How much will/did you save? (How much do you spend a month?)

since I have been in Korea (9) years, I have easily saved 1/2 my pay any I  go to Thailand twice a year.

after sending 800 USD a month home and living expenses, i save about 200 dollars a month, which then goes to my tuition for my evening classes. ??? so the balance of saving money...is zero.

Hey Brits - exchange rate is great right now - 1mil won = 583 pounds.

I have started saving 1.5mil from my salary (clear 2.2mil) and am finding it easy enough to get by on the 700k.  I do get free dinners at the hakwan, so guess that's saves me 80k a month.

Crazy that I'm having the same ammount of fun and experience on 700k as I would if i were living on 1mil or more.

Hey people, I'm heading Korea way in just over 2 weeks. I'm interested in travelling Japan with the possibility of branching out to one or two other places afterwards and was wondering how much money people have managed to save after their first year in Korea? I imagine it's easy to save a fair amount.

I send home $1k USD a month to pay bills. So, assuming you don't have any crazy bills or obligations like I do, I don't see why you cant save $1k USD a month... plus some extras (renewal, severance, pension). That's perhaps $15,000 USD a YEAR, I'd say. If you want to be pretty conservative you could say $10,000 USD a year.

Barring bill payments, saving $1000 a month is easy.

1,000 dollars a month is a very realistic target. I actualy dont budget or count. Morticae pretty much hits the nail on the head.

My biggest expense is my girlfriend...they are pricey.

I came here with about $13,000 debt in school loans. I used the money I made my first year here to pay that off in one lump sum and now almost done with my second year, I've really been saving. I'm looking to have about another $13 or $14K saved up from this last year once severance and pension comes my way. It's all this saving that has me thinking I'm going to come back to Korea very soon. No rent, no car insurance, no gas, so cheap.

This thread makes me feel bad, I still have some debt at home that needs to be paid off. I've been here 8 months already and saved $0! It seems like there is always something to spend my money on.   :-\

This thread makes me feel bad, I still have some debt at home that needs to be paid off. I've been here 8 months already and saved $0! It seems like there is always something to spend my money on.   :-\

If it makes you feel any better, most teachers don't save anything the first 3 months... :)  I know teachers who have been here for 2 years and still on $0 

I've talked to a few people lately that say they're banking half they're check each month without a problem. Of course I can't prove they are, they could just be trying to make themselves look good. But I think it's certainly possible they are saving that much though.

I manage to put back anywhere between 25% - 35% depending on how the month is going. I find the biggest issue is food costs. I cook most of the time at home and try to eat a pretty healthy diet. The problem is that fresh fruit and veg can sway dramatically in prive from week to week. Sometimes a box of tomatoes is $4, sometimes $8. A bad of spinach can go anywhere from $1.50 to $3.50 depending on the weather.

If I wanted to make it a point to put back 50% each month, I'm not sure I'd have a very happy lifestyle. Weekend dates with the gf would end. I'm not sure how many times we  can just go to the park and eat kimbap and still keep things interesting.

I could stop the healthy lunches and dinners and switch to ramen noodles. But I'd probably have to just spend that money buying bigger pants later anyway, haha.

So, are you saving that much? Less? More?

What are some of your pro tips to saving more?

I usually only spend 300k-400k of my salary per month.

I don't have a phone contract and I don't drink. I cook most of the time at home, but it's not as healthy (and thus expensive) as it could be - fried food is too often the case. I eat at restaurants with my girlfriend and friends occasionally. Once I made it clear that the bills will be split aside from treats, the restaurants chosen got a lot more affordable too. 

When I eat vegetables, it's usually;

1) Cheaper vegetables like onion, potato and carrots in curry.
2) Shabu-shabu, which costs only 8,000 at the place I like.

To be fair, my bills are a lot lower now than when I lived in my previous apartment. Apartment related bills, including utilities are only about 100k per month.

My biggest two savings would likely be;

1) I don't drink (which also means I go out less and don't buy expensive food at Hofs).

2) I don't have a phone contract. I bought a secondhand unlocked smartphone outright. I don't use it much and mostly text, so I only spend about 10,000 won every 1.5 months. After 6 months, it's paid itself off to buy outright and I don't have to worry about contracts.

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I do have a happy enough lifestyle, but occasionally do find myself denying myself something due to expense. I'm saving for postgradute university and not sure if I'll have a job in six months, so I may be going overboard.

We save about 70% of my salary.  My wife doesn't work.  So 50% for 1 person is very doable imo. 

Neither of us go out drinking nor do we eat out.  We prefer to cook in. 

Most people will find most of their money goes to drinking and going to Seoul/Busan every weekend.

Last year when I lived in the middle of nowhere I was saving about 60-70% of my salary depending on travel. This year I live in Seoul and I'm saving maybe 35-40% due to several factors (pay cut, things to do, higher cost of living, subway, more expensive utilities). I'm not happy with that, so I plan to work out a budget to sock away 40-50%.

I am the same way as you in terms of wanting to eat fresh fruit and veg while enjoying some good restaurants and making a good meal. Most of my money as well go toward food. Grocery shopping is not cheap and I never find good deals. Just keep doing what you are doing. I send home more than half of my paycheck per month, much more. Each month after paying my gas, electricity, phone bill, bus card.... I still send home roughly $1,500.00.

It all depends on how you live in Korea.  If you want to stay home every day and live on rameon pots to save then fair on you.  I'd rather travel and actually enjoy myself here (especially as most things here are a lot cheaper than the UK).  Personally, I go to Seoul twice a month, study evening classes, have a fairly expensive smartphone and gym membership, go skiing etc and I still manage to save about 60% of my pay. 
It also depends on how much you get paid - my housing allowance pays my rent and usually bills too.  I also know a few girls who managed to spend MORE than they earned the first few months they were here and needed money from home - I couldn't spend 2 mill a month here!

I easily save 50%. I transfer it to another account a day or two after payday. Then I just budget for the rest of the month. I also dont drink which makes it easy. Depending on what I do with my GF at the weekends, I can still have a few 100,000 left at the end of the month.

I make 2.1 million a month. I send 1 million home every month for student loans and debt.

I buy all my groceries fresh, only eat out twice (maybe three times) a week, take the bus to school, and live very well. I don't drink a lot or travel much, but I spend time with friends and I occasionally go to other cities. I regularly go on dates or hangouts and spend less than 20k won in one night.

I wish I had more savings but my goal right now is to aggressively pay down my debts first.

I send home more than 50%, drink, shop online and don't cook for myself often. It's very doable.

I am not trying to save, but I send 800,000 to 1 million won a month home to pay off student debt. Other than that, I buy whatever I want and have plenty of money for everything. I just bought a 3DS and an iPhone 5. And I'll have my loan paid off in 2-3 years. Life is good.