Cheat day - Chapter 32
The reason why rice is good
Thursday.
If I only exercise with Cha Ji-chan, I end up getting sick. On broadcast days, they demand so much that I don’t even have the strength to get up.
I was just lying down with my eyes blinking when a call came from Baek Woo-jin.
“Uh.”
-Hyung, I’m going in.
“You’re already here?”
1 PM. The debate starts at 4, but I came early.
I came to have lunch together because I have some time to spare.
“I can’t go out right now.”
Before I could finish speaking, the front door code was entered, and Baek Woo-jin came in.
Let’s order delivery. What do you want to eat?
“Wow, you really came.” Uh…….”
Come to think of it, it’s been a long time since I stopped using delivery services.
When I opened the application and scrolled through the list, I occasionally spotted the miyeokguk restaurant I had been looking for.
How about seaweed soup?
“Whatever, it’s fine.” Brr, it’s cold.
Since it’s cold, I thought a warm soup would be nice, so I ordered seaweed soup for delivery.
Lying there blankly watching TV, the doorbell rang, and Baek Woo-jin brought the seaweed soup.
While setting the table, Baek Woo-jin was shocked to see that it came to 19,000 won.
Upon checking, it turns out that one serving costs 7,000 won and the delivery fee is 5,000 won.
“Why is this so expensive?”
“When you order delivery, isn’t that the usual?”
Before being diagnosed with diabetes, I used to frequently use delivery apps, and each time I ordered, it easily cost 20,000 won.
“Seriously, eating out costs so much money.”
“When you live alone, it feels like cooking for yourself is a waste.”
“Really?”
If you buy spinach and blanch it, it’s a whole bunch. Before I could finish eating, it spoiled and I had to throw it away. I’m so upset.
If there’s someone to eat with, then maybe.
When living alone, you end up buying all sorts of seasonings and ingredients, but in the end, you can’t use them all and end up throwing them away.
When I think about the time spent setting and clearing the table, I feel like there’s not enough time.
If I clean up after breakfast, I have to prepare lunch, and if I clean up after lunch, I have to prepare dinner, so I think it might be better to just eat out.
“If you make it yourself, those things are inconvenient.”
It was nice when we used to eat delivery food. I’d rather eat the tasteless food I made.
“Did you always order delivery back then?”
“Yeah.”
“You must’ve spent a ton of money.”
“Really?”
“When you ordered, was it around this much?”
“I usually spent over 20,000 won per order.”
“How many times did you order a day?”
“Once. To save on delivery fees, I’d order enough for two meals at a time.”
As I sipped on the seaweed soup, my stomach felt more at ease.
It was just a simple beef seaweed soup, but it wasn’t too oily, making it both clean and rich in flavor. The side dishes that came with it were well-seasoned, too.
This is a place I often visit when I want to eat something that feels comforting and filling.
“Heh.”
In the middle of eating, Baek Woojin let out a strange noise.
“What?”
“Bro, you spent a crazy amount on delivery.”
“Really?”
“If you spent 20,000 won a day, that’s 7.3 million won over 365 days!”
“No way. There’s no way I spent that much on delivery.”
“Are my calculations wrong?”
“Well, I didn’t only order delivery.”
“You ate out, too?”
“Of course. Last year, I was really into checking out popular restaurants.”
Now I only do it once a week, but a few months ago, visiting trendy spots was a major part of our content for the side dish shop.
“Let’s check.”
“Check what?”
“If we ask the delivery app, won’t they tell us how much you spent last year?”
“Why would I even ask that?”
“Because I’m curious.”
I can see why Baek Woojin knows so much—he’s got this relentless curiosity that drives him to find out even trivial things.
It’s not hard to check, and since he mentioned I might have spent over 7 million won, I got curious too, so I opened the delivery app and sent an inquiry.
***
The next morning.
I received a reply from the delivery app’s customer service regarding my inquiry.
“Unbelievable.”
As soon as I opened the email, I couldn’t help but let out a curse.
“17 million won?”
I can’t believe that the total amount I spent last year was 16,943,210 won.
To put it into perspective, that’s about the same amount I earned in December alone, during a month where my views skyrocketed.
“Heh.”
A hollow laugh escapes me.
And I know this isn’t even the end of it.
I’ve been keeping detailed records of the money I spent on food for our restaurant explorations since I filed those expenses as business costs.
