What a Normal Week Actually Costs a Foreign Teacher in Korea
Groceries, coffee, gym, transport, and the odd delivery order run a single teacher roughly 350,000–500,000 won a week outside rent, once the move-in costs are behind you and you're just living your ordinary Tuesday-to-Tuesday life.
Park English2026-09-163 min read
Everyone writes about the first month. Deposit, flight, furniture, the lump sum that scares you before you've taught a single class. Almost nobody writes about the Tuesday six months in, when you're just trying to figure out why your card keeps getting declined at Homeplus and whether the gym down the street is worth it.
The weekly numbers
These are rough, and they move by city — Seoul costs more than Cheonan, and a teacher living near a university area pays less for food than one near an office district. But this is roughly what a single teacher spends in an ordinary week once rent and utilities are already handled.
| Category | Weekly estimate (KRW) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Groceries | 60,000–90,000 | Homeplus, E-mart, or a local market beat Coupang Fresh on price |
| Coffee/cafe | 20,000–35,000 | A regular Americano runs 3,000–4,500 won; a sit-down cafe more |
| Transport | 12,000–20,000 | T-money top-ups, bus and subway combined |
| Gym | 12,000–17,000 | Based on a 50,000–70,000 won monthly membership |
| Eating out / delivery | 40,000–70,000 | One or two delivery orders plus a meal out |
| Miscellaneous | 20,000–40,000 | Pharmacy runs, phone data top-ups, one-off purchases |
Add it up and you land somewhere near 350,000–500,000 won a week outside rent, which is the number most teachers actually budget against — not the scarier first-month total.
Groceries: where and how
Homeplus and E-mart both run member discount days, usually mid-week, and both have apps in English-friendly enough menus once you switch the language setting. Coupang Fresh and Market Kurly deliver to your door but cost more per item, and both require a Korean phone number and a linked card to check out — not a foreign card, a Korean-issued one. So the first grocery order usually happens after the bank account and SIM are sorted, not before.
Gym, coffee, and the things nobody warns you about
Most gyms want a three- or six-month contract for their best rate, and refunds for cancelling early are calculated on a sliding scale that isn't always explained clearly up front — ask before you sign, and get the cancellation terms in writing if you can. Coffee shops in Korea double as workspaces; a 4,500 won Americano buys you a table for two hours, and most teachers we've worked with treat their local cafe as a second office on planning days.
Laundry, if your building doesn't have a dryer
Plenty of officetels come with a washer and no dryer, which surprises people every single time. A rack and a dehumidifier solve it for about 40,000–60,000 won total, one-time. Laundromats exist in most neighborhoods if you'd rather pay per load than buy the gear.
What we genuinely don't know
Delivery app pricing changes often enough that a number we give you in March can be wrong by August — minimum order thresholds and delivery fees move with fuel costs and app competition. Check the app before you plan around it, not this page.