Korea Times reported this week that young people are dramatically changing their spending patterns due to high housing costs and food expenses, including dining out, which account for an overwhelming proportion of their spending. An increasing number of young Koreans are shifting their spending habits toward frugality.

Over the past decade, the dominant trend has been the "YOLO" (You Only Live Once) lifestyle, where people prioritize immediate happiness over investing in an uncertain future. This trend has also been significantly influenced by the rise in single-person households. However, the spending party has come to an end, creating a new lifestyle of "YONO" (You Only Need One). It refers to a consumption pattern that involves reducing unnecessary spending.

For example, while there are still people who enjoy omakase (expensive Japanese-style chef-curated fine dining), people in their 20s became more like, 'I'd rather spend that on something else.' High inflation and low income growth rates have pushed young Koreans to spend only on essentials. Data from Statistics Korea show that from 2021 to 2023, the inflation rate stood at 2.5 percent, 5.1 percent, and 3.6 percent, respectively. During the same time, the annual salary increases were only 2.5 percent, 0.9 percent and 1.6 percent. The number of dining-out transactions for young people in their 20s and 30s decreased by 9 percent in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year. Consumption of convenience store foods has increased 21 percent.

There have always been spenders and savers. It is a habit or mindset learned at a very young age. Some people spend because it is an addiction (to feel good) or out of anger (to change something about their self.) It is one of the things not taught well in civics classes: the value of a dollar (or won), budgeting and the compound return on savings. It usually takes real world experience to learn valuable lessons on income and expenses.

Happy weekend Beanies and keep Beaning On!
One more week to go until my holidays starts!🥳

My workplace has been quieter since most colleagues are on leave in July. The downside, of course, is having at times no one to turn to as a newbie. I am proud of myself for being able to manage a lot on my own, but the chaos is slowly taking its toll.

However, I am not planning on sleeping my holidays away! There are friends and family to meet up with, the family pictures need to be organized, and I dug up my lists of books and movies. I am glad I channeled my earlier boredom into properly planning my holiday plans! 😂

NOTES FROM 9TAILEDVIXEN'S FINAL WEEK OF SABBATICAL:

(A) The End of Time Off

My workaholic patootie had trouble settling into my sabbatical and now I'm thinking about how nice it would be if I had another month or two off.

I haven't completed everything I set out to do this sabbatical but I did get the most important bit done - resting and getting my health back (though ironically I am headed back to work with a twisted knee and the tail-end of a cold).

It is what it is and perhaps I can take another sabbatical in 5 years' time. We will see what life brings.

(B) Netflix the Slowpoke

Netflix suddenly announced that it has LOVELY RUNNER available to view.

Really, Netflix? I had to take out a Viu subscription to watch it while it was on. You're late to the party!

(C) This Week in Korean Women's News

1. Roommates but not rivals: Two South Korean shooters win Olympic gold and silver

Two South Korean shooters with a special bond fought for gold without bitterness Sunday at Paris Olympics ' shooting range. Oh Ye Jin took the gold and Kim Yeji the silver in women’s 10-meter air pistol — and both beat the previous record — but said it didn’t much matter who won.

https://apnews.com/article/olympics-2024-shooting-75648e08a0c4d31eaf7c14f45e51cd44

2. South Korea bets on foreign housekeepers to ease women’s workloads and boost birth rate

The South Korean government will be bringing in Filipino housekeepers to help ease the domestic and childcare workloads of Korean women in the hopes of boosting the country's fertility rate.

Really, South Korean government? Your misogyny runs so deep that instead of addressing the misogyny, sexism, and violence against women in your culture which has triggered the 4B movement, you are importing female domestic labour which you will pay POORLY as a bandaid? Oh FFS!

https://www.ft.com/content/20b07600-765e-461b-8439-a0c6e7c7f4da

Happy Friday, Beanies! This week I spent mostly being sick, so my inspiration level is quite low, unfortunately. Not that it'll stop me)))

