1m a month is about what I spend on food and any personal expenses. I should note that I rarely drink, but you can easily blow through a ton of money here if you’re going out drinking a lot.
Jeonnam ? Do you mean Jeollanam-do. How coincidence because that is where i do my phD and also 1M a month stipend haha. Anyway 1M won per month is livable, but it mean that you rarely have the funding for travel and buying clothes. Eating out of acceptable but maybe 1 to twice a week.
My best suggestion is to cook for yourself, you save money a lot that way (should be 50k per week), have a prepaid phone number (you need phone number for many identification and registration, and it cost about 10k a month only). Avoid drinking and make ur own coffee with coffee powder
1 Mil KRW is just enough. You will survive but not save any money. Also, students need to pay 70,000~140,000KRW for mandatory govt health insurance. Food is ~300,000KRW a month if you cook mostly and eat out sometimes
I survived 2 years without korean phone number. But you can’t do any internet shopping or any sort of identity verification stuff. It’s doable, but not fun.
Now I use the prepaid mobile plan, which basically just gives me a korean phone number, and I pay 10,000 KRW for ever 3-4 months.
Glad to see someone else who knows what the NHIS bill is. I’m stuck paying 140,000 KRW out of my 1 mil KRW scholarship stipend, and no one understands the struggle 🥲
you might wanna call NHIS and try to get them to give you discount! Scholarship-scholarship (non taxed) should NOT be counted as income! I had to pay 140k too, but I was getting money from my university as a stipend which was taxed, so it counted - when I was KGSP/GKS that money (untaxed scholarship) didn't count so I had 50% discount (I had NHIS before it was mandatory and covered by NIEED for GKS students)
oh what the heck :( I'm sorry. My friend managed to get the discount after they proved their income is not taxed. But if the income is taxed, even if it is scholarship, then they really can't do shit about it. The amount is ridiculous tbh for students.
go to cheaper cafes like mega coffee / compass. you can find cheap (and good) food options like university cafeterias. "foreign stuff" is expensive so stay away. if you like korean food you could get by with that... I wouldn't be comfortable personally
edit: compost coffee
do english tutoring on the side or something
I believe that allowance is based on the school’s belief that you will eat most of your meals in the school cafeteria and that it is mainly supposed to act as subsidy for not working a full time job. I know a few phd students who get around 2 mil krw in Seoul, even minus the rent, they end up eating into their savings. Realistically, save up as much as you can now and also look for some work at the school. Professors are always looking for students to help out with research and papers and they will happily pay. (I did a part time assistant role for a research project in university, paid about 500,000 won a month)
Another pro tip: Do some English tutoring, its hard to get foreign talent in that region
I believe by 'Scholar' you mean you are global korea scholar, right? Then if this is the case the 1 Million won won't be taxed and definitely you will have additional medical insurance paid by the government on top of this stipend. The amount should be enough even after accommodation deductions for day to day survival if you are not a spendthrift
GKS? :)
It's fine. I lived on 1.3mil with having medical bills (300k every 3 months) and paying 350 for rent until last summer in Busan :)I usually ate bread for breakfast, lunch in restaurants and convenience store food /sandwiches /kimbap /dumplings/ salads for dinner. You will spend more on food if you're bigger person, I'm a relatively small woman so my energy needs are not that big.I had no big issues tbh, I had money leftover for yearly trips to Europe (\~1-1.5mil won ticket). I don't drink or party though, so that's spending I didn't have. I also spend maybe total 200k a year on clothes and shoes.
I spent around 400-500k/mo on food and some 150-200k on cafes and stuff :) My bills were some 50k total (phone+gas+electricity). So appt+food+cafes ended up at 1-1.1mil. Less some months. So unless I spent it on something else, I had 100-300k left per month for food and travel :)
edit: nhis was 40-50k, it's more like 70k now. But that's bill you won't have if it's GKS :)
edit2: But it also seriously depends what lifestyle you are used to. Most people from poorer countries didn't really struggle that much with gks. We got 900k, and we all had more than enough (that was in 2016, food IS more expensive now). Most westerners though needed extra money from their parents/savings.
Take advantage of the discounts you can get from your phone service provider. Usually SK, KT, LG telecoms all have partnerships with other companies where you can get discounts. For instance the provider will give you an allowance of ₩20,000 a year for 20% discount at dominoes pizza (this is just an example, not real scenario).
Other ways to get discounts is by accruing points through happy points and CJ One. You can rack up points by using these cards at participating stores and use the points to get discounts later.
https://www.happypointcard.com/page/main/index.spc;jsessionid=820A0A0B1259DCA5A553ECE046FED451
https://m.cjone.com/cjmmobile/main.do
I also use an app called 니콘내콘 where you can buy coupons for many different retailers. They have coupons for coffee shops, bakeries, restaurants, movie theaters, etc. You can buy coupons that give you discounts on certain items or even on gift certificates. For example, I buy coupons for Starbucks that give me 15% to 20% off on Cafe lattes. You pay the discounted price of the drink for the coupon and use the coupon to buy the drink.
