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Q: Do you spend like a fiend in China or are you a miser?
I am just curious. Since I have lived in China, I only really bought things when I had to or felt it extremely necessary. I don't go out too much and mainly only spend money when on a trip or vacation.
So for the most part, I would say I am a miser but I do spend money on medium to large things once in a while (last being my Honda bike at about 13 000 RMB). A lot of foreigners I see here, really like to cut loose and spend lots of money at the bars, buying western food, buy the latest mobile phones, computers... some invest in large Plasma TVs.
I just can't see myself doing that unless I mentally prepared to stay in China on a permanent basis... then I may be inclined to do some shopping.
So how about you? Are you more of a miser or do you like having nights out on the town and nice things in your apartment? Are you here to save and learn? Or spend and have a good time?
Try as I might, it always seems like I never save more than 9,000rmb for long. Most of the big purchases are trips, gadgets and the yearly apartment deposit. The wedding party set me back big time at the end of my first year here. Afterwards my wife and I ate nothing but rice with soy sauce for 3 weeks.
I spend very little here. We cook for most meals, mostly veggies. We go around by foot, bike, or bus. A bar or a restaurant once in a while. Rent is okay. Sport, it's a short and running shoes, no club fees. The things that I would spend money here are not worth it here. Like, a telescope, when the sky have barely a dozen star to show... Or a flat, when it we built like crap, no insulation, badly designed sanitary, etc...
I'm closer to miser. rather buy my gf sth nice than buy for myself. and save up for travel during holidays. but I do buy nice when I buy,,, I figure good quality things are cheaper in the long run, so I buy my electronics in HK.
I've had major ups and downs in China; i've had the most money i've ever had, an inheritance of 380,000 yuan which I blew in about two years with no regrets, and i've been down to my last hundred without a bed for the night. Now i'm doing the daddy thing and i'm living the way I want, which as a responsible person, is kind of frugally, but then i've never needed for ipods and that. The wife offered to buy me one for my last birthday and I told her, "What for?" All I spend money on is cigs, beer, dvds and video games.
Robk:
Just wondering, what did you spend all that money within 2 years?
The only thing I could think of would be a car or a down payment on a house or something.
mArtiAn:
Partying and traveling in China, including a trip with my wife (then girlfriend) to England. Nothing really to show for it at the end except my sax, and I regretted it initially, but since getting married and having a kid i've realised that that blowout was a fairwell to the freedom of my youth. We're doing well financially overwise the regrets would probably still be with me, but nope, I said fare thee well in style. No regrets.
i manage to save a lot every month: accommodation etc taken care of here as part of the contract. My expenses are few, except for travel to other cities. When i leave, i will have a decent sum
I have saved more money since I came to China than anytime in my life. That being said, my kids have now finished college and I am now single. So I only need support myself.
I have saved more money since I came to China than anytime in my life. That being said, my kids have now finished college and I am now single. So I only need support myself.
I haven't moved to China yet, but by my calculations, my plan is to save 90% of my salary every month. I live in Los Angeles now..love it, but super expensive city even with the inflated wages. I have learned to live very frugally and save as much as possible because I'm borderline terrified of ever being broke again. Working in China will expedite my savings goal exponentially! Rice and soy sauce for breakfast, lunch, and dinner anyone? lol just kidding..well maybe just little..rice and soy sauce is actually one of my favorite meals...
icnif77:
What about a plate of grilled 'gian' for lunch?
More here:
http://answers.echinacities.com/question/anybody-has-receipe-maggot-stew-or-maggot-risotto
WanderingTeacher:
Yeah...that's not going to happen...any kind of invertebrate organism immediately sends chills up my spine (haha..pun intended) and makes me want to vomit on sight. I am not a huge eater of meat, save for only some chicken and pork if cooked right. Other than those two, all other animals are off limits to my stomach..Rice and soy sauce sounds sooooooooooo good right now..
It took me a while. But after 6 years of spending almost everything i had every month, I have found a nice balance. Most of the big purchases I have already. So i make a set number to save every month, and the rest is for living. If i wanna go be a VIP in a club for the night. Im cooking for the week. If i wanna hop on a plane and check someplace out, then im gonna have to hold on to the old phone for a while longer. I think unless you have a bio thing you need to save for, the best way is for you to choose a saving number, that will give you enough to live comfortably and just stick with it.
mh usually i dont spend more than 3000 rmb so i can save more than 90% of my salary every month but thats mostly because i have my girl at home and was never a friend of bars. I m also not a fan of the western food in china and i really have no idea what i should buy for myself.
random money goes for traveling and clothes but else nothing special. 10k rmb went down for christmas presents :/
otherwise i try to buy a second house in germany as an investment. But since i dont like loans i wanna save cash for 90% of the house or so.
and yeah if i have a home here in china i also wanna buy a car 
Robk:
I am getting a home here in China at the moment. I was thinking of a car but I can't stand the way Chinese drive... I prefer a motorcycle because you can weave around traffic and it just feels a little more fun.
