Han Sol, a senior majoring in sociology, starts her day by taking a red bus from her home in Gyeonggi- do to school. She uses a payback transportation card to reduce traffic costs as red buses cost more than regular buses.
Han likes coffee. Every Tuesday, she buys an iced americano for 100 won using Payco at Ewha Coop. She always carries her tumbler with her to get discounts at cafés or Ewha Coop and to use the water dispenser at school instead of going to a convenience store. Although Han loves coffee so much that she cannot live without it, she tries not to go to cafés as much as possible, even on the weekends, unless she has an appointment. Instead, she drinks instant coffee at home to save money.
Han also has a side job. She makes some money through app tech. When she completes a mission such as watching advertisements or conducting a survey on the app, she gets a reward of 10 to 100 won. Currently, she is using about six apps, and if she collects them all, she earns 20,000 to 30,000 won a month. She believes that app tech not only helps her earn money but also makes her spend less. Although she has to log in to the app daily and spend time doing missions, the amount she earns is not much money compared to consumer prices.
Han did not live a frugal life from the beginning, and she is not the only one who has made a lifestyle change to save money.
In contrast to the You Only Live Once (YOLO) craze in Korea a few years ago, saving has become the new trend along with the recent economic recession and inflation. According to Statistics Korea (KOSTAT), the inflation rate reached six percent last June, the highest in 24 years since the IMF crisis, and has been recording five to six percent for the five months leading up to November.
Products have suddenly become visibly more expensive, and consumers now can only buy fewer products with the same amount of money. As such, people have begun to save money and share tips for buying products cheaper. It is easy to spot frugal living vlogs or videos introducing side jobs on YouTube as well. The online school community Everytime now has a newly-created board called “Beots’ Saving” where Ewha students (beots) share various ways to save money.
Kim Saving (a nickname) is a nighttime nurse running a YouTube Channel “Half Jobless Kim Saving,” which has about 48,000 subscribers. As a side job, she uploads frugal life vlogs on YouTube such as challenges not to spend any money for a week or living for a week on a certain amount of money. Like Han, Kim also did not live a frugal life from the beginning.
“I once lived a YOLO life as well,” Kim said. “Then I happened to see a documentary about people who are spending their old age in dosshouses. Also, working as a nurse, I saw a patient who was hospitalized due to poor health while staying in a dosshouse. Realizing that this could be my old age, I started saving money.”
Kim noticed a saving craze. One of her frugal living vlog videos recorded more than 800,000 views due to the recommendation algorithm, and her videos were introduced as a reference on the news several times. According to the people commenting on her videos, a wide range of people are living a frugal life, from married people to non-married people in their 20s and 30s.
Being frugal is inevitable to survive in this stagflation era. Nevertheless, sometimes one can face depression or have doubts about living a lifestyle focused on saving money.
Han sometimes feels depressed, questioning her lifestyle. At such times, she drinks a little expensive coffee or treats herself with a small gift to recover from a tiring lifestyle. In addition, she reminds herself how great it is to live a frugal life, emphasizing what she is saving now has made a small step for the bigger goal that will happen later in her life. Then, she feels proud and gets motivated to save money again.
“It is a pity students have to save money when they should only be focus ing on studying,” Kim said. “However, if you start making a habit of saving money from your student days, you will learn lessons about life in the process of controlling yourself. I hope everyone becomes a wonderful person who can be satisfied with themselves by balancing saving, consumption, and happiness.”
On the other hand, on Nov. 24, the Bank of Korea announced that the forecast for the 2023 inflation rate is 3.6 percent, which means that the economic recession is expected to continue for the long term. It seems the YOLO craze is still some way off from its return to Korea.