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

I've been managing about 1 million (sometimes a bit more) per month since I got here, except one month when I went to Japan.

I'm hoping to have around 15 by the time I leave. That's seeming increasingly unlikely though. I'm still not used to having actual purchasing power, so I've been going overboard lately. >.>

I've been able to send home about 1 million won a month. I have kind of noticed that the longer I've been here, the more I'm able to save.
So, hopefully, at the end of this years contract I will have saved about 15k! Not too bad!

My goal is 12 a year, but travelling over the winter pushed me way behind... hopefully severance + pension will bump me back up

On average I think it will be about 15 million a year. After my first year though I had almost 20 million won saved in my account. I'm hoping to match that in my second year.

Wow! hope I can save that much!

In my second year, saved about 9 million last year without trying all that hard, luckily I have no real debts to pay off, just student loans, and they aren't so bad in England, just pay a tiny amount a month.  By the end of this year I want to have 24 million total I think, should give me lots of money to do a few months travelling then have a bit of a buffer while I work out what to do next.

To save or to spend? That is the question!!! I really want to save some money or else I wouldn't have came to Korea, but there are so many things that I want to do!!!

For the past couple of months I have finally manage to save 1 million from each paycheck. My plan is to stay in Korea until I have $25K saved.

I always catch myself wondering where all my money ends up going. To put everything on paper and to create a budget is all fine and dandy, but it never seem to work out the way I hope it to. :(

I live in Seoul. No overtime. Go out on weekends. Have only traveled abroad once during a contract.

1st year - $15,000US (traveled for 9 months with money to spare)
2nd year - on pace for $15,000
Note to Americans : If you've got student loans and plan on living outside the US for a bit. I'd consider defaulting. There is a student loan crisis looming, where the slate could get wiped clean (at the expense of the the taxpayers/inflation). It may be compared to housing crisis: i.e. those who were responsible got screwed just as bad as those who were not. Frontline:  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/collegeinc/?utm_campaign=homepage&utm_medium=proglist&utm_source=proglist

I have $25k worth of loans... You think I should look into defaulting? That stays on record for 7 years? I plan on being here for at least five more years, and even if I go back, I don't want to bother buying a house. I never found the appeal, even as a kid... Worth looking into?

I don't think you can discharge student loans even if you file for bankruptcy.

You are correct. My friend in the states filed for bankruptcy and he still has to repay his student loans.

I second this. You can't erase your student loans. You CAN move to Cuba though!

Seriously, you shouldn't default. Is it gov't loans or through a private bank? Either way, you should be able to defer your loans while you are having financial hardship. Even if you don't want to buy a house, defaulting can do major damage and can make it harder to get a job, among other things that are not necessarily credit related. Call them up and demand a deferment!

Obviously one can not predict the future exactly. However, we can base probabilities of the future based on current events.
If I I had student loans, I would agree defer as long as possible. It's going to be interesting to see what happens with student loans and Universities. There is a university bubble and tuition in the U.S. is at unsustainable levels.

I send 1~1.2 million won a month back home. And I only make 1.6 million won (after taxes, lunch deductions, and pension). Kind of surprising how little I can live off and still enjoy life. :)

i save at least a million a pay check. hopefully i'll be going home with somewhere around 1.1 to 1.3 million... depending on how much i travel i guess. I really haven't made much of an effort to save up, I just find everything to be so cheap.

coming into korea, i was pretty certain i'd be able to save a lot and leave in a year. i've only been here a short bit, but i can already tell i'll need to stay longer to save what i want.  i know there are a lot of upfront expenses when you first arrive and having money again is thrilling, so i've definitely gone overboard with my spending. once i get settled in a bit more, i'm hoping to save about 1mill  a month, on average. i plan on traveling too though, so we'll see. but i am certain that i will be here at least for 2 years. i've decided that my motto is to try new things, and these things can add up. like it's been said before, the question really is: save or spend?? i say a little of both.

I've been in Korea for about two and a half years now and have saved about 24 million won...Not exactly happy about it, but you can end up spending a lot more than you plan on if you travel during vacations.  I've noticed that the small purchases have added up to a huge amount throughout the months...Taxis, eating out, drinks, etc.  Feel like I could have been at over 30 by now...

In my first year, I hardly saved anything because I spent it on traveling, eating out, etc. This year I made a budget and will save quite a bit (if I stick to my budget) and travel to one or two places at the end of my contract.

I'm quite stingy with my cash but can afford to go to Seoul every few weeks and eat out occasionally.  I should be on track to save about 20million though..

save money??  :o with my loans and lifestyle, ill be lucky to afford a ticket home

I want to save at least 1.5 million won/month, which means $18,000/year.

save money??  :o with my loans and lifestyle, ill be lucky to afford a ticket home

Nice!

I've got 5m in the bank right now and have been here for 7 months. I'm going to eventually start hunkering down and attempting to save more money though. Korea is definitely a great place to save.