Last year, I spent about 15 million won just on dining out. And that doesn’t even include the ice cream, Java Chip Frappuccinos, and drinks I practically lived on, which I didn’t bother to track.
In total, it looks like I spent about 35 million won on food over the past year.
“This is totally insane.”
No wonder I don’t have any money.
Even though I make a decent income, I’ve been wondering why I can’t seem to save any. Well, now I know.
Strangely, after getting diagnosed with diabetes, I’m not as upset as I was. With the way I’ve been eating, it’s a miracle I didn’t get sick sooner.
“Heh heh heh.”
I keep chuckling to myself.
I’ve lived up to this point without a second thought, but now that I’m reflecting on it, I’m realizing how irresponsible I’ve been with my finances and health.
I can’t keep living like this.
Sure, my income has increased, so I could justify spending a little more and still deduct it for tax purposes. But if I keep spending recklessly, I’ll never be able to save up a significant amount.
One day, I want to own a house and a car.
I need to get my act together now.
After a brief pause, I opened my notepad and calculator.
Now that I’m earning more, I need to start managing my money properly.
“Alright, let’s see.”
I roughly calculated my earnings for December.
According to YouTube Studio, my ad revenue was about 17 million won. After deducting fees, I made about 1.08 million won from live stream donations, 2.3 million won from subscriptions, and 3.7 million won from video editing work.
In total, that’s about 24 million won.
Since I’ve never made this much before, I can’t predict exactly how much tax I’ll owe.
If my income stays around this level, I estimate that I’ll make about 280 million won a year.
According to the tax brackets for sole proprietors, my tax rate would be set at 38%.
If I deduct 100 million won as business expenses, I’d be taxed on 180 million won, and 38% of that comes to 68.4 million won. After subtracting a progressive tax credit of 19.4 million won, I’d be left with a tax bill of 49 million won.
This means that by May 2024, I’ll need to have at least 50 million won in cash to cover my taxes.
“How much will my health insurance be?”
I logged onto the National Health Insurance website to calculate how much a self-employed person earning 180 million won would need to pay in premiums.
“119,000 won per month.”
That comes out to 1.428 million won a year.
The national pension contribution will likely be the maximum monthly amount of 497,700 won, which comes to around 5.97 million won a year.
Adding everything up, I’ll have to pay about 69.25 million won in taxes, insurance, and pension contributions annually.
If I keep spending recklessly just because I think I’m earning well, I might end up not having enough money to cover my taxes.
It’s a good idea to set aside some of it in advance.
“About 20% should do.”
In my budget, I earmarked 480,000 won—20% of my 2.4 million won income in December—as money to set aside.
“Maybe I should start a savings account.”
Now I’m wondering what to do with the remaining 1.92 million won.
Since I don’t know much about investments, the best option for me is probably just putting it in the bank. Interest rates have gone up lately, so it might not be a bad idea.
“Alright.”
Now, onto living expenses.
I need to set a monthly budget for living expenses so I can decide how much to put into savings.
Also, I won’t repeat the insane mistake of spending 35 million won on food in one year again.
“My rent is 700,000 won, so…”
I started listing my fixed expenses to estimate my living costs.
Rent is 700,000 won, transportation costs are 100,000 won, phone bills are 100,000 won, and the monthly subscription fees for my editing programs come to about 140,000 won.
I set aside 200,000 won for clothing and daily necessities, and an extra 200,000 won for unforeseen expenses.
The rest will go toward food.
“Hmm.”
I’m not sure.
I have no idea how much I should spend on food each month.
In December, I spent around 2 million won, but that included initial costs since I hadn’t been cooking at home. I had to buy pots, pans, seasonings, sauces, and a lot of other kitchen essentials.
“Let’s aim for 1 million won.”
It hurts to cut it in half compared to last month, but I need to lose weight and save money, so I’ll have to tough it out.
“So, my total monthly living expenses will be about 2.5 million won, right?”
Writing it down, it feels like too much.
Rent and food are the biggest factors.
“…No, let’s try it for a month and decide.”
There’s nothing I can do about rent for now.
And cutting food expenses any further feels like too much of a psychological hurdle.
***
At 6 p.m., I started my stream.
Although fewer people tuned in than when I collaborated with Baek Woojin yesterday, I still had 1,200 viewers.
All thanks to the Set Meal Discussion.
