This is by far one of the most important videos I have definitely ever made on my channel.
To put it nicely you are literally throwing money down the drain.
Think of it like this: if you walk into a store and there are two cartons of milk;
packaging is the same, the contents - the same,
they are literally the identical, same, two milk cartons
but one costs $5 and one costs $2.50.
Which one would you buy?
expiration date, it's all the same. Don't overthink it okay, they're the exact same thing!
You would buy the cheaper one, right?
There are so many ways in which you are unintentionally spending more money than you need to
so I'm going to teach you all my tips and tricks so that as - -
my hands just farted.
so I'm going to teach you all of the tricks that I use as I live abroad here in South Korea
so get ready, take notes,
and if you liked this video let me know in the comments and maybe i'll make a part two because i have so many tips!
alright so the first and honestly the most important tip no matter where in the world you are going
make sure you have a debit card that has no international transaction fees
if I come to South Korea and my card does not say "no international transaction fees" in the little agreement
that means every single time i swipe it there's an additional charge that gets put and like added to that purchase
so you're literally throwing money down the drain because there are plenty of cards out there in the world that have no international transaction fees
every time i go to an atm and i pull money from that atm
it will say there's an international transaction fee but because my charles schwab
that's so hard to say
because my charles schwab debit card has no international transaction fees
at the end of every month my bank (account) gets this wonderful little like bonus check of
I get returned every international transaction fee that i was charged throughout that month
so it doesn't matter what atm i go to it doesn't matter how much they tell me,
"oh this is how much the international transaction fee will cost."
I literally don't care because i know i'm getting all that money back at the end anyway
and what i love about that is i don't have to pay all this money in advance to get Korean won in advance
I can literally just show up and pull money from an atm, there's no fee to do it - it's amazing
you're gonna need cash there's like no way to get around the fact that you need cash
sometimes you'll go to a store and they won't take your debit card or your credit card so you have to pay in cash
it's just really important that you have a way to pull money and have cash on you at all times
and so why would you want to pay this extra fee every time you go to like all these banks
but just a quick side note if for some reason you still have to pay that international transaction fee
do not ever go to atms that are outside of convenience stores.
always go to the atms that are like attached to the bank itself
and it's like here's the bank and maybe the bank is closed but there's an atm like right outside of it
the international transaction fees are always way cheaper if it's attached to a bank rather than outside of convenience store
maybe your parents are like mine and they don't exactly love you going to another country without having any cash on you
the smartest way for you to be able to have cash on you when you arrive
is not to get it from your bank in advance because to request korean won and have it sent to that bank in another country
usually that is a pretty pricey process but at the same time showing up in that country's airport and exchanging a lot of like your home currency in the airport
the exchange rates within the airport are super, super... not good
way too high for absolutely no reason
but i do understand for emergency purposes. Bring some cash with you in advance
and exchange some of it in the incheon airport (only some, please, don't waste so much money)
and then go to any bank literally just any branch anywhere near your house
and get the rest of it exchanged at that actual like branch rather than in the airport
the exchange rates are like way better at banks out in the wilderness rather than in the airport.
and the best brand, by the way, for my opinion, is KB
KB is like the most friendly when it comes to like foreign cards
it usually doesn't mind foreign cards, it lets you pull the most amount of money out at the same time,
which means you're paying less fees, and the fee itself to pull money with a foreign card is the cheapest at KB (just so you know)
especially here in south korea but i know that this is true for other areas in the world as well,
maybe you have like a taste of fine dining or you just want to feel really bougie
and when you come to south korea for example, you're like,
"I want to live in the nice area. I want to go live in Gangnam
because it's so nice down there and it's bougie; maybe i can see a celebrity."
You do you boo,
but understand that that is a way more expensive area than if you live in a college area.
all college students including me because i'm taking korean classes, we on a budget
in general going to restaurants food is going to be cheaper
so i just recommend that you look for areas that have college towns
but i mean if you got the money you go for it
ust know that if you live in gangnam your daily average of what you spend is going to be higher
than if you lived somewhere that's a little more off the beaten path
convenience stores. convenience costs money
it is nice and convenient that is right you know right outside your house
but it is going to cost more per item that you buy.
for example, i used to eat these like pre-cooked chicken breasts a lot
because you know i'm just lazy.