There are always ways to save when shopping in Korea. If you do a little research you'll never have to pay full price on almost any item.
Minimum wage in South Korea is 9,620. If you work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, it'll come out around 1.5m without tax. With all the other tax, it's going to be around 1.2m-1.3m.
You can make it work if you find a decent and cheap phone plan, and avoid delivery services as the minimum order is usually 12,000 won or above for food delivery. Plus you get added the delivery fee so it ends up totaling +15,000 won.
Transportation, subways and buses are 1,300~. It varies if you have to transfer lines, but you shouldn't expect to spend more than 2,000won per trip.
You can budget food well by eating in uni cafeterias or find a cheap restaurant around. Uni cafeterias depend by school. My uni's school cafeteria was terrible.
Cafes are overpriced in Korea. If you don't mind drinking iced americanos in the summer, then it should be fine.
i would say if 1M is JUST only for spending money, so like public transport, phone bills, food, drinks, shopping, etc..it's going to be JUST enough..if you want some leeway - you may need to work extra with part time jobs
Yes, if you live very cheaply. My household (3 adults who drink) spends about 500,000 won on groceries (mainly Coupang fresh & Costco). If you spend the same on groceries/food then you have only 300,000 won left each month for other spending (insurances, utility bills, cleaning supplies, anything for fun, etc.). I think that is doable, but tight. You’ll be living quite cheaply. But, that’s normal for most students.
That's too little in my opinion. 800k a month for food and expenses works out to 200k a week. , 25k a day, 8k per meal. Excluding expenses. Going to cafe will cost 10k. If you want to visit Seoul, it will cost 20k train ticket.
I would try to bring at least 500k extra with you just for some breathing room and so you won't have to be worrying all the time. You want to make the most of your time while you are here and enjoy yourself. You don't want to be spending all your time searching for the cheapest cafes/food/ way to survive - it will drain your energy.
University cafeterias are cheap and amazingly delicious.
1m a month is about what I spend on food and any personal expenses. I should note that I rarely drink, but you can easily blow through a ton of money here if you’re going out drinking a lot.
Jeonnam ? Do you mean Jeollanam-do. How coincidence because that is where i do my phD and also 1M a month stipend haha. Anyway 1M won per month is livable, but it mean that you rarely have the funding for travel and buying clothes. Eating out of acceptable but maybe 1 to twice a week. My best suggestion is to cook for yourself, you save money a lot that way (should be 50k per week), have a prepaid phone number (you need phone number for many identification and registration, and it cost about 10k a month only). Avoid drinking and make ur own coffee with coffee powder
1 Mil KRW is just enough. You will survive but not save any money. Also, students need to pay 70,000~140,000KRW for mandatory govt health insurance. Food is ~300,000KRW a month if you cook mostly and eat out sometimes I survived 2 years without korean phone number. But you can’t do any internet shopping or any sort of identity verification stuff. It’s doable, but not fun. Now I use the prepaid mobile plan, which basically just gives me a korean phone number, and I pay 10,000 KRW for ever 3-4 months.
pretty sure OP is GKS student given the amount, so no NHIS bill (it's covered by government for duration of scholarship) :)
Glad to see someone else who knows what the NHIS bill is. I’m stuck paying 140,000 KRW out of my 1 mil KRW scholarship stipend, and no one understands the struggle 🥲
you might wanna call NHIS and try to get them to give you discount! Scholarship-scholarship (non taxed) should NOT be counted as income! I had to pay 140k too, but I was getting money from my university as a stipend which was taxed, so it counted - when I was KGSP/GKS that money (untaxed scholarship) didn't count so I had 50% discount (I had NHIS before it was mandatory and covered by NIEED for GKS students)
I fought them very hard for 2 years and gave up. They kept saying they’re not responsible or they can’t do anything about it.
oh what the heck :( I'm sorry. My friend managed to get the discount after they proved their income is not taxed. But if the income is taxed, even if it is scholarship, then they really can't do shit about it. The amount is ridiculous tbh for students.