If I bought a car here in China, I think I would rather hire a driver or something.
dom87:
well chinese are the worst driver thats true...
thats why i wanna buy a monster truck
well no, its just i might live in a smaller city like 1h away from beijing and then a car is usefull. If i still live in shanghai i would never buy a car because you would stuck in traffic jam anyways
mike695ca:
trust me get the car. Yes they are more expensive then just about everywere, and yes chinese are the worst drivers in the history of the world. But 1. you forget how convenient a car is. Once you have it, youll never let it go. 2. there is a method to the chinese madness. 4 years driving without an accident. i dont claim to be good or anything. But you can pick up a sixth sense of the stupid shit they will do before they do it and get out of harms way. Plus more foreigners on the road = one more sane person and one less retard i gotta worry about.
royceH:
Don't buy a car. Geez....why the hell does anybody need a car in China? Buggered if I know.... If you're in one of the BIG cities, get outta there! If you're in a MIDDLE city you know that the cars are strangling your city and the infrastructure can't cope. If you're in a smaller city you don't need a car because the buses and taxis are a snack.
Just buy a bike. If you want to go travelling hire a car for the day, or several days. Cheap as chips.
Robk:
@mike - Sorry I have to STRONGLY disagree with you there. Just yesterday, me and my wife went to pick up a package. I told her to have it delivered but she said it was too expensive and wanted to find the place herself. I warned her that the traffic would probably be bad.
Anyway, it was (I am right 95% of the time but I am a foreigner so it doesn't matter lol) and it was IMPOSSIBLE not to get around because the place had small streets. If I wasn't on a motorcycle and did like a crazy maze detour on the sidewalks and around immobilized cars... would have been stuck for hours.
It was a challenge, but I got through... trust me... get an ebike, motorcycle or just a bike in China... so much better when the traffic gets bad you got WAY more options.
I am frugal with my money and generous with the money of my friends...
I spend on anything I want without a second thought really and still save about 70% of my salary.
Suppose it helps I'm not a huge drinker or shopper...
I wouldn't say I'm a miser, but I save about 80% of my salary. There's just not that many things to buy that catch my fancy. The only thing I am miserly about is taking the bus. I always do. With the traffic, I just don't see much of an advantage in taking taxis.
Robk:
I do, I prefer my motorcycle now.. but I took taxis all the time.
Reason being, you don't have 20-50 people stuck in one place... with a lot staring and muttering comments about you (most being just plain observations but sometimes malicious).
Again, you are stuck sitting next to or beside someone that doesn't believe in showering. Taxi drivers are usually okay.
You don't have to stand for 30-40 minutes.
You aren't really saving THAT much. Taking a bus takes longer and wastes more time than a taxi.
People push and shove on a bus, and you are more likely to have your things stolen on a bus than a taxi (obviously).
Those are some of my reasons.
wagon:
Ok, I'll give you my reasons.
-I agree some people on the bus are a bit on the rank side, but what about taxis? They all smell like cigarettes in my experience.
-Savings aren't negligible for most, assuming they are teachers. It costs me about Y20 to get to work in a taxi and Y.8 on the bus. So, to work and back I save Y38.4 or Y192 a week. That's close to Y800 a month. Money better spent on eating and entertainment.
-Time savings. I've actually done the route both ways, a few times, to see what the advantage of a taxi is. The bus averaged, for me, about 10-15 minutes longer than a taxi. I'm not pressed for time where the 10 minutes make much of a difference. I have been running late and taken a taxi, but not often.
Finally, I think transportation is the biggest cost difference between life here and home. I can easily move around for about Y100/mo. At home fuel cost, vehicle cost and depreciation, registration, insurance, etc...$500 or more depending on the vehicle.
I live pay cheque to pay cheque. Always struggling at the end of the month. Pay day tomorrow and I have 35 kuai to my name. I don't buy clothes here, I don't like the styles, have a shitty Samsung mini phone, laptop is four years old. Eat out and bars about twice a week, don't own a house/car/ebike.
Only god knows where my money goes!
I spend way too much but I've always been like that even back home. Just here I can go out more often and the money does go further but if you live in a first or second tier city then the cost of living can be quite high.
Up to 20-30k RMB per month for like 6 months. I cut myself off because I couldn't stop spending money out the ass on expensive food, traveling, etc. What can I say? I really enjoyed my time in China, despite all my bitching.
Now I'm poor and kinda wish I saved more. Ah well. I'll earn it back again after I graduate.
I'm not a miser but I do save a good portion of my salary. Only a fool spends all of their money.
Mr. Savings
royceH:
G'day mate...Mr Fool here. I'd buy you a drink if you were here...why?...because I'm not afraid. Happy is as happy does..
Depends on how you see it. I spend about 2,500 on necessities and 1,500 RMB on Taobao and entertainment, but I save a pile. No worries.
Save, cause one day you will go home and having cash to sit on will be helpful when you first return.
90% miser, 10% spendthrift.
We'd live very frugally most of the time. 10-15 RMB each for lunch of workdays, a couple of hundred RMB shop at the local supermarket would cover the rest of the neccessities. We spent like 100 RMB per month on electricity. Caught busses. There was pretty much nothing that I wanted to buy/could be arsed haggling for. Too busy working to take holidays - only a few short weekends away. Keeping the fridge full of beer was a negligible expense.
But.... maybe once a week we'd hit up the local expat bar or one the few restaurants that served good western food or take a group of friends out to a Chinese restaurant. Those nights could end up pricey as hell (I still wince at the memory of the time I accidentally ordered a round of beers at $15 Aussie bucks a pop). It was worth it, though - they kept us sane.
What is there to buy? There's beer, food, that's all. What else? I've bought some books from thebookdepository. Bought some dvds a couple of years ago. What else??
There's nothing else.
Yeah, plane tickets to get the hell outa here. Bought plenty of those.