OUR SONG keeps feeding us well – 2 performances this week! First is duo remix of his widely beloved LBFAD OST “Looking for you” in collaboration with Chen Lijun, Yue opera singer (usually playing male roles there, ha!), singing in her comfort style. End result is very beautiful, I think. Not to mention how utterly happy he looks finally singing his own song with a partner there – after so many years it was his first time, previously only veteran singers did so, I believe. It's a wonder he didn't tear up like some people in the audience))) A bit more about Yue opera in general:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yue_opera

And actual performance (lol at her being like “I always thought I was quite tall... until I stood next to him!” behind the scenes) – hopefully they'll do 2nd round, I want to hear him trying opera too!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCJgac3jXj8

And the stage of menfolk trio “Big happiness, big sadness” rookie boyband of LYN, Mao Buyi and Da Zhangwei. Look, they even dance a little – hilariously, MBY is even worse at it than Yuning! As I expected, mutual trolling was very prevalent through all collaboration, idk what was funnier - DZW calling Yuning “every girl's dream” in his singer-mode and Yuning almost laughing his glasses off from embarrassment or two of them nicknaming MBY Mao Mao and keeping pestering him like annoying kids with real pet cat who's too nice to scratch them to stop it))) Still need to work on outfit coordination though - costuming in this season is a huge mess. Song is called “The flowery heart”. Did I mention that both Yuning's stages were the most popular that night and doing really well at charts?^^
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbC328KKYTU

Next two episodes will be dedicated to another team of singers, I believe, so no more stages for a while((( There are talks about him recording another show this month – the music one he was originally rumored for, I think. Ain't no rest for workaholic... Meanwhile, let's go back to season 3 and listen to another male trio – besties LYN and DZW once again, but with Silence Wang as 3rd member this time – harmonizing very nicely in “I don't like singing love songs”. I suppose it was before Yuning's “love guardian” fame because now he's like the last person to have any moral right to say that)))
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHM9p7Nf9VA

Can you guess what got this track into my archives despite rather questionable audio quality? Yep, that cute little ponytail is to blame – what can a girl do, I'm really easy sometimes))) Pity we likely won't see him with his real hair this long again anytime soon... Song is called “Tolerance” and it's another one from his emo covers repertoire:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KnrO2YAEfU

OT header 😍😍

I'm sure those of you watching the Olympics are aware of the social media sensation that is sharpshooter Kim Ye-ji, even though she "only" won silver (finishing second to her countrywoman Oh Ye-jin)

https://www.prestigeonline.com/hk/people/kim-ye-ji-korean-sharpshooter-2024-paris-olympics/

I wonder if her beauty and style will inspire another drama about a mother assassin? I do like that stuffed elephant charm which is the perfect complement for her image --it just highlights how cool today's mothers really are.
(Please note that I'm not at all saying that single women aren't cool--they really are, especially childless cat ladies! (U.S. reference--if you don't know it, ignore it.) I just think the motherhood--coolness link is still under recognized.)

K-dramas have affected my brain. While planning dream trip to Japan, I keep wanting to stay in Korea town. I find myself looking for Korean restaurants nearby instead of udon and ramen. Okonomiyaki what? All I want is a garlic chive packed extravaganza pancake. There are many things I love about Japan but Korean food is what calls to my stomach.
K-dramas have affected my brain. While planning dream bicycle trip in Japan, I keep looking at the street view images of the route, beautiful but also looks like the perfect place to commit a crime if I were a serial killer in a K-drama (you know, winding country road with few street lights) K-drama, you've ruined my solo girl travel style completely.

I just watched the Netflix Korean/international film 'Wonderland'. I'm split on the film.
A high concept sci-fi packed with more stars than a 1970 Irwin Allen disaster movie. Gong Yoo, Park Bogum, Suzy, Tang Wei, Jung Yumi, Choi Woo-shik. Everyone did an excellent job and the script was pretty solid but, still, a part of me wished it was instead a 'drama special' with a lower budget and lower raking actors. I guess my one complaint was my mind kept being distracted by 'Hey, that Bogum and Suzy!' The star power was out of proportion to the story.

Park Seo Joon and Choi Woo Sik went bonkers over the aurora and it was so cute.

Honestly, I can't imagine being served by Choi Woo Sik and not have the food go down the wrong pipe haha!

#Jinny'sKitchen

Which legit online paid-platform has the most number of K dramas for live-viewing for someone who is based in south east asia?