07-02T19:50:46","modified_gmt":"2019-07-02T19:50:46","slug":"money-diary-how-much-do-you-spend-in-a-week-living-in-seoul-south-korea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/money-diary-how-much-do-you-spend-in-a-week-living-in-seoul-south-korea\/","title":{"rendered":"Money Diary: How Much Do You Spend in a Week Living in Seoul, South Korea?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Occupation: Education Technology Coordinator<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Industry: International Education <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Age: 32<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Location: Seoul, South Korea<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salary: $40,000 USD (not including severance)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paycheck Amount (Monthly): $3,330 (pre tax and\nretirement)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
School View<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Monday<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each day starts with the regular breakfast. A\nVitamin C drink ($0.50 each (multipack)), a plain greek yoghurt (about $1 per\nyoghurt) and a protein bar ($2 each) . Ever since January I have been walking\nto work. Regardless the school has a free shuttle bus for staff, transportation\nin general doesn\u2019t cost me much throughout the week as I prefer to walk\neverywhere (gotta get those 10,000 steps per day). Lunch at school is also free\nand there are two options. After school it is raining and I need to get home quick,\nso I get a local taxi. The ten minute ride cost $3.50. At home I relax with my\nfamily (wife and baby), watch Netflix ($10 per month) and eat a home cooked\nmeal of Pork Stew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The usual breakfast and then I walk to work\nagain and have the free school lunch. I have a working meeting with a colleague\nand we decide to go to a local coffee shop. Coffee and a Bagel as a snack runs\nup to $7.50. I walk home, but on the way stop to get an artisan donut for my\nwife and I. Each one costs ($3) but they are so worth it. My wife is out with\nher friends for a meal and I have my son to myself. I order from Seouls Shuttle\nDelivery service, an app which delivers (for a small fee) food from most of the\npopular restaurants in the expat district of Yongsan-gu. A Moroccan Chicken\nsandwich costs $6 and $3 for delivery. My wifes meal at a fancy Italian\nrestaurant with drinks costs $20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wake up early to go work out. The walk to work is a good 20-30 minutes mostly up hill and is a good warm up. Luckily the school weight room is free to staff as is the gym where twice weekly basketball games are played between staff, some parents and occasionally the odd HS student or two. Free lunch at school. Walk home back to a home cooked meal.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thursday<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thursday is our end of year party. I walk to\nwork and then get ready for a big lunch. We head to a Brazilian churrasqueria\n(an all you can eat restaurant which has different cuts of a variety of meats,\nserved via huge skewers. This is $35 per person and one of the more pricey\noptions around, but luckily it is being paid for by the school. At home I don\u2019t\neat much and a fresh fruit smoothie is enough to fill me up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday<\/strong>:
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last day of work for the school year. The habit of walking to work has not changed and neither has the free lunch. I get a taxi home again (I had a lot of things to take home from school) which is a bit more expensive this time as we went the long way ($4). At home we decided to order pizza from the cheapest pizza restaurant around $12 + $3 delivery for two medium sized pizzas, its a bargain but definitely not the best pizza you can buy.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our last full day in Seoul before the summer\nholidays. We have lunch at home again then we head to a new artisan ice cream\nshop. We walk the 30 minutes there, choose a Saturday Morning Cartoons Ice\nCream (Breakfast Cereal (Fruity pebbles) flavour) and a Mixed Cookie. The two\nScoops come to $5. I had previously ordered some frozen pies from an expat chef\nand heated that up for dinner, each one costs $10 but they are so worth it. My\nwife had a home made salad, with boxed mac and cheese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We wake up early to make sure everything is\nready for the summer. I have the usual breakfast then we head to the airport.\nWe usually get the subway which costs $5 per person. But as we have our baby\nboy (6 months old, so first flight) we are getting a taxi, this costs $55 flat\nfee for an International Taxi, but we think it is worth it to not have the\nstress of getting on and off subways with a baby and multiple suitcases. We eat\nat the airport. Coffee and sandwiches for my wife and I comes to $16, then we\nhead off on the flight to the USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All for 3 people (my wife and I and our baby boy)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

$800\/month groceries <\/p>\n\n\n\n

$100\/month baby items (diapers\/clothes)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

$10\/month drinking water (comes in 10l jugs)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

$100\/month Internet\/phone<\/p>\n\n\n\n

$100\/month for bills (electricity, gas, water)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

$30\/month apartment maintenance fee<\/p>\n\n\n\n

$300\/month restaurants and meals out\n(including coffee)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

$40\/month Transportation (Taxis and Subway)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

$250\/month retirement fund <\/p>\n\n\n\n

$10\/month Netflix<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Savings potential on my (mid range for Seoul)\nsalary, and lifestyle is about $1400 a month, this in the last 6 months has\nbeen reduced as my wife stopped working after the arrival of our first born\n(together with no baby we were saving around $3000 a month). The above $250 a\nmonth for retirement is matched by my employer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Walk to Work<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
School View – Winter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This article was submitted by an ISC member. Why not submit your Money Diary article for your area of the world and earn free premium membership to the ISC website? Contact us <\/em>here<\/em><\/a> if you are interested.\ufeff<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Occupation: Education Technology Coordinator Industry: International Education Age: 32 Location: Seoul, South Korea Salary: $40,000 USD (not including severance) Paycheck Amount (Monthly): $3,330 (pre tax and retirement) Monday: Each day starts with the regular breakfast. A Vitamin C drink ($0.50 each (multipack)), a plain greek yoghurt (about $1 per yoghurt) and a protein bar ($2 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7433,"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":[2694],"tags":[1383,927,2716,2697,1879,750],"class_list":["post-7431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-money-diaries","tag-life-living-abroad","tag-life-of-an-expat","tag-living-in-south-korea","tag-money-diary","tag-saving-money","tag-south-korea"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Screenshot-2019-07-02-15.08.12.png?fit=1280%2C484&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2flVT-1VR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2353,"url":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/video-highlight-seoul-foreign-school-international-school-seoul-south-korea\/","url_meta":{"origin":7431,"position":0},"title":"Video Highlight: Seoul Foreign School (An international school in Seoul, South Korea)","author":"ISCommunity","date":"October 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"There are many international schools to work at in Seoul!\u00a0 How do these schools stand out from each other? 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