“You’ve changed.”
“Isn’t today the day for a restaurant tour?”
“Why are you at home?”
“You’ve lost your touch. Just because you’re doing a little better now, you’re slacking off on your streams.”
“This guy needs to lose his touch a bit. That way, he’ll actually get healthier.”
“LOL, true. If he eats like he did in the early days of the stream, it’s gonna be a disaster.”
“Something shocking happened today. Seriously, I’m going to start managing my money properly from today.”
Today was supposed to be a restaurant exploration day.
I’ve been eagerly waiting since it’s only once a week, but after looking over my income and expenses, I had to wake up and face reality.
“So, I’ll postpone the restaurant tour to next week, and today we’ll take some time to reflect and make some plans.”
Viewers started flooding the chat with question marks.
“Yesterday, Woojin and I ordered seaweed soup for lunch, right? It came to 19,000 won, and he was so shocked, saying it was expensive.”
“A YouTuber with a million subscribers shocked over 19,000 won?”
“Baek Woojin sure is frugal.”
“But honestly, 19,000 for a meal is a bit much, lol.”
“But it was for two people, though. Isn’t that reasonable?”
“Yeah, if you break it down, it’s 9,500 per person. That’s pretty standard nowadays.”
“It’s fine to splurge occasionally, but doing that for every meal would be a burden.”
“Right? I order delivery all the time, so Woojin did a rough calculation and said I’ve spent around 7 million won on delivery food in one year.”
“Seeing how much you eat, that’s actually believable.”
“Only that much?”
“You once ordered 5 servings of delivery pork belly, though.”
“LOL, 7 million won!”
“That’s enough to buy a used car, lol.”
“Wait, seriously? You spent that much?”
From the viewers’ reactions, it seems like I’m the only one who was surprised. Everyone else seems to think it makes sense.
“So I submitted an inquiry. Hold on, let me show you the response email.”
I shared a screenshot of the email response with the viewers.
“It turned out to be way more than I expected. And keep in mind, I track all the food expenses I film for content as business costs. When I added everything up, I spent 35 million won on food last year.”
“Insane, LOL!”
“Literally living to eat.”
“Dude, get your act together, lol.”
“Wow, how do you even spend 35 million won? Is that even possible?”
“You always said you were broke, but turns out you ate all your money, lol.”
“Your Engel coefficient is off the charts, haha!”
“I really thought I couldn’t keep going like this, so I made a firm decision.” “I don’t spend more than 2.5 million won on living expenses in a month.”
Many opinions saying that there is a lot of it have been posted in the chat window.
“I know.” But the rent is 700,000 won, so I can’t reduce it any further. In six months, whether I move or get a jeonse, I have to do it, but it’s tough right now.
There are even viewers who scold me for spending too much on rent.
Many people agree that rent in Seoul is too expensive.
“Anyway, transportation costs, communication costs.” This is the subscription fee for the program used for editing. This is an emergency fund. I really thought a lot about how much to set the food expenses at, you know?
After a brief pause, I steeled myself and spoke up.
Since I told the viewers that I would only spend 1 million won, I felt that I had to keep that promise no matter what.
“I’m planning to spend only 1 million won.”
Does that mean you want more to eat?
Who spends 1 million won a month on food? Hahaha
This guy still seems out of it.
Hey, if you spend 1 million won a month, that’s 12 million won a year. Why are you acting like it’s some big decision?
If you’re going from spending 35 million won a year to only 12 million won, that’s a huge cut, lol.
Bbangdaegakkkk
“Uh?”
In December, I bought a lot of things besides food, but since I cut it down by half, I thought I had significantly reduced my food expenses.
It seems that even this is more than others.
“Wait a minute.” If I order delivery, it costs about 20,000 won, you know? It’s 600,000 won for a month. Since we have to eat out for the content, we’ll probably spend around 400,000 won, right?
In my opinion, this guy’s brain is currently pickled in hamburgers.
You don’t eat delivery food, right? Even mukbangs are once a week.
My body is already not doing that, but my mind can’t accept it, lol.
In denial about reality lol
Ah, hahaha, do I really have to live like this? No way, lol.
“……Really?”
It has been quite a while since I last had delivery food.
I cook and eat at home, and I don’t go out to eat four or five times a week like I used to.
“So, how much do people usually spend on food in a month?”