so i used to eat these pre-cooked chicken breasts a lot
and i would buy them from the local convenience store because it was right outside my house
and then i realized the bigger the grocery store gets
it literally is the same item but it will be like 500 won cheaper if i go to a bigger grocery store rather than the convenience store
and the bigger grocery store really isn't that much farther away from my house so why wouldn't i want wanna you know save money
it's the exact same item
i've always been told that home plus is like the cheapest
and like if you can go to costco and buy in bulk that is like even cheaper
from where i currently live there is no home plus and the largest grocery store near me is the e-mart
but it is not e-mart convenience store so it's not like on a corner it's like an actual big e-mart store
and there's a No Brand section within this e-mart store and there's actually no brand stores themselves
No Brand by the way is a subsection of e-mart so if you go to like a big e-mart there will be a no brand section
avocado oil is something that is usually so expensive but at no brand there's this like massive bottle of avocado oil that's only like 15 or 16 000 won and it's huge
I was like... i mean is it really actual genuine avocado oil in here
like i don't know if we got some - there's probably some like fake synthetic avocado oil that we got going on here
but nonetheless it was cheap and we love cheap when we're trying to save money
but there's a lot of things that i've also bought no brand like my favorite snack
is this like big popcorn bag and it's actually like salty-ish and it's not awkwardly sweet for no reason
if you guys know anything about like reasons i don't like korea you'll know what i'm talking about
but that popcorn's good! It's only 980 won (it's not even a dollar). We love it!
so going to no brand but just in general think the bigger the grocery store location the cheaper the stuff is going to cost
now when it comes to fruits and vegetables
at least in south korea you have to understand that they're all expensive - like everywhere
and the best place honestly to buy a lot of fruits and vegetables usually is like corner markets
or like the random like uncle or like old man/woman on the street who's like selling fruits
make sure you pick it up though and look at the underside because usually they'll hide like the nasty side of it
but i think that often i mean even for myself it's intimidating to go talk to those people
so just trust that like the No Brand section and just look for deals when you can on fruits and vegetables
look for signs that say 2+1 usually that's a pretty dang good deal if you can find a 2+1
but also remember that two plus one usually means that maybe that food is like going bad soon
so is it really worth buying it if you're not gonna eat all of it because then there is food waste which really segues well
into my next tip, you have to throw out all of your trash your food waste in these like specific plastic bags
and for at least food waste the bags are pretty small
and sometimes people don't like the smell of trash
i always recommend that you put your food waste bag in the freezer
because it's going to last a whole lot longer if you just freeze the food - it does not smell bad
and another important tip is cut up the food that you're not eating and you're going to throw it away
because if you put like a whole onion in there - if you cut it up you're going to save so much space
and you have to go out and buy those food bags like the food waste bags you have to go buy those
so just be smart and like cut up your food because then you can fit more into that bag
and freeze it so the whole house doesn't smell
and then you're not going to have to throw the bag out as much because it smells so bad and you just can't stand it anymore or bugs start coming in the room
so that's another good way to save money. Keep going keep going!
We got so many tips!
if you are finding this video helpful please hit the like button and leave any comment down below
literally anything it helps my channel grow and currently youtube is my only form of income so it means so much to me when you guys support me like that
so thank you~ let's keep going!
Always buy frozen. just always, when in doubt, if you don't mind,
i know it's not maybe as fresh, but if you buy frozen food it just lasts so much longer
you don't have to worry about throwing out all of this food because it's gone to waste
but if you buy fresh food at the store because maybe it's cheaper,
you can always freeze that as well and just immediately come home, google, "How do i freeze this food well?"
if you are a student at any school abroad most likely it is probably really cheap to eat at your cafeteria
and at like a cafe at your school.
For me to eat at the cafeteria at my school it's only 5,000 won
(5,500 won if you use your card but if you give the sweet old man cash it's only 5,000 won - another little saving of money)
but that's only like $4.50 for a whole lunch and it's a buffet and you get a tray and you can put as much as you want on your tray
and then the cafe at my school it's only 1,800 won for an americano
and i'm like out at a cafe!
we love to see it! We love a good way to save money!
Even to get like an extra shot of espresso it's only 500 won - less than 50 cents.
To get an actual nice drink with like milk and stuff it can be like 2,800 or maybe like 3,200 like so much cheaper
when you go out into Seoul: 4,000 won for an americano, maybe like 5 or 6,000 won for like a latte drink
so of course i'm gonna get coffee at my school because it's so much cheaper
i'm gonna leave my public transportation playlist right here because if you're coming to south korea it's super important that you don't get ripped off
and you know how to take public transportation so check that out
and if you found this video helpful let me know down in the comments and i'll make the part two
i'll see you over there~