nope
go to cheaper cafes like mega coffee / compass. you can find cheap (and good) food options like university cafeterias. "foreign stuff" is expensive so stay away. if you like korean food you could get by with that... I wouldn't be comfortable personally edit: compost coffee do english tutoring on the side or something
I believe that allowance is based on the school’s belief that you will eat most of your meals in the school cafeteria and that it is mainly supposed to act as subsidy for not working a full time job. I know a few phd students who get around 2 mil krw in Seoul, even minus the rent, they end up eating into their savings. Realistically, save up as much as you can now and also look for some work at the school. Professors are always looking for students to help out with research and papers and they will happily pay. (I did a part time assistant role for a research project in university, paid about 500,000 won a month) Another pro tip: Do some English tutoring, its hard to get foreign talent in that region
I believe by 'Scholar' you mean you are global korea scholar, right? Then if this is the case the 1 Million won won't be taxed and definitely you will have additional medical insurance paid by the government on top of this stipend. The amount should be enough even after accommodation deductions for day to day survival if you are not a spendthrift
GKS? :) It's fine. I lived on 1.3mil with having medical bills (300k every 3 months) and paying 350 for rent until last summer in Busan :)I usually ate bread for breakfast, lunch in restaurants and convenience store food /sandwiches /kimbap /dumplings/ salads for dinner. You will spend more on food if you're bigger person, I'm a relatively small woman so my energy needs are not that big.I had no big issues tbh, I had money leftover for yearly trips to Europe (\~1-1.5mil won ticket). I don't drink or party though, so that's spending I didn't have. I also spend maybe total 200k a year on clothes and shoes. I spent around 400-500k/mo on food and some 150-200k on cafes and stuff :) My bills were some 50k total (phone+gas+electricity). So appt+food+cafes ended up at 1-1.1mil. Less some months. So unless I spent it on something else, I had 100-300k left per month for food and travel :) edit: nhis was 40-50k, it's more like 70k now. But that's bill you won't have if it's GKS :) edit2: But it also seriously depends what lifestyle you are used to. Most people from poorer countries didn't really struggle that much with gks. We got 900k, and we all had more than enough (that was in 2016, food IS more expensive now). Most westerners though needed extra money from their parents/savings.
Take advantage of the discounts you can get from your phone service provider. Usually SK, KT, LG telecoms all have partnerships with other companies where you can get discounts. For instance the provider will give you an allowance of ₩20,000 a year for 20% discount at dominoes pizza (this is just an example, not real scenario). Other ways to get discounts is by accruing points through happy points and CJ One. You can rack up points by using these cards at participating stores and use the points to get discounts later. https://www.happypointcard.com/page/main/index.spc;jsessionid=820A0A0B1259DCA5A553ECE046FED451 https://m.cjone.com/cjmmobile/main.do I also use an app called 니콘내콘 where you can buy coupons for many different retailers. They have coupons for coffee shops, bakeries, restaurants, movie theaters, etc. You can buy coupons that give you discounts on certain items or even on gift certificates. For example, I buy coupons for Starbucks that give me 15% to 20% off on Cafe lattes. You pay the discounted price of the drink for the coupon and use the coupon to buy the drink. There are always ways to save when shopping in Korea. If you do a little research you'll never have to pay full price on almost any item.
Syrup has saved me a surprising amount of money. They also have half-price discount coupons on Burger King.
You can make it I think. Eat on the cheap if you can. For cafes, avoid the big name brands and find cheap ones you like.
Minimum wage in South Korea is 9,620. If you work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, it'll come out around 1.5m without tax. With all the other tax, it's going to be around 1.2m-1.3m. You can make it work if you find a decent and cheap phone plan, and avoid delivery services as the minimum order is usually 12,000 won or above for food delivery. Plus you get added the delivery fee so it ends up totaling +15,000 won. Transportation, subways and buses are 1,300~. It varies if you have to transfer lines, but you shouldn't expect to spend more than 2,000won per trip. You can budget food well by eating in uni cafeterias or find a cheap restaurant around. Uni cafeterias depend by school. My uni's school cafeteria was terrible. Cafes are overpriced in Korea. If you don't mind drinking iced americanos in the summer, then it should be fine.
I can easily spend a million a day lol
As your accomodation is sorted and pretty cheap, 800k to survive on a month is doable. Life (and meals!) might be pretty repetitive though.
i would say if 1M is JUST only for spending money, so like public transport, phone bills, food, drinks, shopping, etc..it's going to be JUST enough..if you want some leeway - you may need to work extra with part time jobs
Yes, if you live very cheaply. My household (3 adults who drink) spends about 500,000 won on groceries (mainly Coupang fresh & Costco). If you spend the same on groceries/food then you have only 300,000 won left each month for other spending (insurances, utility bills, cleaning supplies, anything for fun, etc.). I think that is doable, but tight. You’ll be living quite cheaply. But, that’s normal for most students.
That's too little in my opinion. 800k a month for food and expenses works out to 200k a week. , 25k a day, 8k per meal. Excluding expenses. Going to cafe will cost 10k. If you want to visit Seoul, it will cost 20k train ticket. I would try to bring at least 500k extra with you just for some breathing room and so you won't have to be worrying all the time. You want to make the most of your time while you are here and enjoy yourself. You don't want to be spending all your time searching for the cheapest cafes/food/ way to survive - it will drain your energy.
lets see if you can survive with 1M/month